"[citation needed]" is a pretty useless comment (not to mention passive aggressive and hypocritical if you then go onto make a statement which could also use a citation).
He made an extremely broad, categoric statement with zero supporting evidence. "It is no longer true", whereas I did three things:
I stated that you need to speak English to get ahead in the US. How many people that run large companies or are in the Senate or House of representatives have a poor command of English? Very few, and probably not too different from 100 or 50 years ago.
I recounted an anecdote of people who felt a sense of loss at having been deprived of the opportunity to learn their ancestors' language.
And I asserted that not teaching children a language so that they can 'fit in' is a very tragic thing to do, because you are making a choice for them to deprive them of something they'll never really attain on their own later in life. This is, of course, my own opinion, and needs no citation.
The point of all this is that ranting about "them" not wanting to "fit in", is exactly what leads to kicking people like Gus out.
> And I asserted that not teaching children a language so that they can 'fit in' is a very tragic thing to do
Like, say, not teaching them English, when you also said "you need to speak English to get ahead in the US".
The emergence of (taxpayer funded) schools where English is not the primary language, supposedly so the kids can at least get an education even though they don't know English, is the sort of thing I'm talking about when I say "it's no longer true":
I am a Swiss born, now US Citizen; in my Country of birth I had to learn 3 languages (Italian, German, French) plus latin (this was optional) and English; later I learned Spanish and Portuguese.
My wife is Latin American, we live in Florida, at home we speak spanish, english and a little italian.
When we moved to the US my children did not talk a word in english, but we would never accepted them not to learn the mother tongue of this Country.
I belive that is importat the children keep talking the language of their parents, but they need to perfectly manage first the language of the Country they live in.
Spanish is a very important language and I agree, support and encourage theaching it in every school but this as a second language.
In my personal experience learning a new language or improving one you already manage, not only helps you communicate with others, but opens your cultural horizons and help understanding and tolerance among populations.
I think that English ought to be taught in all schools in order to give everyone an opportunity to get ahead.
That said, I can see there being a case to take some kids and teach them in another language for a limited period of time in order to make sure they don't fall so far behind because of their lack of English that they fall off the treadmill. If that happens, they will have both not learned English and will also likely drop out of school, with a corresponding lack of future prospects, increase in crime potential, and so on.
