Language Helps Ease Transition

Being a good and right kind of human being does not depend on the language spoken or what traditions are followed.

Language allows two people to understand what is being transacted between them. Business signs help in that process.

My parents arrived from Europe in 1905.

They immediately found living in America a privilege, honor and blessing even though they had to work hard and struggle.

My dad’s parents were wealthy. My mother was their maid. My father gave up wealth to come to America in order to marry my mother because his parents would not allow him to associate with my mother openly.

They began a family of four boys and one girl, with three of the brothers serving their country in combat.

Presently, Americans (like me) are complaining about foreign signs on business establishments.

I began kindergarten in 1922. My teachers were great-grandchildren of those who lived during the Civil War.

People then let my parents and others like them know when they spoke their native language in public too loud, or did not follow the American way of life.

I feel the people at that time did the right thing by my parents by reminding them that it was improper to speak another language too loudly in public. It didn’t hurt my parents as they learned to keep their voices down, and they learned many other things from their fellow American neighbors through this policy.

Call me a traitor, but I am so thankful for the way my parents made the transition from their country to America.

Without another language or country as part of my life, I definitely became American at the very beginning of my life. I have practiced it until this day.

America is not perfect, but it’s as near perfect as a nation can be.

BILL MARTICORENA

Monterey Park