How come all the immigrants to American during the 18th and 19th century abandoned their native language so quickly? Every immigrant nowadays still speaks the tongue of their ancestors which came 3 generations ago, yet it seems like all those Norwegians and Germans going to the US forgot it as they got off the ship.
>>1317560
How can you be an immigrant and be born here?
>>1317584
I should have said "Every person with an immigrant background".
I'm a European. Because those fuckers don't adapt, we still consider them immigrants, because they might as well have arrived a week ago.
Pretty sure if they didnt learn english the locals would start harassing them. For example Finnish imigrants to America got some shit thrown at them for being slow to learn english.
Germans assimilated faster than say, italians or chinese.
>>1317588
Eh. It depends. I live in a major city and most of the children of immigrants speak decent English. One of my coworkers you couldn't tell he is fluent in Spanish. The parents not so much, but kids that go to city school learn English if they want to fit in.
I don't know how it is in communities were its all minorities.
>>1317560
"They wanted us to be American."
More so than today, those early immigrants were escaping something nasty back in their homelands. They had genuine affection for America and were among its most fervent patriots.
>>1317560
You are a dumbass who knows nothing about America. Everyone born here learns English and there were towns full of immigrants that spoke in their native tongue.
Just a month ago I visited a town that still flies Norwegian flags all day every day on every building.
>>1317560
if they bothered to teach their children their children rarely used it
Son of two Mexicans here
I was born in the states and was raised in an entirely Spanish speaking house
My Spanish is terrible and I can hardly read or write it
I don't see my kids speaking Spanish unless I marry another Spanish speaker
>>1317601
in ww1 alot of Germans abandoned their cultural roots. thats why they arnt a distinct minority like irish for instance
>>1317560
>How come all the immigrants to American during the 18th and 19th century abandoned their native language so quickly?
We for the most part kinda forced them to.
That being said, their children born here learned english as a first language anyway, as do the mexican kids now.
>>1317601
Before WW1, most germans in america still spoke german alongside english. There was something like 200 german language newspapers made in america at the time.
>>1317588
>be teacher
>third generation North African sandniggers still talking with an accent
Holy fuck I hate them all.
But good thing I'll make them fail at life.
Thomas Sorwell wrote something on this, basically immigrants from the 1800s etc were greatly influenced to abandon their language becasue they had very little contact with the 'motherland' and Sorwell points to Mexico today as the counterfactual, where immigrants are able to easily return home often (thanks to better travel/proximity of Mexico) you get less of an incentive to abandon your language over time
This Italian guy wrote of how Italian immigrants in the 1910s often adopted American culture/language so quickly because they wanted their children to be able to go to schools which only taught in English, whilst today Spanish is a classroom language in some schools
just to point out, there are studies which show that illegal immigrants and their children from Latin America often try to learn english within a year, for similar reasons of the Italians of before
>>1317720
>Sowell
>>1317720
>Thomas Sorwell
kek
>>1317727
>>1317730
yeah i was doing a essay on US immigration and i was reading a book i picked up in the library and it kept slating African Americans and their lack of social development in comparison to Caribbean Africans and I went "lel this sounds like Thomas Sowell" and i turned to the front and there was his name in large golden text on the front page
