Reply #21

under pressure from my aunt's first grade teacher. Reading comprehension.

I know that immigrants lose their heritage language after a couple of generations and prefer the language of the new country. But in most cases (e.g. major European and Asian languages), there's an Old Country to keep that heritage alive. If you're Hawaiian or Ojibwe, you ARE the Old Country. If you lose the language, that's IT.

That's why Hawaiians, Maoris, and various Native tribes are establishing immersion schools for their children. Nobody says that people shouldn't learn the majority language, but like the Scandinavians, they can have one language for in-group use and another language for dealing with the outside world.

BTW, I did study Norwegian, a phenomenon that is not uncommon among third-generation people, and my nephew, who was along on the extended family trip to Scandinavia this past summer, wants to study it when he goes to college.