[rawbert]

> 'don't worry about English, they'll learn that here at school, focus on their native tongues'.

My parents got the same advice after moving from eastern Europe to Germany and they ignored it. They did it because they recognized pretty fast how important it is to "appear German" otherwise you might be disadvantaged. If I had the choice myself I would not repeat the decision my parents made thirty years ago. I am convinced I would have learned German and Englisch without loosing my native language. Scrapping one language for another makes no sense for me.

[a_bonobo]

IMHO, they might have felt compelled to do so- in the 90s Germany's Neonazis were at their strongest. Amadeu Kiowa was murdered by Neonazis in 1990. The Solingen fire-bombing by Nazis (5 people dead) was 1993, the Luebeck refugee home burning killed 10 people in 1996. That decade saw dozens of refugee homes burned down with dozens of murdered people.

Look at the list of refugee home attacks during the 90s, with a peak in 1993 (I count 61 attacks)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_fl%C3%BCchtlingsfeindlic...

I can understand why your parents felt the pressure to have you fit in!