Immigrants Want to Learn English

KOMU reports on kids who are trying to learn English in Columbia, Missouri:

"He spends an hour a day in the ELL class, while that’s usually enough time, but because there are too many students in the class we feel he doesn’t have enough opportunities to speak up," Yun says.

Most parents, like the Kims, hire tutors to give their children extra speaking time, but communicating is just part of the challenge.

This is why we don’t need an English-language amendment to the state Constitution. Even short-term visitors want their kids to learn English. Foreign-born parents who are here to stay are even more adamant about the importance of English. The Pew Hispanic Center has found that 96 percent of foreign-born Hispanics consider "the goal of teaching English to the children of immigrant families" to be very important.

Immigrants aren’t trying to get the state to conduct business in foreign languages. They view interaction with Americans as a valuable opportunity to learn English.