The key role of language in preserving immigrant groups’ cultures and traditions was on display earlier this week in a discussion that combined a Norwegian perspective with insights into Hmong culture and its transition into an American context.
The program led off the “Conversations about Immigrant Identity” series marking the 150th anniversary this year of Waldemar Ager’s birth. It provided Hmong perspectives on assimilation into American society that echoed some of Ager’s thoughts about the Norwegian experience a century earlier, particularly the importance of preserving the immigrant group’s language.