English waning in Big Apple

NEW YORK – It's official: Nearly half of residents in the Big Apple speak a language other than English when at home with their families.

Census Bureau figures released last week indicate that 46.7 percent of New Yorkers (older than 5) speak a non-English language while at home. In addition, only half of New York immigrants – 52.2 percent – speak English "very well," said the Census data. Over 53 percent of those who don't speak English at home use Spanish as their primary means of communication.

The findings are different from the 1990 census, which found that only 41 percent of New York residents spoke a language other than English at home. It also differs from other cities around the U.S. For example, across the United States, only 18 percent of those age 5 and above speak a language other than English at home.

Alexandra Gonzales is taking English-language night classes after working as a waitress all day at a posh New York restaurant. Although she speaks Spanish at home with her family – which relocated from Rosarito Beach on the Baja Penninsula in 1998 – Alexandra believes that mastering English is the key to a better life in America.

"Of course we are proud of our Spanish language and culture," she explained. "But honestly, I cannot understand immigrants, especially Spanish-speakers who refuse to learn English and want to set up their own nation inside America."

Jeremy Shin is another New Yorker who speaks a foreign language at home. For Jeremy, age 6, that language is Korean. However, Jeremy's mother worked as an English teacher in South Korea for over a decade, and the entire family speaks both English and Korean fluently at home.

"I love English; everything about the language is wonderful," he told WorldNetDaily at Penn Station.

Jeremy's mother, Un Ha, said, "Korean is more difficult than English. So much of our culture is based upon the Chinese language, which in itself is the compilation of many dialects and languages. Korean children will spend years learning Chinese characters to fully understand Korean language and culture. This is highly unusual and something that would boggle the mind of the average American."

For example, in Korean, the word for star is "byul." However, Koreans use the Chinese word "song" instead.

While the diversity of New York's immigrants is seen by some as a great strength, others view the language gap as a problem. English as a Second Language classes are needed to teach new immigrants to communicate. Still others fear the Balkanization of America.

The U.S. population in 2000 was 273,643,247 with a foreign-born population of 30,466,222 – about 11 percent of the population. Over 56.4 percent of all foreign-born Americans entered the country between 1990 and 2000. New York state has 18,395,995 residents. Almost four million are foreign born, about 20 percent. Almost 60 percent of foreign-born New York state residents came to America in the last ten years.

The leading ancestries in America remain European. They are led by 46 million of German lineage, 33 million Irish, 28 million English, 16 million Italian and 9 million Polish.

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English becoming global language