Re: [Futurework] 128. Anti-immigration feeling grows in Europe

[Ray Evans Harrell]

In New York City the Russian programmers that joined IBM formed a cooperative that gradually ousted the Americans.   It seems that the Russians spoke English but the Americans did not speak Russian.   Word came to me from one of the ousted Americans that the Russians would communicate with each other in Russian and also banded together in cliques to accomplish tasks that the Americans didn't even realize were being worked on.      Language is tough.   We worry so much about the immigrants and their English.   I too push English but for Americans and for American artists who are impossible in complex English such as poetry.   The world is multi-lingual.   It is time for us to push Americans learning other languages and let those who immigrate take care of themselves.   Ignorant Americans are no excuse for pushing ignorant immigrants to be smarter than us by knowing two or more languages when we can barely speak one ourselves.     Worrying about others means we only fool ourselves.      Ray Evans Harrell       ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Watters Cole To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 1:58 PM Subject: RE: [Futurework] 128. Anti-immigration feeling grows in Europe Harry, why do you say that ESL has been a complete failure?  - KWC   Ed, When I lived in Ontario, it was noticeable that new immigrants tended to move into their own "ghettos". Particularly so in the case of the Italians, who gathered together in Toronto. There is nothing wrong with this, for it is natural for people in new and strange circumstances to cleave to their own, but I wonder what the situation is now? Are the sons and daughters of the immigrants moving out into the broader reaches of Canada? We have a problem here with new immigrants (legal and illegal) from Mexico. I should say that they have a problem. The only way they have of getting out of the barrios is by learning English. The schools are letting them down. Teachers who teach the ESL. classes (English as a Second Language) earn an extra $5,000 a year for doing so. Yet, the program appears to have been a complete failure. I want the sons and daughters to get out of the barrios and become CEOs, perhaps of Enron and similar companies, but in any event, good English is the passport to success. Fortunately, the kids learn English themselves. Unfortunately, not the kind of English that would become a passport. Harry