[PRCo] Re: Europa (Foreign Languages)

[Fred Schneider]

No, it's not your father's Buick is it, Herb.

Back in the 1960s the only orientals in Lancaster were a handful of  
war brides that came home with U. S. soldiers.   Then we opened the  
flood gates with the Vietnamese resettlement program at Indiantown Gap.

And in 1960 there might have been a few hundered Spanish surname  
people in Lancaster.   Then I got into an argument about 1972 with a  
Puerto Rican supporter who wanted me to believe there were 10,000  
Spanish.   I argued that based on school enrollment data expanded to  
include parents, there might have been 2400.   He tried to tell me I  
was full of _______.   A few weeks later the 1970 census came out  
with 2,075.   Today it's crowding 21,000.  ... close to 6 percent today.

And there are a lot of Indians too.   No idea how many.    Most of  
them came here speaking English because it was the unifying language  
there.

On Nov 11, 2007, at 3:11 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> Please don't take this the wrong way John, however, I find your  
> statement about knowing only one Hispanic person very hard to  
> believe, especially in 2007. All US major cities have quite large  
> Hispanic populations. However, before I go on, let me make one  
> observation: Pittsburgh, during my time there, did not have any  
> concentrated Hispanic area as Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los  
> Angeles, ect. have always had. I took Spanish (two years) in high  
> school (1960s) which I selected as my foreign language since Latin  
> was too "old fashioned" (I was not going to be a doctor anyway) and  
> French could only be used in France, Eastern Canada, and a small  
> handful of French holdings. However, Spanish was being used just  
> across town plus all over our Southern neighbor, Mexico and in the  
> Island Nations just off the Southeastern US coast. It was a sound  
> decision.
>
>   Today, I use Spanish  frequently. Especially when driving the bus  
> in the Clark/Fulton/Metro and the Dennison/Lorain neighborhoods.  
> Advertising "car cards" in RTA's buses, cars, and trains are in  
> either English or Spanish. Outdoor billboards are in Spanish all  
> along West 25th Street, Fulton Road, Dennison Avenue, Clark Avenue,  
> etc. I used Spanish when I lived and worked in Austin, TX, Houston,  
> TX, and Orlando, FL.
>
>   To paraphrase that old Oldsmobile ad slogan, "It's not your  
> fathers United States, anymore".Come to Cleveland for a visit and I  
> will take you on a tour of "an American urban neighborhood, 2007."
> John Swindler <j_swindler at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Fred Schneider mentioned: >> What is important here? Spanish is  
>> important because 1 in every 5> U. S. citizens speaks it in the  
>> home or will shortly. We should all> bite that bullet and be  
>> bilingual and quit arguing about whose> culture is ruined by  
>> learning a second language.>
>
> I find this hard to believe. You have a source, Fred?
>
> The only hispanic I know arrived in US at age 23 - and she didn't  
> know a word of Spanish, only spoke English. Has about ten  
> decendents, and none interested in Spanish. One did try Chinese in  
> high school - another German, and the rest took a pass on foreign  
> languages.
>
> John
>
>
>
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> Herb Brannon
>
>