A record 64.7 million people living in the United States last year spoke a language other than English at home, an increase fueled both by immigration and a growing number of native-born Americans who speak other languages.有报告指出,2015年,有6470万美国居民在家不讲英语,越来越多的移民和土生土长的美国人讲英语以外的语言。
The numbers come in a report released Tuesday by the Center for Immigration Studies. The 64.7 million figure is up 8.7 percent from five years earlier and has more than doubled since 1990.
该数据来自美国研究中心周四公布的报告中,6470万这一人数比五年前增长了8.7%,是1990年的两倍多。
The share of U.S. residents speaking languages other than English at home, just 11 percent in 1980, is now 21.5 percent. Some 44 percent of them, nearly 28.5 million people, were born in the United States. And they are not all children — 64.3 percent of American-born adults still speak the language of their parents at home.“The level of immigration is so high and many people who were speaking non-English languages at home.” said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies.
美国居民在家里说非英语的比例在1980年只有11%,目前达到21.5%。其中约44%的人,近2850万人,出生于美国。这些人并不都是孩子。64.3%在美国出生的成年人在家里依然说他们父母国家的语言。移民研究中心主任史蒂文·卡马罗塔说:“移民的比例很高,很多人在家不说英语。”
Camarota said the number of American-born people who are speaking other languages is rising even as some children of immigrants give up the languages of their parents.
卡马罗塔说:“即使一些移民的孩子已经不说原来的语言了,但是说其它语言的美国的人数量仍然在不断增多”。
The significance of not speaking English at home is not that great if people are fluent in America's dominant language when they are outside the home. But nearly 40 percent of the people who spoke a foreign language at home in 2015 reported to the Census Bureau that they speak English "less than very well."
如果人们在外面能用英语流利的交流,那么他们在家里说英语的意义不是很大。但是根据人口普查报告显示,将近40%在家说非英语的人,他们的英语“并不是很好”。
Seven different languages now are spoken by more than 1 million U.S. residents.
现在超过100万人使用7种不同的语言。
He said the recent growth in Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu speakers reflects increases in refugees, guest workers, and foreign students from the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
卡马罗塔说,最近阿拉伯语,印地语和乌尔都语的增长反映了来自中东和印度次大陆的难民,工人和留学生人数的增加。
Perhaps no institution grapples with language barriers more than schools. In 2015, 22.2 percent of school-age children in the United States spoke a foreign language at home. In California, it is approaching half of all residents ages five to 17 — 44.7 percent. The rate of school-age children speaking a foreign language at home is one in five or higher in 16 states.
也许没有一个机构比学校更积极的解决语言障碍。2015年,美国22.2%学龄儿童在家说除英语以外的语言。在加利福利亚州,将近一半年龄在5-17岁之间的(44.7%)居民不说英语。在美国16个洲中,在家说其它语言的学龄儿童的比例是1/5甚至更高。