Sunny Seo

Jin Soo Kim

After interviews in China Town and North End

Our group went out to find out about “can immigrants live without having learned English?” In order to do this, we visited the North End (Italy Town) and Chinatown. We started asking some random people either foreigners or natives the question whether it is necessary to learn English. In the North End, many people seemed to look like Italians, but many of them were, in fact, American. Also, many of them were bilingual, using both English and Italian. However, the restaurants and grocery stores sold many Italian-originated items. The menus were written in Italian and there were various flags such as Italian, American, and Irish flags. In the North End, we realized that it was almost impossible to live in the North End with only speaking Italian.

In Chinatown, most of the people I saw were Chinese. When I stood up to random people and asked some questions, they were not able to speak English. I finally met young students who spoke English. It was not easy to find who spoke English fluently. It is not necessary for Chinese to learn English to live in the U.S.


On the first day of the Junior Urban Adventure, we asked random people in the Quincy Market whether it was necessary for immigrants to learn and speak English when coming to the United States. Before doing the survey, we believed that it was not really necessary for immigrants to know English, because they could live in Italian or China towns by using native languages. Based on the results from the survey, our perspectives changed to that it is necessary for immigrants to learn English to live in the United States. On the second day, our group went to interview immigrants from foreign countries into the United States to have more information of immigration and learned their experience as immigrants.
We interviewed Mr. Quintero, who came to the United States in the middle age to have more opportunities in finding jobs and better financial state. He strongly believed that learning and speaking English is required for immigrants as well as adopting into different culture and manner. He said that he put a lot of effort to learn English; he repeated what actors said when watching TV.
Ted David Roy immigrated to the United States from Bulgaria in the early age. Not only did he believe that learning English is essential for immigrants, but he also thought that knowing appropriate knowledge for culture and blending into American society are significant for them. Immigrants who speak English fluently can communicate better, and knowing culture helps connection with people in the new environment.
Mr. Quintero and Ted believed that having two different backgrounds established advantage in their occupation and payment, because they became more qualified. Also after learning a new language, it becomes easier for them to learn other languages. We could conclude that learning American language and culture is necessary for immigrants to live in the United States, and efforts and pain they experienced would pay off later.

First day, we went to Quincy market to gather people’s opinions about immigrants in the U.S. We asked to people do you think it is necessary for immigrants who came to the U.S to learn English. We separated into three groups and had interview with people in the Quincy market.
Most people thought immigrants who wanted to live in the U.S have to speak English fluently. They said, English is necessary for handling official problems, and conversation with other Americans. They believed that learning language is the best way to assimilate into the American society. However, some people said no. They thought if immigrants would live in the area where they can use their language.
People, who we met in the Quincy Market, had many opinions about the immigrants Also we could find many immigrants who came from many other countries, China, Argentina, and Europe. They came to the U.S for job, and studying. I am the foreign student who came to the U.S for studying. I also had many opinions about immigrants in the U.S. However, this experience in the Quincy market made my idea to expand.

-By David Kim, Ji Woong Han, Hwa Yeon Oh and Seo Joon Yoon -

Immigrants, immigrants everywhere!

Yesterday our JUA group traversed the city in search of an answer to our essential question: Must immigrants learn English?

In order to do so we took on the task of a linguistic scavenger hunt in the North End and Chinatown.  Student were asked to find the following:

What language are the street signs?
What flags do you see?
How do you say “language” in the target language?
Find someone that is from Italy or China.
Observe two people conversing in the target language.
In what language are the menus of the restaurants?
What does “mei guo ren” (Mandarin) mean in English?
What does “cittadinanza” (Italian) mean in English
Find a newspaper in the target language.

The results were quite interesting and our final project post will analyze what we found.

Following the scavenger hunt in Chinatown we had a short walk over to the office where Tony Quintero Sr. works.  Mr. Quintero is an accountant who performs audits all over the world.  But more importantly, Mr. Quintero is an immigrant who came to this country when he was 18 years old and did not know how to speak English.

The interview was quite informative and the students asked very insightful questions.  Mr. Quintero, along with a few of his coworkers, explained to us what it was like to have to manage two cultures.  As our group is entirely composed of international students here to learn English, we certainly understood this perspective and surely look forward to reporting back with our analysis.

Perspective: Immigrants need to learn English.

Today, our immigration group went to the Quincy Market. We asked random people whether it is necessary for immigrants who come to the United States to learn English. And Why. Each member in the group talked with at least 5 people learned many interesting view points.

Majority people said that it is required for immigrants to learn and speak English, because they can communicate with others with the common language and understand better. Also workers who speak more than one language can have more opportunities in getting jobs and benefit from social services.