Reply #43: Language can isolate people.

[zanne]

My MIL came to this country from Quebec at the age of 16. She died a few years ago, without ever learning how to speak English. She lived in a French-speaking town, worked in a French-speaking place, listened to French radio and watched French TV. I know that she was lonely. I never had a chance to have a conversation with her, and her grandchildren didn't speak French. She was a bighearted person who was isolated because of language.

Becoming immersed in a French-speaking area when she arrived in the US was detrimental to her and her family. I guess what I'm saying is that everybody is better off when one language is spoken.