Mickey'snewestfan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2005
- Messages
- 4,719
But that just goes to prove how very important it is to assimilate at least to some degree lest one become an outcast.
Or maybe it goes to prove how very important it is not to make outcasts out of people who are going through the same process all of our ancestors went through.
As a teacher we are told that it takes 7 years for a child learning English at school to "catch up". At my school, our kids start at 3, and so we expect that they'll be proficient in English at 10. Now these kids have several huge advantages over adults. They're in an environment 7 - 9 hours a day, 180+ days a year that is designed to teach the English language, supported by fluent adults. Most new adult immigrants don't have that, instead they're spending those hours working, often at jobs with co workers who also aren't fluent. They're young and their brains are more plastic, and finally to get credit for having "caught up" they only need to make it to a 10 year old level, not an adult level.
If it takes a young child that long, why are we as a society so judgemental of adults who need time to do the same thing, or even those who find the task overwhelming or nearly impossible?