Half of foreign-born Utahns speak English ‘very well’

*There’s a part of me that’s fascinated that this is news – it’s one of those obvious discoveries that mainstream media announces as something new. There’s another part of me that’s glad stories like this are reported – it challenges basic assumptions about Latinos. So, oh wow! and really? … all at the same time. VL

By Lee Davidson, The Salt Lake Tribune

When Tony Yapias came to America at age 14 from Peru, he spoke no English. By the time he attended college, he forgot how to speak Spanish well — which he discovered the hard way in some upper-level Spanish literature classes.

“I got spanked. It’s one thing to talk in Spanish, and another to speak and write it well with proper grammar,” said Yapias, director of Proyecto Latino de Utah. “I was immersed in English in school when I arrived, so I learned it and its grammar well” while forgetting some key native Spanish.

Yapias is among the half of foreign-born Utahns who speak English “very well,” according to estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau — 51.6 percent to be exact in 2012.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by Tai Gray/Flickr]

 

Subscribe today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Must Read