¡Salud y Saludos!

I have recently been taking some language classes to either keep up with languages I had studied long ago, or to learn a new language from scratch. And learning a language from the ground up is the very prospect some newly arriving immigrants face as they come to our state from places around the world.

The bulk of those immigrants are from Latin America. And time and again, I hear many folks from here complain about the new arrivals’ supposed reluctance to learn the language of the land. While some may argue that they shouldn’t come here if they’re not willing to learn the language beforehand, it isn’t that simple.

First, their desire to work here far outweighs any other obstacles that may arise. Secondly, this is a much tougher feat than you might ever imagine.

I know. I’ve been trying to learn a new language myself, from the ground up. German has posed a great challenge. This language seems to combine the worst of both Spanish and English. It has the screwy grammar of English (the strange nuances that sometimes defy some logic) and the worst of Spanish (gender for objects; lots of distinctions between whether you’re addressing a person formally or informally, etc.).

German can be a challenge even for speakers of the Germanic-based English. And while incorporating certain patterns found in Latin languages, it can still prove difficult for native Spanish speakers, too.

I can only imagine how much tougher acquiring this new language would be if I had even less time to study it, or if I found myself in an environment that simply didn’t adequately expose me to the language. I say all this to once again address the points of view that often come up when referring to immigrants and their language skills, or lack of them. I am experiencing first-hand how tough learning a foreign tongue can be. Hispanics coming to North Carolina in many cases don’t have the educational background that may have provided a foundation in the English language. Furthermore, they often are spending so much time working, raising a family and traveling from one job location to the next that learning English can be an insurmountable task. This is only compounded by the fact that they may find themselves laboring in workplaces where all their other fellow co-workers are Spanish speakers.

Just like my desire to learn German – or any other language – will not automatically make me fluent, it can equally be said that Latinos will not automatically pick up English just because they have a genuine aspiration to learn it. It bears mentioning that most Hispanics I know DO wish they had the resources to learn the standard language of their newly adopted country. But as long as they work 80-hour weeks, it’s an unrealistic proposition for them.

I restate all of this only to point out that I can relate to the frustrations of not speaking a language, not being able to communicate, and having some major hurdles to overcome in order to change those facts. It wasn’t all that long ago that I found myself in a kindergarten classroom unable to say my ABCs in English – let alone tell my teacher that I had a terrible headache and needed to put my head down.

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