LATINOS SAY NO TO ENGLISH!

LATINOS REJECT GOVERNOR’S ENGLISH-IMMERSION ADVICE

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer Saturday, June 16, 2007 (06-16) 04:00 PDT Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger knew he was setting himself up for plenty of criticism when he urged Latinos to "turn off the Spanish television set" in order to learn English faster, but it was a briar patch the Austrian immigrant was happy to leap into. Speaking to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention in San Jose Wednesday night, the governor, relaxed and seated in a chair on stage, answered questions for more than 40 minutes on Latino-oriented issues ranging from immigration to education. Late in that session, he was asked what could be done to help Latino students, many new to the country, pass the newly required high school exit exams.

FORTY PERCENT OF THE STUDENT BODY IN CALIFORNIA CAN NOT SPEAK ENGLISH.

He talked at first about providing more tutors and after-school help to improve their English-language skills, but then suggested that the ability of many California Latinos to lead their daily lives -- shopping, watching television, reading newspapers, speaking with friends -- almost entirely in Spanish was making it harder for them to learn English. "This is politically not the correct thing to say, but here I am, getting myself into trouble,'' Schwarzenegger said, anticipating the furor he was creating. "But I know that when I came to this country, I ... very rarely spoke German to anyone.'' The governor admitted that his experience as a young, single man moving into an area where German speakers were few and far between was very different from a Spanish-speaking family living in an established Latino community like East Los Angeles, because he was forced to speak English. But the governor quickly found himself under attack, both for his message and for its timing. When Schwarzenegger acknowledged that it was difficult for Spanish-speaking Latinos to find the time to perfect their English skills as quickly as possible, Pilar Marrero, a columnist for La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles, said, "They're busy working; they don't have time to learn.''

BUSY WORKING STEALING CARS AND SPRAY PAINTING THE SIDES OF BUILDINGS. I’VE SEEN ILLEGALS HERE FOR DECADES THAT CAN’T SPEAK ENGLISH NOR CAN THEIR CHILDREN!

Schwarzenegger's statement was "both insensitive and irresponsible,'' said John Ramirez, a professor of media studies at Cal State Los Angeles. "This is a very scary and dangerous time because of the growing anti-immigration sentiment, which is all the more reason for the governor of California to be a little more sensitive.'' WHERE’S THE MENTION OF THE GROWING LA RAZA, THE RACIST MEXICAN PARTY’S SENTIMENT THAT THE AMERICAN SOUTH WEST ACTUALLY BELONGS TO NARCO-MEX?




Not surprisingly, the governor also took heat from the Spanish-language media, which didn't take kindly to his suggestion that their readers and listeners should just say no to their stories and programs. La Opinion, one of the nation's largest Spanish-language newspapers, suggested in an editorial that the governor was dealing in stereotypes when he suggested that California Latinos aren't interested in learning English as quickly as possible. "It is absurd to blame the Spanish-speaking media for low Latino academic performance,'' the newspaper said. The governor's office is receiving plenty of feedback, both pro and con, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's communications director. "It's been a very mixed reaction,'' he said. "But much of the negative reaction comes from people who didn't read the governor's remarks in context.'' Schwarzenegger's impassioned support for English immersion, which he admitted was "a drastic way" of learning the language, reflects the way he moved into his adopted country's mainstream, Mendelsohn said. Speaking to the Latino journalists, Schwarzenegger recalled his teachers at Santa Monica City College telling him to "read the L.A. Times, even though you don't understand it. ... Look at books that are English, look at comic books that are English, watch television, listen to radio that is English. And it really helped me.'' It was a very difficult path and a huge commitment of time and effort, but within two years, "I really got my act together so I could read the paper and I could understand the news and really get with it in school,'' Schwarzenegger said. That's not a path that's realistic for many Latinos with family responsibilities and ties to a local community, a community that's largely covered by the Spanish-language media, said John Trasvina, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. "Nobody's saying, 'I don't need to learn English,' but while they're learning English, they should be able to keep in touch with their community,'' he said. A 21-year-old Austrian, virtually alone in a new country and wrapped up in the all-encompassing world of professional body-building, can spend hours in front of the television, living in a totally English-speaking world, Schwarzenegger's critics said. "That's not realistic for Latinos,'' said Ramirez, the Cal State Los Angeles professor. "They're still going to talk to Mom and the neighbors.'' Complaints about how best to teach newcomers English are nothing new for California. The battle between bilingual education, where non-English-speaking students are taught in both their native language and English, and immersion, where students who don't speak English are taught almost entirely in their new language, has raged for years, with groups like U.S. English, founded by former California Sen. S.I. Hayakawa, pushing hard for English immersion and an end to things like bilingual ballots and providing government services in languages other than English. In 1998, for example, California overwhelmingly passed Proposition 227, which banned most bilingual education in the state. Opponents say the immersion strategy it backed hasn't worked. "The governor was talking about kids in our schools who already are immersed in English all day,'' said Maria Quezada, executive director of the California Association for Bilingual Education. "There's a 40 percent dropout rate in the L.A. Unified School District, and their classes are in English.'' But this week was far from the first time Schwarzenegger has come out in favor of English immersion. In speeches, in newspaper op-ed pieces and in interviews he's talked about his experience as an immigrant and the absolute need to learn English in the fastest way possible. "The governor believes very strongly in immersion and believes very strongly in his experience with it and has no trouble talking about his experience as an immigrant,'' said Mendelsohn, the governor's spokesman. "He wasn't saying that Spanish-language media should be eliminated and he wasn't saying Spanish-language media plays no role in the community.'' Schwarzenegger also wasn't saying that by turning off the Spanish-language TV programs Latinos should turn away from their ethnic heritage, Mendelsohn added. When he stopped speaking German, Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, it wasn't "that I didn't like Austria, my heart was always in Austria, but I wanted to as quickly as possible learn the English language.'' E-mail John Wildermuth at jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com.