The Herald

Time needed to learn unfamiliar language
By CANDY NEAL, Herald Staff Writer

English cannot be learned overnight.

It can take years to master our language of numerous rules and just as many exceptions to those rules.

For some immigrants arriving in the English-dominated United States, learning English may never happen.

That was the case for many of the original German immigrants who settled in the Dubois County area in the 1800s, said Eberhard Reichmann, editor in chief at the Max Kade German-American Center at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.

“In Ferdinand, for example, you had 99.9999 percent German (population),” he said. “The change or acquisition of English was slower for the people there. The German stuck for several, at least a couple, generations in Ferdinand.”

Reichmann is known for his in-depth study of the German influence in Indiana and has studied Dubois County’s German history. If the dominant language in this community had already been established as English prior to the immigrants’ arrival, their descendants would have picked up the language sooner, he said.

“It depends on the area and environment. If you were born in a mixed environment, you learned English faster,” Reichmann said.

Now in Dubois County, Spanish-speaking immigrants continue to arrive and bring their children. For that first generation, “they have a hard time learning the language,” said Margie Berns, director of the graduate program in English as a Second Language and professor of ESL at Purdue University. “And they have other issues to deal with, like supporting their family.”

And they are not exactly in mixed environments yet, Reichmann said.

“Especially for the older people, it is more difficult to learn English,” he said, “especially since they live in apartments together, in communities where they speak Spanish only.”

While he is a proponent of people learning English, Reichmann is aware that it is not easy. “For immigrants, if they are 30 and older, they usually do not acquire a fluent command of English,” he said. “Below 30, they will pick (English) up quickly.”

Berns agreed, adding that the children of immigrants will learn English.

“That generation learns English because of their exposure to school,” she said. “Many of them tend to be bilingual. And their children are likely to be bilingual too, because there are new generations of Spanish speakers coming in.”

Immigrants working in the United States usually have jobs that extend past the typical eight- or nine-hour schedule, Berns said.

“You expect them to work 11-, 12-hour days and learn English? That’s unreasonable,” she said. “Some are working two jobs. When are they going to have time to learn?”

“The children will learn English,” she said. “The adults need some accommodations during that transition.”

Dubois County officials are thinking about that. The county commissioners are considering hosting a class so that some county employees can learn some Spanish words and phrases. Some department heads have said that will be a great help because Spanish-speaking residents do come to their offices to conduct business.

“Communication is a two-way street,” Berns said. “We have to work together.”