In addition to being able to speak English in both public and private settings, my family members also experience this. All of my family members only speak English, making it easy to communicate with others. In public, they can communicate with others because of this common language. In private, all of their close contacts also speak English. Due to English being the commonality in public and private settings with my family members and I, there is no pressure to not speak English to fit in with society.
Interestingly enough, my great-grandpa on my mom’s side spoke German. I feel it is important to note that before this assignment and speaking to my family about our languages, I was unaware that my great-grandpa ever spoke German. This was seen as something to hide when his family moved to Canada. My great-grandpa and his family lived in a part of Odessa, Russia where several wars were occurring, and it became very dangerous.
On May 13, 1913, they immigrated to Canada by train and steamship in hopes of a better life. When they moved to Canada, they settled in a place called Lake Alma, Saskatchewan. At this time, the expected language to speak in Canada was English and my great-grandpa was pressured to stop speaking German. While speaking to my grandma, she told me that her dad was always reminded that they are in Canada now and need to speak English. Due to this assumption that Canadians can and should only speak English, my great-grandpa refused to teach his children the German language. He felt that teaching his children German may lead to discrimination and perhaps ruin their chances in Canada. Whenever my grandma asked to learn German, he replied with “we are in Canada now, we only speak English here”.