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where did you get the "bilingual people tend to be more intelligent" bit? sound like bias to me...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html
"The bilingual experience improves the brain's so called executive function-a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind"
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/radical-teaching/201211/bilingual-brains-smarter-faster
"Compared to monolinguals, the studied bilingual children, who had had five to ten years of bilingual exposure, averaged higher scores in cognitive performance on tests and had greater attention focus, distraction resistance, decision-making, judgment and responsiveness to feedback. The correlated neuroimaging (fMRI scans) of these children revealed greater activity in the prefrontal cortex networks directing these and other executive functions. (Bialystok, 2009; Kaushanskaya & Marian, 2007)."
most americans probably don't have that much interaction with or knowledge of asians to be jealous....
I saw this all throughout my schooling years from elementary through college. Before college, Asian Americans/ Asian "FOBS" were ridiculed for being nerdy (as if being intelligent was a bad thing) and their accents were mocked, yet kids that got straight Bs and Cs would always try to get into groups with them to use them for projects, labs, etc. This happened in college in one of my Econ classes too, when I got grouped with some Thai students studying abroad in the US; a whole lot of snickering during our presentation due to their accents, but a ton of @#$@%@$ and complaining about the professor's grade curve while my group and I got an A in the class. I've seen Asian students being physically attacked just for being Asian. This happened while I was at UCSB:
http://dailynexus.com/2009-04-06/pike-frat-faces-assault-penalties/
According to the IVFP police report, five to six men were hanging out in front of PIKE when one of the subjects began hollering at Hong and Elekes, who were passing by the fraternity.
“The subject appeared ‘drunk and belligerent,'” reads the report. “Hong and Elekes ignored him and continued walking. The subject then hollered at them and came up from behind and pushed them both in the back. The subject said [omitted] [omitted] [omitted] – this was possibly in reference to Hong’s Asian ethnicity. The subject then lunged at Elekes and began punching him on the left side of the face. Hong tried to help Elekes and the subject punched Hong once in the mouth, lacerating Hong’s upper lip.”
Then this famous video came out:
I don't know why else any white person would ridicule or attack Asians minding their own business, other than some feeling of inferiority of not being intelligent or succesful as people who came here with nowhere near as many advantages.
there might be some correlation with being multilingual & some things, but that that doesn't necessarily make the relationship with being able to speak multiple languages causal...there might be other factors at play
the girl in that video is ridiculous...it funny that she doesn't even seen the ignorance in her perspective, but i guess that is the privilege of being in the majority, they don't expect to adjust, though that is not to dismiss that there may be real cultural differences that are the source of discomfort, cultures do often clash...
it is unfortunate that those things do happen, white supremacy, though maybe not explicitly on the surface, is at the root of some of it but the success of some asians probably has little to do with these sentiments...as similar discriminatory treatment is given to "less successful" ethnic groups...sometimes it may not really have anything to do with racism at all, some people are just jerks
It's pretty simple. People generally lose languages when it's not used in day-to-day interactions.
Sure, you might speak a foreign language right now, but unless you speak the same language with your kid, it's going to die with you. With how prevalent English is, there is just no practical reason to learn any other language.
#truestory, language is definitely a use it or lose it type thing...there are however very practical reasons to learn other languages if learning them helps you communicate more effectively or if not being able to speak a language puts you at a disadvantage, both of which explain why many americans don't speak multiple languages...
as an aside, for all its flaws america has been pretty good about assimilating people from disparate backgrounds in its recent history, given those people were willing to assimilate (though i guess this is very debatable, given the way most places are so segregated), i kinda feel like to the extent that different groups create/live in their own enclaves (think chinatowns and other singularly ethnic communities) separate and apart from the larger 'american' community/culture is probably a good thing for individual groups (less general social conflict, shared values, more community ties, makes transition for new immigrants much easier, creates a base for economic independence, political prerogative, etc.) but maybe bad for america to the extent that there might be less assimilation; it is really tough balance between maintaining one's own culture, language, and traditions and adopting the culture, language, and traditions of the place one has immigrated to...
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