Linguistic Isolation in America Essay

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Evaluation of Kirk Semple’s “Immigrants Who Speak Indigenous Languages Encounter Isolation” 

As Kirk Semple shows in “Immigrants Who Speak Indigenous Languages Encounter Isolation” many Mexican and Central American immigrants in the U.S. are isolated from their communities because they know neither English nor Spanish. Instead, they are speakers of their hometown native languages—dialects like Mixtec—which make it impossible for them to integrate into either the Spanish communities in the U.S. or into the mainstream English-speaking world of America. This paper will show why there is a need for more services to be provided to these immigrants so that they do not have to live their lives in fear or want.

The biggest problems that immigrants from Central America face are ultimately linguistic—especially if they are from communities in Central America where Spanish (the language that most people expect Latinos to speak) was never adopted. As Semple shows, “these language barriers, combined with widespread illiteracy, have posed significant challenges to their survival, from finding work to gaining access to health care, seeking help from the police, and getting legal redress in the courts” (574). Immigrants who suffer from “linguistic isolation” (Semple 574) have no recourse but to try to pick up a smattering of Spanish so that they can at least manage to fend for themselves in the most basic ways. It is not easy, however, and the fear that many face is daunting.

Semple gives the example of Laura, whose husband was arrested for domestic violence and is now in danger of being deported: she speaks only Mixtec and relies on her cousin for assistance with her husband’s case, with simply navigating the neighborhood and caring for her son. There is no way for Laura to integrate meaningfully into the mainly Spanish-speaking community because she is not one of them, linguistically.

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Others in her position attempt to gain ground linguistically by faking their knowledge (nodding when they have no idea what the speaker is saying, which does not help to advance their situation), picking up the bare basics from co-workers (for example, in a restaurant kitchen where one might learn some phrases and words), or by taking a class from the Little Sisters of the Assumption, who actually switched from offering English classes to immigrants to offering Spanish (because it would be more useful for them in their communities and because it would be easier for them to learn). Yet people like Laura, who have no access to any of these options, remain cut off and living in isolation, fear and worry.

The importance of linguistic isolation cannot be overstated, as Semple shows: “beyond the critical language and literacy instruction the classes [of the Little Sisters] provided,….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/linguistic-isolation-america-2169713
   

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