According to every biography of Lawrence Welk I cam find he was born in Strasburg, North Dakota in 1903 to German-speaking immigrant parents. He always said that he did not learn English until age 21 and always spoke with a heavy German accent. This is very late and poor assimilation compared to today’s standards.
Today all schools in America teach English to non-English speaking students as their top priority and I have never met or heard of anyone born in Amercia (or who came to this country before the age of 10 or so) who does not speak English fluently without an accent.
So what do these facts do the often heard contention that immigrants today are not assimilating as quickly as previous generations?
Although poorly assimilated by today’s standards Lawrence Welk was no threat to the American way of life, of course. He enriched, strengthened and broadened our culture and, like most immigrants, made America a better place.
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6 comments:
but he was white. and as we all know, WASP's are cool and everyone else is fools!
Gee Barrett, we all know if you're talking about immigrants with heavy German accents who are/were a threat to the American way of life, you would obviously be talking about Henry Kissinger.
Although a case could also be made that Welk's music was a threat to our culture and way of life. :-D
Dave, what don't you get...you are talking about immigrants who came to this country LEGALLY!
In 2007, we are talking about immigrants who are coming here without permission - AGAINST THE LAW.
Why is this a tough concept for you to understand?
Are you racist?
Are you going to look the other way, disregard the laws of this country - because of the color of their skin?
anonymous,
Huh? I am not sure what you are responding to. My blog entry was responding to the often heard contention that immigrants today (both legal and illegal) are not assimilating as quickly as previous generations of immigrants and that alleged lack of assimilation of and by itself is damaging to our society. Issues of legality and illegality are irrevelent to the issue I had set out to address. What don't you get about that?
I was commenting on your love of illegals - and your constant posts promoting 'fair' treatment of illegals.
This is what I think: The Lawrence Welk Show
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