Huckleberries Online

High Noon: ‘Spawn Of Immigrants’

Posted by DFO

March 30, 2009 11:58 a.m. • 0 comments

People who have struggled with another language know that it takes thousands of hours and several years of study and memorization to become anywhere near fluent. But in truth, virtually all newcomers - including my Danish great grandparents and today’s Latino immigrants - eventually do learn the local language. They learn it by studying until their heads ring. They learn it a word at a time from generous co-workers and helpful neighbors. They learn it from their own children - those little language sponges who pick up English from classmates and television, learning four times as fast as thee and me with our old petrified brains/Bill Hall, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: How long did it take your forebears to learn the language and assimilate into the culture of the United States?

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.