General Discussion

-- whether their native tongue was German, Italian, Yiddish, etc -- immediately began speaking English as soon as they got off the boat, are kidding themselves. Cities like New York were divided into ethnic neighborhoods, so many immigrants found that there was no need to learn the new language. They would often use their bilingual children as interpreters when they had to deal with government officials.
I, too, took some Spanish in college, Siwsan. But I might accidentally cause an international incident if I tried to dredge it up!