Over the last century, the numbers of immigrants entering the country and the languages they speak have changed dramatically. I first show how these demographic shifts in the language characteristics of immigrants coincide with changes in Americans' attitudes and expectations about the use of non-English languages and the learning of English among immigrants. I then provide evidence to show that the ability to learn English as a second language lessens with age, and that this age-specific decay in second language learning and the demographic shifts in the language characteristics of immigrants and their children over the last century, have conspired to feed the impression that contemporary immigrants are not learning English as quickly as immigrants entering the country a century ago.