Comments on: Tuesday’s Musings

By: fred

fred — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:34:08 +0000

my computer at the pharmacy has the ability to print Drug information leaflets in practically any imaginable language (except kilngon. i had a roommate in college who could translate that if necessary).

But the most important part, the directions on the bottle, get typed in English.. and no other language unless the pharmacy staff types it in said language by themselves.

for all intents and purposes.. it’s in their best interest (medically, maybe socially, dare i say…financially, etc.) to learn English to the best of their ability.

By: Peter Halle

Peter Halle — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 03:48:35 +0000

I guess I am taking the unpopular side of this debate. Amy and Jim are right that people should speak English here. But perhaps those immigrants at McDonald’s were that first generation Jim was referring to - the ones struggling to work, who haven’t learned English yet. OK, you don’t like it, and you get your meal elsewhere. I guess you don’t want them to work in a retail setting. As to Amy’s experience where the customer doesn’t speak English, I submit to you that if you want the sale (and we really are not talking about one retailer and one sale; we have to multiply this thousands of times), you have to please the customer. Not to be too syrupy, I think the trick is to try to get along, like that great story of 1621. Happy Thanksgiving!

By: Terry

Terry — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:37:15 +0000

Agree. As an agnostic, I particularly like this line of Jim’s: “After all, it’s more important to learn English than to go to Mass.”

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:09:38 +0000

Bravo, Jim!

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 23:12:46 +0000

Jim Britt wrote an interesting comment on this post but it is higher up since it was just approved. Check it out. It’s 5 up from this one.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 22:02:08 +0000

Peter,
I do not object to anyone speaking Spanish, French, Klingon or any other language, just so long as they don’t get upset by my inability to speak their language because of their inability to speak my language. Does that make sense?
And yes, we should legislate language. I’m not proposing that everyone should only speak English, but it should be the language that all official documents are written in. Why should taxpayers pay more so that we can have driver’s license tests in Korean when all the street signs are in English?

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:09:55 +0000

The former, although the latter could serve as a motive for the former (at least for some people).

Click on the Pelosi link in the blog to learn more. The specific case has to do with the Salvation Army.

By: Peter Halle

Peter Halle — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:42:20 +0000

Terry, from the anecdote in your blog, as well as Amy’s comment, it seemed that you objected to them speaking Spanish. Is this about MacDonald’s wishing to require their employees speak English, and being so prevented; or is it about objecting to the inexorable Hispanic creep into our Anglo-Saxon culture? I see them as quite different.

By: Terry

Terry — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:12:20 +0000

Peter,

Au contraire. I don’t want to legislate language. I think that employers should have the right to require their employees to speak English on the job. The amendment, which Pelosi and others tried to kill, would protect employers from federal lawsuits for requiring their workers to speak English.

This doesn’t remove Spanish (or any other language) from the public domain. When I lived in Quebec, I witnessed the whole controversy over Bill 101, which severely limited the right of shopkeepers to put up English signage, for example. Thankfully, this amendment would do no such thing.

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:48:32 +0000

I would like to weigh in on this, and not just because the local McDonalds staff did Terry the favor of encouraging him to seek nutrition elsewhere.
I grew up in a household, in Lakeville, where one generation spoke Italian amongst themselves, first generation and second generation spoke a mix of Italian and English, and third generation spoke, and learned, only English. I am confident that this format will repeat itself with our Spanish-only speakers. They will thrive if they learn English and struggle if they don’t. Granpa struggled and then thrived afterward … with help of course.
I think that legislators are doing no favors to Spanish-only speakers with their wrong-headed proposals. And I think if my grandparents were alive they would agree.
I’ve taught myself conversant Italian and Spanish in order to communicate with the locals when I travel abroad — not to converse with them here. When I encounter someone here who is clearly struggling with English, I use my rudimentary Spanish only as a last resort. I enunciate and speak slowly in hopes of helping him/her as others many years ago helped my mother and my grandparents. I really think it’s counterproductive to post signs such as the “Misa todos los domingos” in Salisbury when “Mass every Sunday” is much of a help.
After all, it’s more important to learn English thand to go to Mass.