Reading maketh a full man; Conference, a ready man; and writing, an exact man.
—Francis Bacon
EDUCATED immigrants from former colonial countries schooled in either the British or American educational system can speak, read and write the English language at varying levels of competency. Even during these troubled economic times when jobs are scarce, this advantage gives them a leg up in this highly competitive labor market. Traditionally, in the last decade or so, India and the Philippines and a few others have become source countries from which prospective employers of small to medium-sized companies have been recruiting their work force from.
While it is true that at the onset, one can certainly get by with a college diploma, a marketable skill and some work experience to get one’s foot in the door of the immigrant labor market, the learning experience for the immigrant should not stop after graduating from high school, vocational school or college. Learning, which begins with the reading habit, is lifelong. Reading holds the key to the full enjoyment of what our mortal lives have to offer.
Reading is the one habit which yields tremendous results for the immigrant life. The public libraries which are everywhere present are repositories of every available reading material. NEVER take this for granted even during this electronic age when you can access nearly every bit of information that you need. One of the best values of American life is having a library card that allows you to check out books, videos, CDs and DVDs which can enrich the learning experience. In more affluent cities, you can go to the library and have access to their computers. As you become more adept at reading, you eventually become more discriminating in what you read.
It doesn’t take much to be literate. Read for at least an hour a day: newspapers, books, magazines, news and feature articles on printed matter or the electronic pages of the internet. People who read regularly keep their minds agile and young. The mind behaves like a muscle. Use it or lose it. Medical studies are proving that those who keep mentally active are able to hold off the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease at bay far longer than those who do not flex their minds. What exercise is to the body, reading is to the mind.
The more one reads about many areas of knowledge, the more we know and understand. With the right choice of reading materials, one is less likely to become bigoted in our views about the world and about people. Depending on what we feed our minds, it is possible to become even more appreciative, changing our views and attitude about life. Prejudice comes about because of ignorance, the lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues, and partly, because of fear.
With competition from television and chat on the phone and the internet these days, there is less and less time devoted to the reading habit so critical to learning. Take a tough stance on this and insist on reading an hour daily no matter how full your schedule is. Do more, if your situation in life permits you. There is the real danger of using short cuts in our text messaging in the interest of brevity and expediency. When it comes time to write formally, the avid texter will find it difficult to spell and write correctly and communicate properly. Guard against the erosion of the integrity of language as the main tool with which we preserve our human identity.
Of the early immigrants who came in the beginning of the last century through Ellis Island in New York, one group — the Jews —was noted to have placed the highest value on reading and education. Most of the poor immigrants who first came, were found to spend their time in the libraries for inordinate lengths of time. This habit, borne of centuries-old tradition of seeking knowledge and valuing literacy and lifelong learning, may have helped the Jews achieve excellence and positions of leadership in many areas of American life far ahead of any other group in the decades that followed. Of the new arrivals to this country, the ethnic groups that are exhibiting a similar behavior are the Koreans and Indians, whose individual and collective achievements in many areas of specialization, are phenomenal and awe-inspiring.
Visiting one of my favorite haunts, a used bookstore with an excellent collection of books one day some years back, I was distressed to find their shelves almost empty. "Are you guys going out of business?" I asked. "Oh no!" the owner shot back, "practically all of our inventory is being bought by libraries in Korea. All of these books are to be shipped to Korea."
For the younger countries that have yet to imbibe the reading habit, perhaps it is time for governments to emulate what older cultures and civilizations have done to make their citizens not only survivors in the game of life but also a people who are able to thrive well and eventually know what it means to live a full life.
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Nota Bene: Monette Adeva Maglaya is SVP of Asian Journal Publications, Inc. To ask questions, send feedback and requests as well as to inquire about advertising in any or all of the 6 print editions of Asian Journal in California, Nevada and New York/New Jersey and/or advertising in the Print Edition Online of Asian Journal, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
( Published in January 9, 2009 in Asian Journal Northern California p. B3 )
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