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Thanks for the explanation. I was thinking of examples in the US with languages other than Spanish, but I wasn't thinking about the substantial populations of f

• nraynaud 11y ago
  the difference in size of the country might also be a factor: we're just the size of California, there is not enough "space" (a mix of population and area), to create pockets of people dense enough to self-sustain in a different langage, in an immigration community that would not be the most populous one.
  • KMag 11y ago
    It doesn't take as large an area as you'd think. My buddy Dave's father-in-law was born and raised in Southern Manhattan, but speaks only Cantonese and is unable to hold a conversation with Dave (who is from Taiwan, native speaker of Mandarin and English). Dave's father-in-law's English is so poor that he spelled Dave as "Day" on his lai see packet his first Chinese New Year dating his now wife. Luckily, Dave's father-in-law went to Hong Kong to find a wife, who is conversational in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Manhattan's Chinatown is pretty small (the Mandarin-speaking Chinatown out in Queens is much larger), and yet there are people born and raised there who only speak Cantonese.