The Importance Of Communication In The United States And Canada

The growth of English language has increased tremendously over the years and has become the most widely spoken languages in the United States. This observation aims to explore why when moving to the United States, many non-English speakers feel the social pressure to learn English and what difficulties they encounter. After my observation, I found that many feel the need to learn English in order to assimilate into a community, and though straddling two languages is difficult, it opens more opportunities, and language privilege.

A big part of the problem is that they do not get enough experience speaking or writing in their parents’ native language (Population Council). However the bigger part of the problem is most immigrants’ method of parenting. Chinese immigrants’ way of raising their children to speak and write both Chinese and English fluently has proven that it is possible to raise the next generations to be bilingual. According to a study by Eddie Kuo, over 90 percent of the studied Chinese-American families mainly spoke Chinese at home, proving that Chinese are the only immigrants who truly hold on to their language everywhere they go. That is why Chinese is the most common language around the world, before Hindu and English (Ethnologue). It is such a big advantage to know multiple languages; bilingual people always have higher chances of getting hired, especially if they are in the community in which that their languages are commonly used. Other ethnic groups should really learn from the Chinese and preserve their native language.

Introduction - Being a part of a bilingual speaking family, like with my mom and dad who are Chinese immigrants, is an experience that no one can imagine unless you are part of a bilingual speaking family. Experiences such as knowing a language that not many of our neighbors don't know can be frustrating for both sides. Being young in my early years, learning English was not only a struggle for me but for my family. I noticed that my parents struggled learning english and communicating with the outside world. From buying groceries to paying for the bills, I observed the painful experiences that my parents persevere through all these years. I was glad public schools gave me the opportunity to not only learn English but to help my family live in this English superior society.

People communicate in different ways to help social interaction. Communication is not just though words it can also be though touch, facial expressions and body movement as well as written electronic messages.

Communicating solely through signing can make everyday tasks such as ordering lunch or scheduling a doctor’s appointment notably difficult, but there have been great strides made in bridging the gap between the deaf and hearing world such as the Teletypewriter (TTY) invented by Robert Weitbrecht in the 1960’s. This revolutionary device allowed Deaf people to make calls by having the user type a message on the screen and then connecting them to a service communication assistant who will then read the message aloud to whomever the Deaf person was calling. The TTY has been phased out through the increased popularity of texting and Facetime calls, this is another example of how the Deaf and hearing worlds are becoming less disconnected. Another issue non oral Deaf people face is the need for an interpreter. Interpreters can often be hard to locate and highly expensive. In the ABC Family hit series Switched at Birth, the predominantly Deaf main character, Daphne, struggles to find an interpreter for her college chemistry test. She couldn’t use just any average interpreter, she had to find someone that understood advanced chemistry as well so that they could fully express the concepts to her (Switched at Birth S:4 E:1). American Sign Language is not just English with signs; many words or situations are expressed through body language and some

As mentioned previously, there are many people from the same origin in which it makes the demand of learning English not necessary. This challenge not only prevents those migrants from finding jobs but it is also troublesome when they need access to the social and health services. Even though there are ESL programs for adults; however, it is not well coordinated enough for the people to fully learn the language. Furthermore, in order to permanently stay in Canada and become a Canadian citizen, learning the local language crucial. When people are asked to go for the immigration interview, the level and complexity of English that is expected of the people are much higher compare to before. Hence, this is also one of the problems that elder people or middle-aged people have. People tend to stay in areas where their mother language are spoken and therefore neglect the learning of English; therefore, interpreters are often

When the immigrant’s native language is not one of the general population, certain difficulties arise. For immigrants to be functional in society, it is highly important for them find a way to communicate with the culture around them. One way of doing this is learning the language of those in the surrounding culture. If immigrants decide to not go through the trouble of learning a new language, they often find that when they apply for jobs employers are, “discouraged by the fact that [they know] hardly a word of English” (Fox

Education is one of the best ways to help immigrants to assimilate to their new country; in way that the faster they can learn the ways of the new country, the faster they can become a part of it. An immigrant’s children, if they even have any, need to be able to speak and read in English in order to attend classes and learn the material, as well as making friends. According to the Robert Wood Foundation, most immigrants would say that their lacks of English related skills are a major barrier to improving their life or social standards. Most school systems have what they call ESL classes, English

any deaf person deaf or adult cannot communicate with other people without sign language which is central to any deaf person, but to get the language in the right way they

According to the 2011 census, over 20.8 percent of the United States population spoke another language other than English (www.us-english.org). Language barriers, cultural differences, and immigration have been a part of life in the United States for decades. Language is considered a vital tool in the construction of someone’s identity and an expression of culture. In the last 200 years immigrants have chosen to make the United States their home, but some proceeded with caution by slowly adapting to the English language and culture.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing people can overcome many difficulties, and they are still able to communicate with others. They can communicate by using American Sign Language, fingerspelling, lip reading, gesture, or oral language. Hash (2003) mentions, “For

There are emotional and legal concerns surrounding whether immigrants should learn to speak English. Domenico Maceri (2009), an award-winning author and foreign language instructor at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria California, states “I never met an immigrant in the United States who needed laws to be reminded that English is necessary to succeed” (par. 9).

C.I.: In American society today, people have a tendency to approach deafness as an imperfection. Our society has a habit of looking at sign language as a second-rate alternative for real communication. As a society we assume that all deaf people can read lips and give a round of applause to the deaf community for those who use their voices to express to us.

Furthermore, language is also one of the most vital for any immigrants. Some people have come to the United States just to learn English. Where they started communicating with peers in English. English is a rich language, so it is difficult and takes time to learn. According to Morales, “people are persistently grumbled that immigrants are not willing or unable to learn English.” In fact, they are willing, but it is difficult to find the right place for them. For example, they do not know how to take the first step, or where they could find ESOL/ESL classes. Therefore, the government should provide free English classes and encourage them to learn English, so that they can easily learn the communications skills and interact with peers effectively.

Take a minute and think about what it would be like to grow up in a world where nobody was unable to communicate with anybody around them. This includes not being able to speak with anyone or even use facial expressions to be able to let someone know what they were thinking. Most people do not realize it, but there are numerous people in the world that live where they are not able to communicate with others. About 85% of all deaf children in the world are born to hearing parents (Maddox interview). The majority of these parents never wants to take the time to learn sign language so that they would be able to communicate with their children. Because of this, there are countless deaf people across the world that grow up never being able to formally