I thought this was rather interesting. As the title says, here is a map that shows the most common language spoken in each state, after English and Spanish. Link to article English and Spanish are most commonly spoken in America, with 91.6 per cent of the population speaking either, but the third most popular language varies German is the most spoken, outside of English and Spanish, in 13 states- which is more than any other language Less common tongues such as Aleut language, one of two surviving Eskimo dialects, Dakota languages and Hmong dominate other areas
The map is interesting. German is the third most spoken language in my state. I remember living in a neighborhood close to a military base about 40 years ago. There were a high percentage of German wives in that area at that time. Some were older with retired husbands and some were raising families with active duty husbands. Their children went to school with my children and all those kids that I knew spoke English fluently and were not a problem for the schools. The mothers spoke a range of English from broken to fluent. We have had US soldiers in Germany for a long time. Every foreign speaking student must have an ESL teacher in the school. I wonder if anyone has ever calculated how much all those immigrant children have cost the taxpayer. It is the law that we must educate them and it is to our benefit to do so if they will grow up and work here. I can recall times that we could not find a teacher that spoke an uncommon language. I can recall the district making some extensive arrangements to give a child access to a teacher in another district. I wondered then and I wonder now how rural districts are accommodating those children. Open borders have hidden costs.
A member on another forum said that preWW2, German was the most common non-English language in the U.S. I would like to see versions of that map for each decade starting at 1930. I bet only a few southern border states would have Spanish as #2 behind English up until 1980 or 1990. I bet German would have occupied that spot in most states before then. (My father's parents were German immigrants. He was born here in 1919.)
I imagine my father might have occasionally blurted out a word or two in it, but nothing regular or talked about. I never met his parents. My mother was British. She spoke English (not American) all the time.
I remember only a few words would blurt out on occasion, especially after a few brews. My grandmother spoke some...she called my older Brother, John, Johnny Fritz! Most of my German came from watching "Hogan's Heroes". I never knew my grandfather. My Mother was British as well....I only remember she drank tea, more than coffee.
Your brother was lucky. My grandmother usually called me "Connie, no Vickie, no, Nancy." She kept getting her granddaughters mixed up.
German language in the United States "Over 50 million Americans claim German ancestry, which makes them the largest single claimed ancestry group in the United States. Around 1.06 million people in the United States speak the German language at home.[6] It is the second most spoken language in North Dakota (1.39% of its population)[7] and is the third most spoken language in 16 other states.[8]" Read More A 1940s-era poster discouraging the use of Italian, German, and Japanese. "The great majority of people with some German ancestry have become Americanized; fewer than five percent speak German."
I took a crash course in German one summer. The focus was on learning to comprehend written and spoken German, rather composing your own sentences. Even that was hard. The teacher would call on you to read aloud sometimes. I remember if you pronounced die like English die (as in death), he would yell at you, "No! You die!"
My grandmother on my mom’s side came over from Germany, and she married my grandfather, who was American but raised by a German family. I think that my mother could speak some German, but she did not like the language, so she rarely spoke anything in German. My mother-in-law from my first marriage was an English war bride, and she always had to have her tea, although she did also drink coffee. Growing up, I do not remember knowing anyone except my maternal grandparents who spoke any other language than English.
My uncle (mother's sister's husband) grew up in Canada. His parents were immigrants from France. They would come to Christmas/Thanksgiving dinners sometimes, when I was a child. They had strong French accents. They were the first people I had ever heard with an accent, and I enjoyed just listening to them speak.
Goethe certificate (Goethe Zertifikat) is awarded to German language course participants after successfully passing the exam. The document is proof of German language proficiency, which corresponds to a certain level on a 6-level scale. The exam is an alternative to DSH and TestDaF. Without it, it is impossible for migrants to enter Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, and employers will not hire them.