But one of the answers to this question lies in our great desire for peaceful coexistence in this world. In order to achieve this goal we must have meaningful communication. Virtually all Americans are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. so one might assume that we would have a culturally pluralistic society. However. this is not the case. every immigrant has felt a strong urge to become "Americanized." I do not feel that this trend should be otherwise. but unfortunately our country has lost a great deal in this process. We find that persons who have a rich linguistic and cultural background soon lose it. while young people in our school systems are studying these very languages. It is indeed unfortunate that we have not used the resources our immigrants have to offer. and have discouraged their children from maintaining a second or third language that they might have learned within their families. Would not our society be much richer In the cultural sense if we had an active and enthusiastic policy to encourage extra language development. and to effectively use the language resources we are squelching or ignoring by not tapping its source. I can report that in a number of Spanishspeaking communities across the country we are attempting to preserve the Spanish language to some extent through bilingual and bicultural programs in the schools.
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immigrant immigrants