disturbing to realize that other cultures do not follow our way of life. The fact is, customs that seem strange to us may be considered normal and proper in other cultures, which may see our Social Policy and Culture 71 culture may be experiencing culture shock. This unsettling experience may even be mutual—the visitor’s cultural habits may shock members of the host culture. Imagine, for example, that you are traveling in Japan. You know that you should remove your shoes and leave them at the door when you visit someone’s home. However, there are many more customs that you are unfamiliar with. During a visit with one family, as you enter the bathroom, you see several pairs of identical slippers. Thinking they are for guests, you put on a pair and rejoin your host, who reacts with horror. Unwittingly, you have worn a pair of toilet slippers into the living room (McLane 2013). All of us, to some extent, take for granted the cultural practices of our society. As a result, it can be surprising and even social practices as odd. use your sociological imagination You arrive in a developing African country as a Peace Corps volunteer. What aspects of a very different culture do you think would be the hardest to adjust to? Explain. What might the citizens of that country find shocking about your culture? This segment of the population is expected to increase modestly by 2020. For example, the proportion of older Hispanics who speak Spanish is expected to hold steady or increase slightly. However, younger Hispanics—those under 45—will be less likely than their elders to speak Spanish. A similar trend is expected for speakers of European and Asian languages: many elders will continue to speak a second language, while the younger generation will tend to favor English. This trend toward linguistic diversity is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. Even as the children and grandchildren of immigrants adopt English as their first language, a significant proportion of the U.S. population will continue to speak a language other than English (Ortman and Shin 2011). Do bilingual programs help the children of these families to learn English? It is difficult to reach firm conclusions, because bilingual programs in general vary so widely in their quality and approach. They differ in the length of the transition to English and in how long they allow students to remain in bilingual classrooms. Moreover, results have been mixed. In the years since California effectively dismantled its bilingual education program, reading and math scores of students with limited English proficiency rose dramatically, especially in the lower grades. Yet a major overview of 17 studies, done at Johns Hopkins University, found that students who are offered lessons in both English and their home languages make better progress than similar students who are taught only in English (R. Slavin and Cheung 2003). Applying Sociology For a long time, people in the United States demanded conformity to a single language. This demand coincided with the functionalist view that language serves to unify members of social policy and Culture | Bilingualism Looking at the Issue The staff in the emergency room is unprepared. Although the issue is not a medical one, the doctors and nurses do not understand the patient’s complaints, nor can they communicate effectively with her companion. This type of incident, which occurs frequently, can have serious consequences. According to a study of two large pediatric emergency departments in Massachusetts, even when the second language is a common one like Spanish, interpreting errors can lead to clinically significant mistakes in 22 percent of such cases. In other words, language errors put patients at risk (Flores et al. 2012). How can we learn to work and live effectively when Americans speak so many different languages? Throughout the world, not just emergency rooms but schools and other institutions must deal with people who speak many languages. Bilingualism refers to the use of two languages in a particular setting, such as the workplace or schoolroom, treating each language as equally legitimate. Thus, a teacher of bilingual education may instruct children in their native language while gradually introducing them to the language of the host society. If the curriculum is also bicultural, children will learn about the mores and folkways of both the dominant culture and the subculture. To what degree should schools in the United States present the curriculum in a language other than English? This issue has prompted a great deal of debate among educators and policymakers. According to the Bureau of the Census, 61 million U.S. residents over age five—that’s about 21 percent of the population—spoke a language other than English as their primary language at home in 2011 ( Figure 12-1 ). Indeed, 29 other languages are each spoken by at least 200,000 U.S. residents (C. Ryan 2013). —Continued
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