My Family's Experience With English

Coming from a bilingual background, I know the struggles one has to face when learning a new language. I knew how to first speak Albanian before English. For me it was easy, I was born here and I learned English through school, books and the TV. My parents were the first generation here and because they were in their twenties when they came to the U.S, they were able to learn English. They still have an accent but they are able to blend in and have a comfortable life. For my grandparents learning English was and still is an everyday struggle. It's hard for them to understand the news, radio, and communicate with native speakers. They came to America in their early fifties and at that age it is impossible to learn a second language and be proficient in it. Motivation is an important factor when it comes to learning a new language and my grandparents have my mom to translate for them everywhere they go, so they don't see learning English as an necessity. The problem though is that when they have to fill out legal documents my mom can't translate because they don't allow family members to do that. The office that they are dealing with needs to have that document translated in their own language or have a translator there for them. The problem though is that there are about 80 different languages spoken in the state of Michigan so it is impossible to have all the documents translated in those languages or have translators available when needed so in this case English is something that one needs to know. In the South were the majority of people speak Spanish thay use both languages everywhere. I don't see anything wrong with that. There are other countries around the world where more than one language is offical. Seeing both sides of spectrum, I'm still debating with myself which way is better. One thing is for sure though, that as long as there will be immigrants there should be a way to accommodate them.