Little Egypt is a multiethnic neighborhood in Steinway St between 28th Ave and Astoria Blvd in Astoria, Queens. In conducting various interviews with storeowners and employees, we discovered that age and ethnicity affects the level of importance given to language within neighborhood interactions. That is, when older generations interact with different ethnicities they tend to use a common language, which differs from their own, only when it is absolutely necessary. They tend to interact with people depending on their ethnicity and not their ability to communicate in a common language. The younger generations however, cross this linguistic and ethnic barrier by using English as a means to interact with one another. For this age group, ethnic and linguistic differences are undermined by the fact that they endeavor to communicate with one another. Nevertheless, strong ethnic identity and pride most often obstruct interactions in general, even when  everyone is capable of speaking one common language.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A0z7X5Afn4?rel=0]*Abstract by Odette Colangeli, Sara Clemente