Report says Calif. is linguistically diverse
In L.A., 53% speak a foreign language at home.
Bienvenidos. Whan young. Dobro pozhalovat
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In California, "welcome" is more of an international affair than ever, with nearly 43 percent of residents speaking a language other than English at home, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The trend was even more pronounced in Los Angeles, where more than 53 percent of residents speak another language at home.
Spanish is by far the most common, but Californians also converse in Korean, Thai, Russian, Hmong, Armenian, and dozens of other languages.
Nationwide, almost 20 percent of people older than age 5 spoke a language other than English at home in 2006.
The census numbers are likely to fuel a debate that has been going on in California for decades over immigrants speaking English vs. continuing to use their native tongue. There have been battles over bilingual education, foreign-language ballots, and English-only restrictions on business signs.
While immigration is the driving force for the state's linguistic diversity, experts said people often speak another language out of choice rather than necessity. Some do so to get ahead professionally, while others want to maintain connections with their homelands.
"In this century, there's going to be so much interaction with China, economically, socially and culturally," said Lisa Yang, a Monterey Park, Calif., real estate who insists on speaking Mandarin with her U.S.-born daughter Melissa Hsu, even on the phone.
Yadira Quezada, 30, speaks mostly English at work, where she coordinates an after-school program for elementary students in Los Angeles. But at home, she speaks only Spanish. She and her husband are fluent in English, but they don't want their four sons to lose their Spanish or to sound like "gringos" when they speak it.
"When they say something in English, we act like we don't understand," Quezada said. "We say, 'No entiendo [I don't understand you].' "
Still, she acknowledges the bilingual world her family has chosen - mostly English during work and school, mostly Spanish at home - can be confusing.
"I am thinking in English and Spanish at the same time," she said.
Because California has strong ties to Asia and Latin America, some language experts believe the loyalty to native tongues has advantages.
"It really represents huge assets for California in the global economy," said Randy Capps, senior research associate at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington.
The downside is that many people who speak other languages at home are not proficient in English, making them more likely to earn low wages and live in poor neighborhoods, Capps said.
Among residents living below the poverty line, 56 percent speak a language other than English in the home, compared with 41 percent for those above the poverty line, according to the census report.
"Isolation is problematic," Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, chair of the University of California, Los Angeles' Department of Asian American Studies. "While it reflects the strong ties to the home country, it also suggests that folks in this situation are inherently more cut off from society and less able to participate and take advantage of opportunities here."
The isolation also is felt by some English speakers living in areas where foreign languages are prevalent. Mia Bonavita, a dental office administrator, recently moved from San Diego to Monterey Park, where business at many stores is done in Chinese. Bonavita says the language barrier is difficult.
"I feel like an outsider," she said. "It's difficult to get to know your neighbors."
The linguistic diversity also affects the schools, where educators struggle to meet students' needs. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, more than 265,000 English learners speak 91 languages. The district has a special translation unit, but it must rely on parents and community members for some languages.
Southern California has numerous ethnic enclaves where speaking English is not a necessity, including parts of the San Gabriel Valley, Little Saigon, East L.A. and Koreatown. Some residents there say the lack of English hasn't diminished their lives.
Some smaller Southern California communities recorded even higher percentages than Los Angeles, including East L.A. (90 percent), El Monte (83 percent), Santa Ana (82 percent), Alhambra (70 percent), Oxnard (67 percent), Garden Grove (67 percent), and Glendale (64 percent). (The statewide percentage of 43 percent is up slightly from data taken a few years ago.)