‘ I can’t understand my mom, but at least I’m white now!’
From Creole Explained by Marc L.
March 3, 2026 · 41 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the phenomenon of language erosion among children of immigrants as they assimilate into English-speaking society.
Here I explore and comment on the shared language erosion phenomenon. The children of immigrants often acquire English quickly, even if they themselves immigrant as young children. As they increase fluency in English, SOMETIMES this coincides with a decrease in home language fluency. While this is often unintentional, some of these children do in fact embrace English and other west languages in order to solidify their assimilation into western, or even in extreme cases, white society. Please listen to the episode for sources and contact me directly for DOI of the papers referenced in this episode.
People in this episode
Host: Marc L.
Topics covered
- language erosion
- immigration
- assimilation
- cultural identity
- bilingualism
Keywords
- language erosion
- children of immigrants
- English fluency
- home language
- assimilation
- cultural identity
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