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I at age 11, speaking only Latvian, I entered 6th grade and was totally immersed in the English language. I spoke it within 6 months and went from the slow reading group to the advanced within that time. At home we continued to speak Latvian, as my parents' English was very poor. If someone had taken me and tried to place me in an ESL class, my parents would have said "no thank you, I want my child to learn as fast as possible." This was the attitude of all of the people that arrived in the US at the time I did, after WWII. They had no special classes but learned very fast and well.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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