It’s why my family doesn’t speak Italian anymore. My grandfather, who immigrated to America from Sicily and was our family’s last Italian speaker, would smack my dad if he heard him speaking Italian. The only Italian I ever heard growing up was my great grandmother cursing when she got angry.
That’s exactly what my great-grandparents did when they came through Ellis Island in the early 1900s. They made a deliberate effort to assimilate into American culture. Their children spoke only broken Czech, and by the next generation—my father—Czech wasn’t spoken at all. Learning English and becoming American was intentional. That expectation of assimilation used to be understood, and it’s something we shouldn’t have abandoned.
This is not entirely accurate. There are whole neighborhoods in Chicago where it seems like every person and business only speaks polish. Many of these people are not new to the country and don’t speak more than a few words of English.
My father's mother came from Stuttgart Germany, basically indentured to a family in New Jersey. She learned English, when I asked my Dad to teach me some German, he only knew one prayer, he said his mother told him that in America, you speak English, and refused to teach him. Every other gran was Irish, but apparently were in the USA a lot longer than grandma on his side. I never knew her. It's okay for some traditions to stay in the family, I think. Food for instance, one of my Dads quests for a lot of his adult life was to find a restaurant that could make saurbraten like his mother could. German potato salad, rye bread over white bread, saurkraut, etc. He was born in 1910. He clearly remembers his mother getting the boys up to look out the window from their tenement on E 42nd street, giving them little flags to wave as the soldiers were marched to the docks, before dawn, to go fight in the first World War. The patriotism and love of America was strongest in those first generation immigrants, they yearned to assimilate, and the things that they contributed to, from their culture, were welcomed in the neighborhoods. NYC had its Germantown, Little Italy, Spanish Harlem, etc, yes, but they were enclaves that had something to offer, mostly in the way of groceries and restaurants.
My great grandparents came through Ellis Island, although my great grandfather got here with his brother two years before my great grandmother, my grandmother and great uncle. They went to work in Jackson, CA in the coal mines. He saved up to get the family over here. Both men died within years from black lung. Something no one mentioned yet is the Americanizing of names. Mara became Mary. Daniça became Dorothy, Jovan became John or Jerry, etc.This was another requirement, besides learning English.
It’s why my family doesn’t speak Italian anymore. My grandfather, who immigrated to America from Sicily and was our family’s last Italian speaker, would smack my dad if he heard him speaking Italian. The only Italian I ever heard growing up was my great grandmother cursing when she got angry.
Henry Ford wrote a book warning about exactly what is happening today.
Dont forget they were given jobs not free EBT.
That’s exactly what my great-grandparents did when they came through Ellis Island in the early 1900s. They made a deliberate effort to assimilate into American culture. Their children spoke only broken Czech, and by the next generation—my father—Czech wasn’t spoken at all. Learning English and becoming American was intentional. That expectation of assimilation used to be understood, and it’s something we shouldn’t have abandoned.
This is not entirely accurate. There are whole neighborhoods in Chicago where it seems like every person and business only speaks polish. Many of these people are not new to the country and don’t speak more than a few words of English.
Serbians around me.
God bless em, they're some roughnecks.
Don't their kids learn English in school?
My father's mother came from Stuttgart Germany, basically indentured to a family in New Jersey. She learned English, when I asked my Dad to teach me some German, he only knew one prayer, he said his mother told him that in America, you speak English, and refused to teach him. Every other gran was Irish, but apparently were in the USA a lot longer than grandma on his side. I never knew her. It's okay for some traditions to stay in the family, I think. Food for instance, one of my Dads quests for a lot of his adult life was to find a restaurant that could make saurbraten like his mother could. German potato salad, rye bread over white bread, saurkraut, etc. He was born in 1910. He clearly remembers his mother getting the boys up to look out the window from their tenement on E 42nd street, giving them little flags to wave as the soldiers were marched to the docks, before dawn, to go fight in the first World War. The patriotism and love of America was strongest in those first generation immigrants, they yearned to assimilate, and the things that they contributed to, from their culture, were welcomed in the neighborhoods. NYC had its Germantown, Little Italy, Spanish Harlem, etc, yes, but they were enclaves that had something to offer, mostly in the way of groceries and restaurants.
If this was true, we wouldn't have China towns, little Sicily, little Italy, Korea towns, etc....in big cities all over the country.
And pretty sure South Boston would be completely different if everyone had really assimilated.
My great grandparents came through Ellis Island, although my great grandfather got here with his brother two years before my great grandmother, my grandmother and great uncle. They went to work in Jackson, CA in the coal mines. He saved up to get the family over here. Both men died within years from black lung. Something no one mentioned yet is the Americanizing of names. Mara became Mary. Daniça became Dorothy, Jovan became John or Jerry, etc.This was another requirement, besides learning English.
Assimilating shouldn't be an option now. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. That's nothing new.
And maybe back then, like when my family immigrated, they all wanted to be American. (I was not born yet when my family started to immigrate.)
Culture is a symptom. The root problem is Brown people. We are turning into Brazil