« EOIR Subject of Congressional Hearing | Main | ARIZONA SUPREME COURT REJECTS APPEAL OF RANCHER WHO ATTACKED U.S. CITIZENS ON ARIZONA BORDER »
September 23, 2008
43% of Californians Speak Non-English at Home
California leads the nation in households that speak a language other than English. Tyche Hendricks writes for the San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco resident Carlos Dimaano, 50, a recent immigrant from the Philippines, speaks English in his job at a community center. But when he goes home to cook dinner for his 88-year-old father, the two lapse into their native Tagalog.
The men are among the almost 43 percent of Californians who speak a language other than English at home, a proportion far higher than in any other state in the country, according to census figures released today. Speaking another language at home doesn't mean they don't also speak English in the home.
Click here for the rest of the story.
bh
September 23, 2008 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bfae553ef010534c8cdf4970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 43% of Californians Speak Non-English at Home:
Comments
It's an interesting story but like most newspaper stories one can't help but wish there was a lot more information. For example, of the 1 in 5 Californians who say they don't speak English "very well", how many think they speak it "well"? How many have lived here for some time, etc. The statement from the all too typically stupid Victor Davis Hanson that this is "very disturbing" because this leads to "tribalism" is annoying as well. Is there any evidence for this? No, since all the evidence indicates that most immigrants learn English over time and that nearly all children of immigrants speak English "very well". I also would have rather they put the point more clearly than they do that the percent who speak a language other than English at home doesn't even mean, as far as one can tell from the story, that they _mostly_ speak a language other than English at home, let alone only.
Posted by: Matt Lister | Sep 23, 2008 5:41:17 PM
The 43 percent of Californians who speak non-English at home earn much less than those who speak English at home
Posted by: Susan Goya | Sep 23, 2008 7:44:19 PM
Susan, that's surely true of some of them (those who don't speak English very well) but it's obviously false of others. Even the article pointed out that many who don't (only- recall that that's all the article looked at) speak English at home do speak English very well, and in such an environment being multi-lingual is a potentially very large advantage. So, many of them likely earn above average incomes. You'd not care about figuring out this simple fact, though, because you've consistently shown that you're not interested in finding the truth about these matters and only in pushing a xenophobic and, frankly, quite stupid position. It's worth talking to people with different points of view who are also interested in the truth. Sadly, you consistently show that you're not in that group.
Posted by: Matt Lister | Sep 24, 2008 4:20:33 AM
