More people are speaking Chinese and Spanish in US

 

Chinese and Spanish top the list of non-English languages spoken in the US, according to a report released by the US Census Bureau.

(…), the report provides a rough picture of how language is changing in the US as immigration continues to shape the population.

(…)Using census information from the American Community Survey conducted from 2007-2011.

 

Chinese is spoken by 2.9 million people in their homes, according to the report. Of the 60.6 million people who spoke a language other than English at home in 2011, almost two-thirds (37.6 million) spoke Spanish.

The percentage speaking Spanish at home grew from 12% in 2005 to 12.9% in 2011. (…)

While 80% of French and German speakers identify as speaking English "very well," less than 50% of Asian languages like Chinese, Korean and Japanese report speaking English "very well".

 

(…)The percentage of Americans speaking a second language at home has grown at a steady rate, with that population now totalling 60.6 million people. In 2000, 17.9% reported speaking a non-English language at home; in 2007, that rate was 19.7%, and in 2011 the percentage had grown to 20.8%. That also represents a huge jump from 1980, (…) ending in 2010 presenting an increase of 158 %.

"This study provides evidence of the growing role of languages other than English (…)" said Camille Ryan, the author of the report and a statistician in the Census Bureau's Education and Social Stratification Branch, in a statement. "Yet, at the same time that more people are speaking languages other than English at home, the percentage of people speaking English proficiently has remained steady."

 

Nancy Potok, acting director of the Census Bureau in a statement says "Businesses can tailor communications to meet their customers' needs. Emergency responders can use it to be sure they communicate with people who need help. Schools and libraries can offer courses to improve English proficiency and offer materials written in other languages." which shows the importance of taking into account the second-spoken languages of the country.

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CHINADAILY.USA 08/08/2013