Politics and Religion
The parents can sometime get by without it because in most cases they take jobs that require little conversation with many people who they come in contact with. But the second generation had better learn and master english if they have any hope at all of living a better life than their parents live.
But I just have to take this chance to jab at you, could not pass it up. When I read through your first paragraph, I was saying to myself, "damn, what a liberal". The I looked at the handle and almost soiled my shorts. Dude, are you going soft? Maybe we should beg for SDStud to take some time out of his busy schedule to post and harden your heart. 
)
All jokes aside, your sentiment in the first paragraph is right on target. People who come to this country for opportunity and who end up staying always seem to work hard to have their kids assimilate into the multicultural mix that we have going here.
Sometimes I wonder whether there is a pure strain of any racial group in this country. I have a funny instance in my life where I met this all american blonde provider, once me and her had finished getting totally comfortable with each other and started opening up, she blurted out of nowhere that her grandmom was black. Looking at her, who would have taken her for 1/4 black? The whole thing was so weird, funny and enlightening, all at the same time.
Last year I read a long newspaper article about scientist's attempts to map a "pure strain" human genome. The goal was to find a "pure" genetic strain where they could clearly study the transmission of hereditary diseases and maybe come up with useful information and possibly medical cures that could be used to benefit everyone. A worldwide search yielded only one tiny, isolated region in either Iceland or Greenland where there had been little or no mixing of tribes or races for a couple of hundred years. It is interesting that given the dreams of Nazis, the scientists did not find a concentration of racial or ethnic purity in any country that was once under the control of Nazis, and the criterion that the scientists used required decades to hundreds of years of a strain un-mixed with other strains. So in short, except for a few, we are all more than likely multi-cultural to some extent.
-- Modified on 7/26/2004 6:28:41 PM
-- Modified on 7/26/2004 6:31:45 PM
The parents can sometime get by without it because in most cases they take jobs that require little conversation with many people who they come in contact with. But the second generation had better learn and master english if they have any hope at all of living a better life than their parents live.
But I just have to take this chance to jab at you, could not pass it up. When I read through your first paragraph, I was saying to myself, "damn, what a liberal". The I looked at the handle and almost soiled my shorts. Dude, are you going soft? Maybe we should beg for SDStud to take some time out of his busy schedule to post and harden your heart. )
All jokes aside, your sentiment in the first paragraph is right on target. People who come to this country for opportunity and who end up staying always seem to work hard to have their kids assimilate into the multicultural mix that we have going here.
Sometimes I wonder whether there is a pure strain of any racial group in this country. I have a funny instance in my life where I met this all american blonde provider, once me and her had finished getting totally comfortable with each other and started opening up, she blurted out of nowhere that her grandmom was black. Looking at her, who would have taken her for 1/4 black? The whole thing was so weird, funny and enlightening, all at the same time.
Last year I read a long newspaper article about scientist's attempts to map a "pure strain" human genome. The goal was to find a "pure" genetic strain where they could clearly study the transmission of hereditary diseases and maybe come up with useful information and possibly medical cures that could be used to benefit everyone. A worldwide search yielded only one tiny, isolated region in either Iceland or Greenland where there had been little or no mixing of tribes or races for a couple of hundred years. It is interesting that given the dreams of Nazis, the scientists did not find a concentration of racial or ethnic purity in any country that was once under the control of Nazis, and the criterion that the scientists used required decades to hundreds of years of a strain un-mixed with other strains. So in short, except for a few, we are all more than likely multi-cultural to some extent.
-- Modified on 7/26/2004 6:28:41 PM
-- Modified on 7/26/2004 6:31:45 PM
