It is very common for older English as a second language (ESL) speakers to pick up English though their children and grandchildren whereas younger ESL speakers pick up English through our educational system and/or independent study. In general, English is among the most difficult languages for foreign speakers to learn. This is primarily to do with the irregular rules of grammar required to properly speak the language. That is not to say there are other challenges. Slang, dialects, and pronunciations contribute to the struggle of learning a language, but not more evident than in the United States and Canada.
Now, ESL through the younger generations is fairly understandable and through independent study could be through television or out in public by pointing to someone or asking if someone understands the ESL speaker. But what about ESL, without even the basic understanding of speech? Many may understand English but haven't picked up the spoken language. In this case, you have a non-ESL speaker who might just be okay with not speaking in English (for various reasons). Now as for the advantage - there isn't one. One may be made fun of regardless of their understanding of English in addition to having to live without helping their own cause to not only improve their English skills, but also managing to learn without requiring education from an institution.
Nikolina Jankov, now in her early eighties, came to the United States via Australia from Macedonia (then Yugoslavia) after her brother-in-law had a relative living in Sydney, where Nikolina's late husband Viktor travelled and found work. Within the following year, she and her daughter Suzie followed to Sydney for a short time, before heading Stateside. Upon her arrival in the United States, she was sponsored by a clothing firm based in Rochester, NY by the name of Hickey Freeman. After her work there, she then came to Buffalo, NY upon the arrival of one of her other siblings to that area in, the suburb of Orchard Park (heavily Yugoslav influenced) and shortly there after joined by her husband.
Following her arrival in Buffalo, Nikolina and Viktor welcomed another daughter, Diana. By this time, Suzie had been going to school later on followed by Diana over the course of the seventies and it was up to the girls and the local Macedonian and Yugoslav community to help with being immersed into the American English culture and language. As with any other heritage, the sisters spoke in Macedonian among their similarly-cultured friends and relatives that attend classes in the Orchard Park school district. Suzie became the first Jankov to graduate not only from high school, but elementary school as well. Nikolina had a sixth grade level education equivalent, Viktor a fourth, both having grown up in villages where farming was the day's main work and household income was marginal at best.
While Viktor and Nikolina got their most frequent experiences with experiential English through their daughters, they both also were able to better speak to their employers as opposed to just understanding them. But there wasn't a day where a conversation about English that required a translation whether it was a television program or packaging labels and what was being said or written. Often if a word was unfamiliar, the would write it phonetically based on the Cyrillic alphabet in Latin form - particularly for writing checks and such things.
To date, Nikolina's English is still relatively broken with an accent on top of that. You'll often hear modern conversations with both mixed language phrases or Macedonian-ized words such as {Sedi} [seh'-dee, meaning wait] a while longer carpetot [kar'-peh-toht] with -ot being the provisionally added suffix. This is a common practice amongst the majority of the community, never more present than at the annual festival held by the community church every July (roughly since Macedonia gained its independence from socialist Yugoslavia). It is the one weekend which both cultures collide head on in Western New York.
While her English may seem weak on first impression, her vocabulary is far from limited though not extensive. She has done very well on her own in the past year and a two-thirds since Viktor's passing. She is regularly visited by both Suzie and Diana, and even her only grandson. Their visits often continue to consist of many if not all of the above practices. But they still find the importance of using both Macedonian and English into their dialogue.
This was a based on a personal interview with Nikolina Jankov on 24 November 2015.
Now, ESL through the younger generations is fairly understandable and through independent study could be through television or out in public by pointing to someone or asking if someone understands the ESL speaker. But what about ESL, without even the basic understanding of speech? Many may understand English but haven't picked up the spoken language. In this case, you have a non-ESL speaker who might just be okay with not speaking in English (for various reasons). Now as for the advantage - there isn't one. One may be made fun of regardless of their understanding of English in addition to having to live without helping their own cause to not only improve their English skills, but also managing to learn without requiring education from an institution.
Nikolina Jankov, now in her early eighties, came to the United States via Australia from Macedonia (then Yugoslavia) after her brother-in-law had a relative living in Sydney, where Nikolina's late husband Viktor travelled and found work. Within the following year, she and her daughter Suzie followed to Sydney for a short time, before heading Stateside. Upon her arrival in the United States, she was sponsored by a clothing firm based in Rochester, NY by the name of Hickey Freeman. After her work there, she then came to Buffalo, NY upon the arrival of one of her other siblings to that area in, the suburb of Orchard Park (heavily Yugoslav influenced) and shortly there after joined by her husband.
Following her arrival in Buffalo, Nikolina and Viktor welcomed another daughter, Diana. By this time, Suzie had been going to school later on followed by Diana over the course of the seventies and it was up to the girls and the local Macedonian and Yugoslav community to help with being immersed into the American English culture and language. As with any other heritage, the sisters spoke in Macedonian among their similarly-cultured friends and relatives that attend classes in the Orchard Park school district. Suzie became the first Jankov to graduate not only from high school, but elementary school as well. Nikolina had a sixth grade level education equivalent, Viktor a fourth, both having grown up in villages where farming was the day's main work and household income was marginal at best.
While Viktor and Nikolina got their most frequent experiences with experiential English through their daughters, they both also were able to better speak to their employers as opposed to just understanding them. But there wasn't a day where a conversation about English that required a translation whether it was a television program or packaging labels and what was being said or written. Often if a word was unfamiliar, the would write it phonetically based on the Cyrillic alphabet in Latin form - particularly for writing checks and such things.
To date, Nikolina's English is still relatively broken with an accent on top of that. You'll often hear modern conversations with both mixed language phrases or Macedonian-ized words such as {Sedi} [seh'-dee, meaning wait] a while longer carpetot [kar'-peh-toht] with -ot being the provisionally added suffix. This is a common practice amongst the majority of the community, never more present than at the annual festival held by the community church every July (roughly since Macedonia gained its independence from socialist Yugoslavia). It is the one weekend which both cultures collide head on in Western New York.
While her English may seem weak on first impression, her vocabulary is far from limited though not extensive. She has done very well on her own in the past year and a two-thirds since Viktor's passing. She is regularly visited by both Suzie and Diana, and even her only grandson. Their visits often continue to consist of many if not all of the above practices. But they still find the importance of using both Macedonian and English into their dialogue.
This was a based on a personal interview with Nikolina Jankov on 24 November 2015.
