@british, there was a big wave of Italians that came to the states, Canada and Australia from the 50's through to the early 70's. Alot of those people are still a round and speak Italian natively. Conversly, their children would probably speak Italian as well to a decent extent (albeit probably a more dialect infuenced version of Italian) because they would have grown up with their parents speaking Italian in the house. Lots of those people are around as well. Once it gets to their grandkids and great grandkids who are now starting to come of age, they mostly speak very little to no Italian, depending on how they were raised. So If I were to guess, now probably 10-20 percent of Italians/Italian Americans in America are able to speak Italian. As recently as 10-15 years ago I'd bet it was closer to 35%.