I’ve been spending the day going through my overflowing inbox (what a treat!), and I came upon a Tribune article that someone forwarded me about Chicago’s shifting linguistic landscape. Some highlights:

Chicago still has more Polish speakers than any other American city. Its enduring linguistic stew ranks it among the top four cities with speakers of Arabic (4th), German (2nd), Greek (2nd), Gujarati (2nd), Hindi (3rd), Hungarian (4th), Italian (3rd), Korean (4th), Russian (3rd), Serbo-Croatian (2nd), Spanish (4th) and Urdu (2nd).

The article notes that in the 1920s, 27% of Chicagoans were foreign-born.  As a result of the US government’s immigration quotas, that number fell to under10% by 1970.  Things have changed quite dramatically in recent decades:

The new census report, comparing data from 1980 through 2007, found that the number of U.S. residents 5 years and older who spoke a language other than English at home more than doubled in the past three decades to 55 million, or 20 percent of the population. The number grew at a pace four times faster than the overall population growth.

Looking at Spanish, it’s no surprise that the numbers are growing, but just how much?  I could make you read the article, or I could just tell you… Since 1980, Spanish speakers have grown by 211%!  That’s a pretty compelling reason to enroll yourself (or your kids) in Spanish classes!