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English-Only Was a Bane in My Immigrant Family
Long before the Senate adopted a measure that would make English the national language of the United States, Pueng Vongs' immigrant parents imposed an "English Only" rule within her family. Vongs, an editor with New America Media, says that instead of helping, speaking English exclusively deprived her family of intimacy.
SAN FRANCISCO--Last week, the Senate adopted a measure that would make English the national language of the United States. The debate over English-only has divided a nation, and in some cases it can divide a family.
Shortly after my younger brother was born, my parents decided to adopt their own English-only policy. No sooner had we brought him home from the hospital, my father confronted my older sister and me and in his broken, heavily Thai-accented English: "From now on we speak only in English."
Supporters of an English-only law say such a law is necessary for the waves of immigrants who come to this country and refuse to learn English. My parents were just the opposite and, like many new immigrants, eager to fit in. They also did not want my brother to face the same obstacles that they had faced with their disjointed English.
My brother was born on an auspicious day, my father said: Election Day in America. And as a result, my father would name my brother after the new president, to insure his success in life. That was the year Ronald Reagan took office. Never mind that my parents could barely pronounce their "R's." When they said their newborn's name it sounded more like "Lonnie."
We all agreed to speak only English in the house, but we never guessed the sacrifices. Gone were the nights when I would fall asleep to the soft, melodic tones of Thai that soothed me as a child. Instead, my father made harder, guttural noises trying to speak English. The syllables stuck in his throat. His voice also raised quite a few decibels when he spoke English, as if the louder he spoke the greater chance he would have of being understood. Oftentimes I thought he was angry and yelling at me, when in fact he was asking me a simple question. The constant onslaught wore on my sensitivities and I found myself arguing frequently with him simply because his tone offended me.
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http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=ef9afb88b3473de15046d95e3e11a1fb
Shortly after my younger brother was born, my parents decided to adopt their own English-only policy. No sooner had we brought him home from the hospital, my father confronted my older sister and me and in his broken, heavily Thai-accented English: "From now on we speak only in English."
Supporters of an English-only law say such a law is necessary for the waves of immigrants who come to this country and refuse to learn English. My parents were just the opposite and, like many new immigrants, eager to fit in. They also did not want my brother to face the same obstacles that they had faced with their disjointed English.
My brother was born on an auspicious day, my father said: Election Day in America. And as a result, my father would name my brother after the new president, to insure his success in life. That was the year Ronald Reagan took office. Never mind that my parents could barely pronounce their "R's." When they said their newborn's name it sounded more like "Lonnie."
We all agreed to speak only English in the house, but we never guessed the sacrifices. Gone were the nights when I would fall asleep to the soft, melodic tones of Thai that soothed me as a child. Instead, my father made harder, guttural noises trying to speak English. The syllables stuck in his throat. His voice also raised quite a few decibels when he spoke English, as if the louder he spoke the greater chance he would have of being understood. Oftentimes I thought he was angry and yelling at me, when in fact he was asking me a simple question. The constant onslaught wore on my sensitivities and I found myself arguing frequently with him simply because his tone offended me.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=ef9afb88b3473de15046d95e3e11a1fb
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My experience was different. My father came to this country from Mexico around the turn of the 20th Century. He was wounded in the Mexican civil war even though he was still just a boy. He applied for asylum in this country, and was allowed to stay legally. He had only a 3rd grade education in Mexico, but once here legally he began to study. In 1925 he became an American Citizen and in 1932 I was born. He continued to hold two 8 hour per day jobs, 6 days per week. He worked killing steers at the Chicago Stock Yards for 8 hours, and then boarded the train to Indiana Harbor to work another 8 hours at Inland Steel shoveling coal into the open-hearth furnaces. Even as a very young child, I can remember how proud he was when he would bring home $16 per week for both jobs, and place it in my mother's hand. Then in 1935, because he spoke English, he got a chance to learn to be a suit maker working for a local tailor. His pay zoomed up to $45 per week for that one job, and by 1938 he opened his own tailor shop and bought a car. By 1940 he was flying high financially. He was so proud to be an American that he would not let we children speak Spanish. As a result we each benefited from the unity of English in our home as well as in our schools. All four of the children completed college, and are now comfortable as proud retired Americans. My brother and I both proudly served in the U.S. military, and I was wounded in Korea. Although I am a disabled American Veteran I was able to start and run my own business for several years until my wounds forced me to retire. Today my son is a highly decorated Gunny Sgt. with 15 years in the U.S. Marines, and is now serving for the third time in Iraq. I am proud to say he plans to make it a career. He will complete his college this year. My daughter who completed her college several years ago is happy in a very successful management career. I do not believe any of this would have happened if my father had not insisted we speak fluent and only English, and become fully Americanized.
My family came over to America in the 1860's and were proud to assimilate and learn their new country's ways. However, no one in the family speaks Norwegian any more and we have no understanding of why our ancestors came here and our cultural roots. I'm trying to piece some of it together through genealogical research, but most of our family's history is gone. Sad.
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