Quotes About Assimilation

Even when we were under the Spanish flag, we had a movement that just wanted assimilation into Spain, a movement of autonomy - which has been the majority always - and a movement for separation. In that sense, Puerto Rico's political reality is very different from any place I know in the whole world.

Growing up, my mom always knew that I was more on the Black side than the Spanish side, just because I didn't speak Spanish.

Spanish is actually my first language, growing up, and I understand the culture. I understand the culture; I understand what the people want.

The Left, however, resists anglicizing Spanish terms because its political agenda relies on encouraging illegal immigration from Latin America and discouraging the assimilation of Hispanics into American society.

My accent was horrible. In Mexico, nobody says, 'You speak English with a good accent.' You either speak English, or you don't: As long as you can communicate, no one cares.

I realized how Latina I was, and then also, at the same time, how not Latina enough I was, because I'm born and raised in Los Angeles. I speak Spanish, but I don't speak perfect Spanish, not like a native speaker.

It's hard when you're not a native speaker, because everyone's laughing, and you're like, 'What was that? Can you tell me again?'

My grandfather came over from Puerto Rico and raised his kids speaking English so that it would be easier for them to assimilate.

We're not radical when we are speaking about fewer immigrants.

I grew up listening to people speaking broken English. I probably picked that up. And I probably speak English almost as a second language.

When I was a kid, I resented my grandparents not speaking the perfect English I wanted to speak.

Because my parents are Indian, everybody speaks Hindi to me, and I have no idea what they are saying.

I have people who say, 'You should dress up like this, or you should dress more modest; you should cover up more.' And then, at the other end of the spectrum, you have, like, 'Why are you still wearing your scarf? You're in America, you know.'

I am up to the speed of the Premier League, and that was what I was looking for.

I do a very good impersonation of an American - I went to high school here - but I've spent most of my life in Russia.

I grew up in the '70s, early '80s as a kid, and when we first immigrated to this country I went to a 7-Eleven and for the first time in my life I saw... back in the day they had this little spinning comic book rack, and there were comic books and I was basically drawn to them.

I feel like a lot of the fundamental material, I've assimilated. So now the question is: Am I going to really get into my spiritual inheritance of music and really develop my abilities?

I learned Punjabi before I learned English in spite of the fact that I was born in Canada.

Until the age of five, my parents spoke to me in Chinese or a combination of Chinese and English, but they didn't force me to speak Mandarin. In retrospect, this was sad, because they believed that my chance of doing well in America hinged on my fluency in English. Later, as an adult, I wanted to learn Chinese.

My mom used to call me a parrot, because the way I spoke would change in every country we'd go to.

You know, I was a kid who had difficulty speaking English when I first immigrated. But in my head, when I read a book, I spoke English perfectly. No one could correct my Spanish. And I think that I retreated to books as a way, you know, to be, like, masterful in a language that was really difficult for me for many years.

When I went to London, they told me I spoke with a funny accent - English with a Chinese accent.

My dad is an ob-gyn - he's retired now - and he wanted to come to the States to make a better life, for opportunity. My mom said that, on the plane ride here, I did not want to speak a word of English - I spoke Tagalog. And then, after the first day of school, I didn't want to speak anything but English.

Language-wise, my mom and dad's dialect, they're pretty obscure. It's Chinese, but not your traditional Chinese, like Cantonese or Mandarin. It wasn't something that I got to use very much growing up. We eventually just spoke English around the house.