Espanol USA

From USA Today:
"Can Spanish survive in the USA?"

Some experiences stay with a person forever. For Susana Rivera-Mills, it was moving in 1982 from El Salvador to San Francisco at the vulnerable age of 12—and not knowing how to speak a word of English. The education system was different then, and Rivera-Mills was actually classified as a special-needs student. She was held back a year in school. Decades later, the bilingual and successful college professor still has traumatic memories of being rejected by her peers on a daily basis. The emotional hurdle, she says, was more difficult to overcome than surviving the civil war that she and her family fled. Scars from the experience later surfaced when she became a mother and had to make the difficult decision of whether to pass on her native tongue to her only son. During the first five years of her son's life, Rivera-Mills says she spoke to him solely in Spanish, while her husband spoke to him in English. That practice ended when her son started school and became self-conscious of being different from other kids. "My mother instinct said, 'I don't want my son to be rejected and made to feel like an outcast,'" Rivera-Mills explains. But I did "want him to grow up feeling strong and confident in one language." And so English became the dominant language at her home, and her now 10-year-old son went from being bilingual to monolingual. Rivera-Mills has high hopes that her son will speak Spanish fluently again; future immersion trips to Mexico and El Salvador may help. But anecdotes and research have shown that to be unlikely. While an overwhelming majority of Latinos agree that passing on the Spanish language to future generations is critical, studies show that few people are actually doing that. According to a 2012 Pew Hispanic Center study on language use among Latinos, only 47 percent of third-generation Latinos can speak Spanish proficiently. Even fewer can read in their home language. The reasons are varied, but they include the need to avoid discrimination (as felt by Rivera-Mills), the desire for economic advancement, and the belief that to be truly American, English must replace Spanish. These influences make raising bilingual kids difficult, even for parents who seem fully equipped to do so.

^ While immigrants should remember their culture, language, etc they need to also remember that they came to a new place for more opportunities. Speaking Spanish in the US is going down-hill and for Spanish-speakers to really succeed in America they need to know English. I have lots of relatives in Spain and unfortunately I never learned Spanish (I took German, French and Russian instead.) I remember going to Miami and having a hard time finding anyone who spoke decent English (the same in parts of Texas I went to.) While I understand the US doesn't have an official language at the Federal level - I think they should make it English - most states have made English their official state language. As kids we were always taught that America was a melting pot and that was never the case. Immigrants coming to the US couldn't get anywhere without knowing English and since English is the sole International Language today it only makes sense for everyone in the country (and the rest of the world) to know English. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/21/can-spanish-survive-in-usa/2843585/