text: Be sure to include the fact -- which I am sure is a fact -- that their progress is largely dependent upon how quickly and how well they learn English.  \n\nBlacks, of course, have grown up around English, but lately there has been a movement to emphasize rather than diminish their language differences with standard English.  I believe this is a mistake.  I also believe it is being fostered by people who have hidden political and even criminal agendas: the gangs seem to love to be incomprehensible to "the straights."  \n\nFor the rest, learning English is usually high on their agenda anyway.  Most of it has to do with not letting your pride get in the way of your learning: someone tells you how to pronounce something properly, say, "Yes, thank you," and pronounce it the way they just did.  Two or three times.  You are memorizing it.\n\nEducation more generally is also terribly important, but it will not go well until you learn English to the point where you are not handicapped in an all-English speaking classroom.  So most people who come here from elsewhere know that they must knuckle down and study.  American Blacks also seem to be getting that point.  Being citizens, however, they have another option:  they can enlist in the military, and let them pay for their education.\n\nGood luck with your essay.  I am fascinated by the process of immigration: see my avatar?  I take that kind of thing seriously as being one of the major ways we get new Americans.  Notice how old our population is growing, Baby Boomers becoming senior citizens.  This country needs fresh blood, fresh ideas, fresh energy.  We get some in our children, and some in our immigrants.