My father and I totally got into a screaming match (I swear we kept the neighbors up) with one of my father's friends over this. He was basically quoting Lou Dobbs left and right and I couldn't have that bullshit.
It's all about power when you come down to it. My father's friend said that he was so angry when the world's eyes were on Nigeria for some festival type event and the little children were singing in English. Not Hausa, Not Yoruba (my families native language), not Ibo but English.
He thinks it's one of the reasons why Nigerians, and Africans in general, don't have reason why Nigerians, and Africans in general don't have the same world influence that places like India, China or Japan have, despite possessing valuable resources. To him, we're too willing to accommodate other cultures. We're too willing to deem our culture as inferior and shed it off.
I thought it was bullshit but at least for the first time I was understanding where someone w/ this argument was coming from.
I think in the same vein, some Americans feel their "superior" culture threatened. They also feel their power threatened. Especially when nowadays being bilingual is increasingly becoming a requirement for certain jobs or even to live in certain places comfortably.
I think a lot of the fear is unfounded because it has been proven that when people come here for the most part they do learn English and the generations after them will be completely fluent in Englilsh. However, it is ridiculous how Europeans are multilingual without much of a fuss and here in America it's almost impossible.
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It's not only white Americans.
Date: 2008-07-09 02:25 am (UTC)It's all about power when you come down to it. My father's friend said that he was so angry when the world's eyes were on Nigeria for some festival type event and the little children were singing in English. Not Hausa, Not Yoruba (my families native language), not Ibo but English.
He thinks it's one of the reasons why Nigerians, and Africans in general, don't have reason why Nigerians, and Africans in general don't have the same world influence that places like India, China or Japan have, despite possessing valuable resources. To him, we're too willing to accommodate other cultures. We're too willing to deem our culture as inferior and shed it off.
I thought it was bullshit but at least for the first time I was understanding where someone w/ this argument was coming from.
I think in the same vein, some Americans feel their "superior" culture threatened. They also feel their power threatened. Especially when nowadays being bilingual is increasingly becoming a requirement for certain jobs or even to live in certain places comfortably.
I think a lot of the fear is unfounded because it has been proven that when people come here for the most part they do learn English and the generations after them will be completely fluent in Englilsh. However, it is ridiculous how Europeans are multilingual without much of a fuss and here in America it's almost impossible.