Multicultural societies are also, of course, multilingual. Lots of factors impact on whether or not more newly arrived families stop speaking their mother tongue entirely when they adopt the local language or become and remain bilingual.
The United States, a very multicultural society, has seen some interesting linguistic patterns in recent years. For example, Spanish is by far the most common language spoken at home other than English, with numbers having quadrupled from 1980 to about 45 million today. There are large Spanish-speaking communities in various parts of the US, such as Florida and California – some of them with roots that actually date to before American independence. This means that it’s easy for many people to continue living and working through Spanish. At the same time, sizeable numbers of primarily English-speaking Americans study Spanish at school.
Meanwhile, German and Italian, both of which were once quite widely spoken in parts of the US, are now less spoken than before, which is consistent with much lower rates of migration from Germany and Italy than in the past, and high levels of assimilation among these communities. Chinese, Tagalog and Hindi, however, are now more widely spoken.
Shifts in language use tell us a lot about migration patterns, but also about patterns of settlement, and decisions taken within families and education systems about second language use.
Managing a multilingual society has its challenges, of course, but it also offers many opportunities, above all the chance to learn how to communicate in more than one language, which is always an enriching experience.
Photo Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-wall-with-many-flags-from-it-itIxtxz0YU4
