Joan Beck receives my applause for an excellent and precise commentary on bilingualism (Op-Ed, June 7).
In 1949 our family arrived from Oslo, Norway, and settled in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn. It was a poor area in 1949 and still is today. As with all immigrant children in the New York City metropolitan area, there were children from all over the world, and there were no bilingual teachers–it was total immersion. Bilingualism was a concept not yet invented.
My mother was American and my father Norwegian, therefore both languages were spoken in our home. But my brother and I were expected to participate in the American culture and speak, read and write English. The other foreign children in my 6th grade class had just arrived from France, Italy and Israel, and we all worked very hard to learn and were encouraged to read.
Our weekly spelling words were always a challenge. The latter entailed writing the 20 words 10 times each, looking them up in the dictionary, writing their meanings, writing a sentence for each word and, lastly, writing a complete paragraph using the new words. Every Friday there was a written spelling test and a spelling bee.
In my business I have found many young adults with advanced degrees who are unable to function in English. It’s a sad commentary on our schools when our colleges require remedial classes for the entering freshman class. Money, in my opinion, is not the answer but a mission to reinstitute the discipline of learning by the students. It’s their job, and the report card is their paycheck.
