IF you are going to come to a country and live in it, particularly if you become its citizen, take on the ways of that country to the best of your ability. Learn to speak its language, follow its laws, and don’t be a moocher who lives off the contributions of others. Help yourself to become the best citizen that you can be, and you will make a positive contribution to society.

As for hyphenated identifications, they tell me that allegiance is divided. Being an American isn’t good enough; they have to tack on something else. I don’t know if people do this out of a need to inflate their worth or what the reasoning is, but, to me, it smacks of disloyalty to our nation.

You talk about generalizations. Let me give you a “generalization” that I have observed many times over with my own eyes. Often, the people who insist on being catered to (whether through refusal to learn our language or the use of hyphenated identification) are the very ones who drain our society. Instead of contributing, they demand handouts. Instead of working to make changes by voting or other positive means, they may often be found complaining and stirring up strife and discord and attacking those who actually love this land and work to make it a better place.

This nation was founded on the blood, sweat, and tears of great men. If we want our nation to continue to be great, we need to work to keep it that way. It may very well be our blood, sweat, and tears that our country needs next. I’m afraid that too few “citizens” are willing to sacrifice for their country, for they don’t even want to fully identify with American when it costs nothing.

My sister for one is a teacher. She has jr. high students whose parents don’t know English. Not because they don’t have the resources to learn or the capacity. They simply don’t want to. Or the grandparents of that student… who think they are too old to simply learn when they are still in their 50s. And then said student has to translate her words for her.

My own great aunt refused to learn English when she came to this country 30 years ago… simply because she preferred to use her native tongue. As if that didn’t get in the way when she needed to go see a doctor or something.

I know of other teachers who feel like they are forced to learn other languages to accommodate not the students as much as parents who don’t learn the English language as they immigrate here. It’s not even that learning other languages is bad, it’s that you have people who immigrate here who DO not learn English because of reasons that aren’t really reasons but are excuses.

Then a lot of people claim they shouldn’t have to English and forget about their roots. Well, we’re not asking them to forget their roots, we’re asking them to learn the language of the country that they chose to migrate to.

If you migrate to the states more power to you. Don’t forget where you came from. But you chose to move here. This then became your home, your country now.

Sorry, but I’m still not seeing how languages other than English and hyphenations stand in the way of making a positive contribution to this country.

I think our nation is quickly sliding downhill, and, in my opinion, one of the (many) reasons is because we, the citizens, do not stand together but split into groups. “United we stand; divided we fall.”

People have asked what it means to be an American. An American is wholeheartedly devoted to his country. He does not cling to his past, demanding that he be tagged with a hyphenated identification. To me, that is plain silly. What if I were to go around calling myself an English-Irish-Scotch-French-Dutch-Jewish-American? All of those nationalities flow through my veins, but I am simply an American and am proud to be so.

Being simply an American does not, however, mean that you ignore or reject your roots. My family celebrates Passover and other Jewish holidays. There is nothing wrong with remembering where you came from. In fact, it would be a great loss if everyone forgot from whence they came.

At the same time, our country would be much more unified if all its citizens would embrace the fact that they are Americans. Share your past and your heritage, but choose to devote yourself to your nation; speak English in public, forget the hyphenations, be the first in line to vote, do all you can to make a positive contribution to this great land in which we live.

Well let me give it a try… but first, let me say my piece on other points:

I do agree with Amanda on this one. You have to KNOW the English language.

If we, as Americans were to move to China, or Brazil, or Kenya for all I care, you have to learn the language, do you not??? We don’t expect someone to contantly translate for us. People I know who have moved to other countries have had to pay for lessons, or translators, or find means to learn the language. It’s not like that’s impossible for people who migrate into the United States… especially when half the time it’s almost provided for them.

To become a US citizen, should you be born in another country (AND I WAS -the Philippines to be exact), you HAVE to know the English language and to take an aptitude test on it before you receive your naturalization papers. (Therefore when you vote, you can understand who and what you are voting for.)

My parents learned English as a second language. But they learned. They brought my siblings and I to this country with only 80 dollars to their name and now are able to afford 2 freakin’ houses. To go from speaking 1 language for 36 years in your life to suddenly speaking a new one was definitely hard. But they learned. They had no one to translate medical or banking forms for them.

A friend of mine moved to Denmark at the age of 50, and he learned the language… he has a total American accent but he still learned the language. Difficulty in pronounciation isn’t something that can’t be overcome.

I still speak our native tongue. I know I’m not white and I’m proud of who and what I am. I know my culture, I visit the country I was born in as much as I can. My children will visit that country too even though they’ll be born here.

But, at the same time, I can claim to be proud to be an American.

To be an American to me, is to be grateful that people have made sacrifices on their part (past and present) so I could, can and will live the way I do today. That I have been given opportunities to make my life what it is, and it’s my choice whether I want to take those opportunities or not.

It’s honestly nice to know when someone is so proud of their racial ethnicity that they claim they are part of something. But when you look at the big picture, they are also a part of the US which is made up of more than that.

It’s not even about being “white”… good grief.

This nation was simply founded in English… so what’s the problem with LEARNING English? Just because you learn more about another “culture” doesn’t mean you lose anything about your own. I’ve traveled to Europe and other countries in Asia just so I could see what their culture, customs, laws, and language is like. It’s honestly interesting to learn. But that doesn’t make me lose any part of me or the culture (or cultures) that made me.

It’s one thing if you are trying to be something you’re not. It’s another to realize you don’t have to pretend. While Alba’s grandfather had to act a certain way to assimilate, it seems that Alba realizes she really doesn’t have to.

Personally, I am a filipina, a Pacific Islander, Asian, whatever you call it but when you look at my passport I’m an American, a citizen of the United States.