Testimonials

My dad came to America from Italy as a young man and took night classes in English and citizenship. He was proud to become an American, start his own business, and marry an American girl of Italian descent whose parents’ story was similar to his own. He insisted that we speak only English at home so that he could continue to improve. Dad was a friendly guy and hated not being able to clearly express himself to people he met.  He used to say that the day he woke up and realized he was thinking in English, instead of translating from Italian, was the day he finally felt like a real American.

The only thing Dad never got used to was English spelling – he had a hard time with reading and writing the language. I had to read him The Sporting News every week so he could follow his beloved baseball.  Living in NY, we knew people from all over the world, who, like my father, had come to the U.S. for a better life.  They shared their culture, cuisine, and histories with us, and our lives were enriched by them.

I don’t understand people who stubbornly cling to ignorance.  What are they afraid of? How can you lose by knowing more, rather than less? We didn’t have to give anything up to make English our primary language – we still follow all our old family traditions from Italy.  But we also have so much more.  There really is “gold in the streets” here in America after all.  But it’s not the metal – it’s the abundance and variety of traditions and culture available here if you are willing to open the lines of communication.  People all over the world study English to try to tap into what we’ve got here.  How sad it is when someone who is already here, surrounded by all of this opportunity, chooses to opt out.