Why Some People Can't Learn English - Essay Example

? Why Some People cannot Learn English Affiliation with more information about affiliation, research grants, conflict of interest and how to contact Why Some People cannot Learn English Introduction: People all around the world belong to some religion or the other. Humanity itself is divided on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity and nationality. But often times, situations arise in which individuals are required to leave their identity and be converted into another one. Despite the way they feel about losing this identity, they need to change it and become someone else. This happens when they migrate from their country of origin to some other nation in search of jobs, or education, or when they are forced to leave their country due to some political reasons. The youth who migrate become accustomed to their new environment and situations, though this is not so in the case of their aged parents. This paper focuses on the reasons why some people who have migrated to the English speaking countries cannot learn English, despite spending half of their lifetime there. These reasons include factors arising out of the willingness of people, as well as their unwillingness. However, the major reason is the fear of loss of culture. People are not ready to embrace new cultures, fearing that they might lose their own. When individuals migrate to another country, they hope for a better life. After migration, they readily accept whatever the other country has to offer. But in new cases, like the ones where they are forced to leave their homeland, they are not keen on abandoning their culture. People want to safeguard their culture and tradition, which include the preservation of their mother tongue. They fear that the changes they create in their language or lifestyle will create changes in their culture. People have been following the culture they inherited from their ancestors, and consider any deviation from it as disrespect to the souls of their forefathers. They keep this culture as a symbol of respect honor the bygone generations and live their lives to uphold them. Some people believe that prosperity comes along with the way people conserve their culture, and they tend to be traditional bound. Migration from a country that speaks a particular language to a different country speaking another tongue demands for knowledge about the changes they should undergo in their lifestyle, for their survival in a different society. But the fear inscribed in the people about losing their culture as well as traditions they have been following until now proves to be an obstacle in the path of this change. In a fast developing world where every country is being integrated into one global village, the need for knowledge of English is inevitable. Therefore, survival demands an individual’s ability to adapt to diverse situations. This in turn points to the need to communicate to the world around that individual, without destroying his or her own culture. But some immigrants believe that learning English would force them to forget completely their mother tongue, and along with that, their culture. This can be seen in the case of the narrator’s mother in Garry Engkent’s essay ‘Why My Mother Can’t Speak English,’ when he realizes that the reason behind his mother’s inability to speak English is due to her fear “that learning English would change her Chinese soul” (“Reading and Writing in the Age Cultural Diversity”, n.d, p 34). Immigrants are very proud of their culture, and they do not want to forgo this precious part of their soul. Another problem is concerned with the immigrants discouraging their children from learning this new tongue. Even though the children understand the need of this language, their parents fail to and persuade them not to go for any such courses. The fears that the parents have transferred to their children induce them to think in the same narrow-minded way their parents do. They continue to believe that was fed by their parents. The parents believe that the culture of these English speaking countries induce the children to “abandon” their own parents “in some old-age home” and also think that these “will turn their heads until they don’t know who they are” (“Reading and Writing in the Age Cultural Diversity”, n.d, p 37). Thus, the children are kept away from attending any English class, and therefore, they grow up to become people who can barely converse in English. Even though they may realize later in life about the real importance of this global language, it might be too late for them to start learning it then. There could be many obstacles in their way such as non-availability of programs that are in accordance with their “needs and goals” (“Adult Non- Native English Speakers in the United States”, n.d, p 4), being employed in jobs that result in “frequent moves” (Adult Non- Native English Speakers in the United State n.d pg 4), stress cropping up from “jobs, family responsibilities, and education” (“Adult Non- Native English Speakers in the United States”, n.d, p 3) etc. There might even occur situations where the government of the country is unable to provide any educational classes to these immigrants due to “budget problems” (Anderson, 2010, p 3) and also because non citizen immigrants do not prove to be very beneficial to the nation. Therefore, these immigrants fail to learn English, despite the opportunities they have. There is also another surprising fact to be looked at here. Some of the immigrants think that there is no need to learn English. It is not because they think they will lose the values of their culture, but because they do not consider (learning) English as a necessity. They knowingly ignore any opportunities that come their way. They think that they know the basic English terms which help them survive in foreign countries. They realize the importance of the English language only when various problems occur, and also bring grave consequences. As is often seen in human beings, they do not grasp every opportunity that they get and take things for granted. This causes lots of problems for them and this is true in the case of immigrants, who now face the serious challenge of learning English. Despite spending many years in an English speaking country, they fail to learn this language effectively. Conclusion: It can be said that people are not ready to embrace new cultures for the fear of losing their own. Though they migrate to other countries for different reasons, they are not ready to accept the culture of that country. This prevents them from learning English which is the native language of that country, English. The age old fear that they have of losing their own identity, and the pride that they have in their own culture make immigrants hostile to accepting any new culture or even a part of it. This is the main reason why some people cannot speak English even after spending half of their life time in countries where the official language is English. Reference List Adult Non-Native English Speakers in the United States. (n.d). Cal.org. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/elltoolkit/PartI-1AdultNon-native.pdf Anderson, S. (2010). Immigrants and English. Immigration Reform Bulletin. Retrieved from http://www.cato.org/pubs/irb/irb_october2010.pdf Reading and Writing in the Age Cultural Diversity. (n.d). Mercury Reader. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/viewer?attid=0.1&pid=gmail&thid=1376dc0731afe0c6&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui%3D2%26ik%3D20fa081934%26view%3Datt%26th%3D1376dc0731afe0c6%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26realattid%3Dfile0%26zw&docid=611f0f3de44cf52cee39c469b9106e7a%7C0d60e52725512678866566d8d301237f&chan=EgAAAMxZPK9N1XsOepWYkGD20GfFYEWFCWkusOQYEekJwnZm&a=v&rel=rar;r8;689590_scan.pdf666666.pdf Read More