Melting Pot
"Melting pot" means a place
where people from many different ethnic groups or cultures
form a united society.
The idea comes from heating metals in a container.
When they melt, the metals unite
and become something new and stronger.
The term has been used to describe the United States
as a nation created from people
who came here from many different countries.
A Frenchman who was living in America
expressed the idea more than 200 years ago.
J. Hector de Crevecoeur published a book
called "Letters From an American Farmer" in 1782.
He wrote that America had people
from many different countries.
He said that they would become a new people
whose work would one day change the world.
For many years, Americans generally accepted
the idea of their country as a melting pot.
They welcomed immigrants from many nations.
Yet some of those immigrants criticized the melting pot idea.
They felt they were forced to lose their culture and language
in order to be accepted in America.
Other people also criticized the idea.
They said the aim of the melting pot
is to make different cultures
disappear into the one representing the largest group.
New groups of immigrants from Asia and Latin America
are changing the United States today.
Some are resisting learning American culture and language.
Reports say some Americans fear
that the nation is separating into many groups
that have no shared purpose.
Others say the melting pot is no longer changing
the nation's immigrants,
but the immigrants are changing America.
Some experts who study immigration say
they now compare American society not with a melting pot,
but with a salad bowl.
A salad is made of many different foods.
They each keep their own taste
while being part of a successful product.
In this way, cultural groups keep their customs and language
and are still part of American society.