Welcome, Bienvenido, Willkommen

Welcome to the Junior Urban Adventure!  This blog will serve as the forum for the observations that you will make along your two day journey in Boston, Massachusetts.  It is befitting that we are in Boston as we will be delving into the relationship between immigration and the English language.

You the juniors will be leading an exploration of three distinct perspectives.  The first is that English should be a requirement for all US citizens and should be the official language of our nation.  The second is that immigrants do not need to learn English in order to survive.  The third being immigrants will both benefit and contribute in this country by combining their knowledge of two languages and cultures.

In order to uncover the answer to our questions from these various perspectives you will be leading a linguistic investigation through Boston.  Over the course of 48 hours we will visit the Dreams of Freedom immigration museum, two linguistically rich neighborhoods, and speak with an immigrant who came to this country not knowing a word of English.

"According to the Census Bureau's March 2007 report, there are 37.9 million immigrants in the U.S. speaking 311 languages" (businessweek.com).  How do we view this?  Is it a problem?  Is it a testament to the plan our founding fathers laid out?