VOA慢速英语2015 美国将成为一个双语国家吗?

AS IT IS 2015-03-17 Will the US Become a Bilingual Country? 美国将成为一个双语国家吗?

In the U.S., speaking more than one language fluently is not very common – except in Los Angeles, California.

The city has one of the largest populations in the U.S. of young people between the ages of 18 and 34. This generation is often called millennials. More than half of millennials in Los Angeles are bilingual, which means they speak more than one language.

Maria Elena Burgos is cooking a Mexican breakfast. She says making Mexican food is just one of the many traditions in her home. Another is speaking Spanish to her children. 

“We want them to be bilingual. We want to keep the Spanish somewhere in their learning¹ too, not only at home.”

When Ms. Burgos first came to the United States from Mexico, she learned² English. She knew her children would learn English quickly. So she wanted them to speak Spanish at home and study the language at school. 

She says being bilingual will give them more opportunities in the future. Knowing Spanish also means the children can talk with their relatives in Mexico and El Salvador.

 “When we had our children, one of the decisions we as parents decided³ was to name them with a name that was easily pronounced in English and Spanish.”

Her children include daughters Elizabeth and Monica. They like speaking both English and Spanish.

Elizabeth wants to know her family’s culture.

"The culture -- to go back to our roots because that’s part of who we are,”

Monica wants to pass on the culture to her children.

“It’s nice to know our culture and then to be able to pass it onto our children and grandchildren and everyone to let them know where we come from.”

And, Monica says she does not speak only English and Spanish. She has even learned some Korean in school.

New practice among immigrants⁵

The U.S. Census⁶ Bureau⁷ says more than half the adults in the Los Angeles area between 18 and 34 years old speak a language other than English at home. For the whole country, the number of bilingual adults is only 25 percent.

The number of bilingual speakers has gone up since the 1990s. At the same time, the number of foreign-born millennials has gone down.  In other words, more people in the U.S. are learning a second language at home or in school. Many immigrant⁴ parents are passing their native languages to their American-born children, says University of California Los Angeles professor Raul Hinojosa.

Mr. Hinojosa says that in the past, the children and grandchildren of immigrants did not continue to speak the parents’ native language. But now the opposite is true. In the last ten years, more immigrant parents say they want their children to keep speaking their native language. Mr. Hinojosa calls their choice the “path of pride.”

“Mandarin is going to be encouraged. Japanese is going to be encouraged. Vietnamese is going to be encouraged.” 

Raul Hinojosa says the decision to keep a native language is clear in Los Angeles now. And, as the number of minorities in the U.S. continues to grow, he thinks bilingualism will spread to the rest of the country.

Words in This Story

millenial - n. a person reaching young adulthood⁸ around the year 2000

minority - n. a group of people who are different from the larger group in a country or area in some way (such as race or religion)

bilingualism - n. the use of at least two languages by an individual

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 immigrant   

adj.(从国外)移来的，移民的；n.移民，侨民

参考例句：

• Life in the USA was very hard for almost every new immigrant.美国的生活几乎对每一个新移民都很艰难。
• I'd like to obtain some information about applying for an immigrant visa.我想取一些申请移民签证的资料。

5 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

7 bureau   

n.提供或收集消息的机构；局，司，处；署

参考例句：

• The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.气象局每天报告天气状况。
• The Tourist Bureau arranged everything for our journey to Rome.旅游局已为我们去罗马旅行准备了一切。

8 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。