My mother's father came over from Poland around 1910 (he was born in 1888). Not educated, and was a tinsmith at Buffalo Forge. He told us that he came here only knowing a few words of English. Talked to people and read newspapers to learn English. This was before talking movies or radio or ESL classes. Managed to raise a family of 9 kids. Her parents would only speak Polish at home. In the 30's,my mom who was under 10 then, and her sibs made them speak English all the time. Only my grandparents had a Polish accent. When Polish was spoken at family get-togethers, us kids knew the adults were talking gossip.