ishiki
Padawan Learner
I was trying not to go too deep into this topic, as it might not have fit this thread and could be viewed more as a language/culture thing in general. However, it seems that my idea of “oversharing isn’t caring” isn’t making the cut. Nonetheless it gives us the opportunity to interact with each other, so I am happy to share my thoughts and answer your questions. However, your reaction initially did come across hostile and a belittling, as it seems/feels that you made some assumptions about my view and how my opinion came to be, instead of asking to elaborate on them. I also don’t get your question about the US melting pot being a Zionist plot, so I won’t provide a substantive reaction to that.
Before I start I want to make sure we have a consensus on the definition of assimilation. According to the Cambrigde dictionary assimilation means: “the process of becoming a part, or making someone become a part, of a group, country, society, etc.”. It is a form of adaption and conformation to a group. For example, you start to work at a company and that company works with a project management tool you don’t want to use (for whatever reason). But not using it, would mean that the people you are working with cannot work with you efficiently and it will create friction in your work. In this case assimilation would be a good thing.
According to the above definition and explanation, China is forcefully assimilating existing cultures into their main culture, which is the Han culture. As shown on the map in my post, the Han culture correlates with the Mandarin language, which is a focus point in the article.
Reading between the lines, I hear you say you are a US citizen, or at least US biased. I am not. I grew up in the Netherlands in Western Europe and therefore have a different cultural background. What I tried to convey was that forceful assimilation of existing cultures in a main culture almost never goes without a sense of losing belonging and/or tragedy. The US had it’s own assimilation problems with the Native Americans who were first banned to specific regions, driven into poverty and later had to assimilate into the broader general American culture. It didn’t go well and (correct me if I am wrong) a lot of Native Americans have a negative view on the “white” people with power.
We also see internal conflicts when this happens. Like in Ukraine , Spain which banned the use of Catalan/Basque/Galician languages and symbols to force Castilian assimilation or the Anglicization of Ireland.
Also, your point of view that everybody has to speak the same language in a country does not hold up. There are many countries with more than one main language. Take Switzerland for example, they have four national languages (French, German, Italian and Romansh). Government officials are expected to write reports in their native language, which are being translated in some form or way and, apparently, it is expected that members of the council of States can at least speak German and French, so during debates no translation is being offered.
In the Netherlands we also had a period of ‘aggressive’ assimilation of regional cultures in the 1800s, when schooling became mandatory. Children all over the country had to learn the same language, which was done by replacing regional folklore with the stories of the great hero’s of the 1600s and a ban of the use Saxon dialect. This had an impact on rural regions which were already exploited due to their resources such as peat, coal or human labor. Even to this day people in these area’s tend to view the Hollanders (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht) negatively.
So with the above as a background story, Here is my answer:
Yes I did read what I quoted about the law. I did not focus on the whole marriage thing, because that law was already established during the 1950s. I do not think that there is any controversy about English proficiency to graduate from US High schools, as the US has a different cultural background as many different cultural people (but mostly from the Anglo-Saxon regions) came to US and they had to live to together, which led to cultural exchange and change in the main culture, it grew naturally. I also view that outsiders moving to a different country should learn the main the language and assimilate or at least adapt to the main culture. Based on the definition stated about, it is in my opinion assimilation.
