I grew up in a small east Texas town and I had and still have the "twang." Once I moved to Dallas and attended Hockaday I made many people laugh with my inability to say mail, ice, and oil "correctly." I worked hard to sound educated and make my language more "real English." It is hard to not speak correctly but still sound "smart." I only had an accent and it created a hardship with me, I can't imagine what people from another country feel like that get transfered here without any help learning English.
Aren't we the melting pot? Shouldn't we want all sorts of languages flowing through our schools? Aren't Americans the only country that lacks bilingualism? I regret not knowing another language, but yet we judge and discriminate those that can't speak OUR language. When I have visited Europe and Mexico they made every effort to speak English to me. In schools we should be open to diversifying our curriculum to educate our students in other languages way before middle school. Children at young ages are sponges and we should be using that as an opportunity to educate them in vast languages beyond their first.
ON the flip side.....should those that move to our country at least try to learn English? Should we be catering to their first language or just helping them grasp our language? This is a constant question and conflict we as educators have!
SEE YALL LATOR! :)
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