By HARRY MOK
Blast San Francisco Bureau

My brothers and sister could be poster kids for Proposition 227, the California ballot initiative that would end bilingual education in the state.

My parents, my two brothers and my sister immigrated to the United States from China in 1966 and moved to a rural Northern California town where my maternal grandparents lived. Not knowing a word of English, my siblings were sent to school.

"If the rest of the class stood up to do the Pledge of Allegiance, I just stood up with them but didn't know what they were saying," my sister said.

"I just sat there. Eventually I figured out she (the teacher) wanted us to copy something from the board," my sister said of her first day in an American school. "If the rest of the class stood up to do the Pledge of Allegiance, I just stood up with them but didn't know what they were saying."

It was a scary experience, but my sister said it was made easier by an understanding teacher who even took time out after school to help the rest of the family learn English as well.

Back then there weren't many bilingual programs and there certainly weren't any in Cantonese in this tiny school district.

But if you ask my second-oldest brother today, it didn't matter. "I didn't need (bilingual education) when I was in school."

He has a point. My siblings all excelled without the benefit of bilingual education. They all got good grades and they all graduated from college. In fact, my sister said it only took her about six months to get a handle on English.

"Our fluency has dropped to the point that we can barely order a meal at a restaurant in Chinatown."

Proposition 227 would prohibit teaching in any language other than English. Children who are not fluent in English would go through a year of intensive programs in English. After that, they would be assigned to regular classes. Parents who want instruction in another language for their children would have to apply for a waiver in person, but the school would have to offer it only if there were 20 other waiver applications in the same grade level.

I can only imagine what it was like for my brothers and sister when they first moved to this country. I came along a couple of years after my family emigrated and grew up speaking English and Cantonese at home.

When they moved to this country, my siblings were all in late grade school and junior high, a rough time no matter what language you use. I can picture them sitting in a classroom, the only Asian kids, feeling isolated and intimidated in this strange, foreign land. I can't even fathom how difficult that early period was for them, trying to learn English cold turkey.

If the bilingual education opponents' intent is to pound English into non-native speakers, then at least in our family that strategy has worked. We kids all speak to each other in English only and for the most part, only speak Cantonese when talking to our parents, who don't speak English.

In my earliest memories, I spoke Cantonese and English with equal fluency. But as I got older and the rest of my family spoke less and less Cantonese, so did I. English became my primary language.

It's not to say that people shouldn't learn English if they live here. But, at least in my family, it has come at a cost.

While my siblings and I still speak Cantonese to our parents, our fluency has dropped to the point that we can barely order a meal at a restaurant in Chinatown. This also makes communication with my parents difficult. I can't fully explain things to them. I can't tell them what's happening in my life. I can't really go to them for advice.

"English speakers learn Cantonese, French, Spanish and other languages. The non-native speakers learn English and help their peers learn another language."

In some cities like San Francisco, bilingual classes for English and non-English speakers are popular. English speakers learn Cantonese, French, Spanish and other languages. The non-native speakers learn English and help their peers learn another language. This flies in the face of the overwhelming support for Prop. 227, which some polls say will pass with 70 percent of the vote on June 2.

The debate over bilingual education is complicated and emotional. It just seems to me that being bilingual is an asset and not something that should be feared.

Being able to speak Cantonese is the key that opens the door to understanding the culture that my parents came from. So far, I haven't been able to use that key. It seems like Proposition 227 could help shut the door for immigrant children growing up now.