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Emrek Barahona

Professor Batty

English 28

31 October 2018

Non-Assimilate vs. Assimilate

The biggest question that everybody always debates about is should immigrants assimilate to the

American culture? Both assimilation and non-assimilation can work for any society in reality, including

the United States that is full of mixed culture. In this article is going to explain both sides work in some

case like in a job place or at school.

Most foreigners who come to the United States look for job opportunities. Although most of them

had to assimilate to the United States culture in order to get out of poverty. In the article “Report says

California Latinos' wages rising but lag those of non- Latinos” explains how most Latinos suffered in

poverty and most of their wages from 25 years ago are different now. According to Goldeen “CBP report,

Latino workers with higher levels of education have higher hourly earnings” because of parents who send

their kids into education assimilate to society of getting jobs that are unexpected for Latinos to have.

Including the facts that show “In 2003, the typical Latino worker with a high school degree earned 42.9

percent more than the typical Latino worker lacking a high school degree” most Latinos have better

opportunities when they assimilation through schooling to having jobs that acquired a lot of wages. A

Smart Exception is another example base on David Gergen illustration, he says legal immigrants who

came to the United States made important things like Sergey Brin, Jerry Yang, and Pierre Omidyar, “they

went on to start Google, Yahoo!, and eBay”. This is assimilation because most percentages tell in the

article by David Gergen says immigrants who participated in the United States has made overall changes

into this country with that saying, most Latinos are already adapting to the assimilation of jobs “It’s now
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commonplace to see foreign-born students dominating U.S. graduate programs in science, math, and

technology” in which most do become CEO’s according to the article. One more thing about assimilation

is that most Latinos move to this country have gained experience of working in the common places in the

United States gain cultural knowledge of they should act on working place and since David Gergen did

mention on how foreigners learn to adapt since 1995 “From 1995 to 2005, legal immigrants were CEOs

or lead technologists in one of every four U.S. tech and engineering start-ups and half of those in Silicon

Valley. These companies employed some 450,000 people before the recession hit”.

Non-assimilation can also support most foreigners side of the workplace because there are more

benefits to them. How? Well, let’s take a look at the article “the Amazing Benefits of Being Bilingual”.

The article tells the benefits of bilingual “ Multilingualism has been shown to have many social,

psychological and lifestyle advantages” meaning most bilingual people have a greater expansion of

cultural knowledge, for example, Gaia Vince told a story about how two South African men speak Xhosa

and 5 more languages which is amazing attribute to have when getting job which gives more earnings of

wages. It’s been mention “Over time, different groups of early humans would have found themselves

speaking different languages. Then, in order to communicate with other groups – for trade, travel and so

on – it would have been necessary for some members of a family or band to speak other tongues” the

Pacific jobs that enquired bilingual is usually pilots or assistance in the airport speaking multilingual

language or even in politics that enquired communicate with politicians from different countries or

business as well when expanding products around different countries. In more news about Bilingual jobs

like in “Two ways to belong in America” clarity about Mira having a job where she is known for “Mira

still lives in Detroit, works in the Southfield, Mich., school system, and has become nationally recognized

for her contributions in the fields of pre-school education and parent-teacher relationships” while having

to retaining the culture of her marriage and keeping tune of the wearings of her own culture.
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In the education system, most schools do put foreigners into programs where they have to

assimilate to the American school system. For example, my experience of working with Puente have

given a lot of benefits of getting involved with other also considering joining a club where the most

university will look for and of course trips to other universities for students. Although is not the only

programs that can help others with different languages, which is why most why is important to assimilate

to the American culture because it is required to take support class for those who were born with a

different language. Although the United States doesn’t have a primary language as a result of mixed

culture inside of this country, however, most school systems do require English to be a primary language

for all students to assimilate. Is not bad to know more languages than your own because people grow

more like in the substance of “Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages”

shows how much both languages like Spanish and English can give both points of views, like math

has many meanings and teachings from different languages in which more perspective and

understanding in many ways. It’s complicated but to give more understanding, a student that knows

both languages has an advantage of learning both teachings because a student understands the

explanation of formulas in different ways to resolve it. For my experience I help out students that

only know Spanish and that complicated for them to understand math in an English explanation, but

I help those students since I knew the explanation that was given to me in English. It’s necessary to

assimilate to the United States for Foreigners who come here because is a life-changing experience

to adapt especially for Immigrants that wants to move to the United States.

Of course, there are advantages for non-assimilation for education. In education, schools

have many languages classes that students could take, but it’s important to take advantage of those

class because it makes students look competitive. For one scenario a student that knows only one

language can have a talent for the job but compare to another student that knows more than one

language and has talent will most likely get a job, that gives them a more competitive role to students

advantage of the education system gives. Although only students have the choice of taking a
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multilingual class that will make them competitive like in an article “Bilingual education – a competitive

advantage” says that “Providing students with the chance to study in another language can improve

access to higher education, provide opportunities to study abroad and improve future job prospects. It has

also been shown to enhance cognitive development. In an increasingly globalised world, a bilingual

education could be one of the most important advantages parents can give to their children”. Furthermore,

it’s good to non-assimilate when it’s comes speaking your language because your language will be unique

to others.

As a conclusion, both sides work for a different purpose when knowing getting a job that has

more wages for bilinguals or a foreigner that has no English ability needs to assimilate to educate for jobs

or etc. At the end of the day, my argument goes assimilation for foreigners because they need to learn the

primary language of the country in order to make a living while non-assimilation people who reject or

forget their own language have no advantage meaning they have to recognize their own language that can

give more purpose to their own lives. Be more open to the balance of languages because it gives more

knowledge to the world and will make your life better.

Works Cited

Chavez, Linda. "Language Immersion Is Better than Bilingual Education for Immigrants." Bilingual

Education, edited by Noël Merino, Greenhaven Press, 2016. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context,

http://library.lavc.edu:2102/apps/doc/EJ3010256234/OVIC?u=lavc_main&sid=OVIC&xid=730f

251d. Accessed 26 Oct. 2018. Originally published as "Being Pro-English Is Also

Pro-Immigrant," Townhall, 6 June 2014.

"Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages." ProtoView, Sept. 2015. Academic

OneFile,
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http://library.lavc.edu:2102/apps/doc/A427678021/AONE?u=lavc_main&sid=AONE&xid=855eaf68.

Accessed 26 Oct. 2018.

Mukherjee, Bharati "Two Ways to Belong in America”, New York

2016,file:///C:/Users/embarahona203/Documents/LAVC/English%2028/Two%20Ways%20to%20Belong

%20in%20America%20(1).pdf

Goldeen, Joe. "Report Says California Latinos' Wages Rising but Lag those of Non- Latinos."
Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, Sep 30, 2004, pp. 1. ProQuest,
https://library.lavc.edu:2236/docview/460452778?accountid=40027.

Gergen, David. “A Smart Exception” https://parade.com/38934/davidgergen/100613-a-smart-exception/

Vince, Gaia. “The Amazing Benefits of Being Bilingual”,

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160811-the-amazing-benefits-of-being-bilingual

Bilingual education – a competitive advantage,

https://www.relocatemagazine.com/education-bilingual-education--a-competitive-advantage-au18