This is America, speak English

I sorta fall in with EPThorn. I am 1/2 mexican and 1/2 cajun. If I am standing with a group of mexicans, I look mexiican. If I am standing with a group of cajuns, I look cajun. I don't know why, that's just the way it works.

In Austin, I hate going to eat on the east side because the servers seem pissed that I don't speak spanish. I just say I want agua to drink because I don't know anything else.

In Louisiana, I am welcomed with open arms.

Kinda weird.

Back home in SE Texas I gravitated towards my mexican roots. Here in Austin (been here over 10 years) I gravitate towards my French roots.
 
I guess I go to the wrong restaurants because I've never been to one where people don't speak english. hell, I've been to Mexican restaurants where I'm the only non-Hispanic in the room, and people still speak English. I don't buy these stories.
 
WHy in the blue **** is it that every time I go to an ATM in the UNITED STATES do I actuallyhave to CHOOSE English as the language to do my **** in?
 
Man, this thread is vey telling, there are a few xenophobic peeps here. The official langauge is English, we won, so try to learn it. That being said, learning any language at 12 years or above is tough. I don't think there's anything wrong with finding comfort with peeps that speak the same langauge as you. It's like being in a bar in Denver or Boise and spotting a Longhorn fan, I would think it's easier to make conversation.

Also, we have no idea if the illegals try to learn English or not, I suspect taht they do, but again, it ain't easy and it can get embarassing.

Couple of antecdotes that aren't necessarily positive:

I've suspected that I won a big bid at Dell because I'm Chinese. I have this feeling thats what it is, but I would bet an Italian or an Irishman would be more comfortable doing business with a fellow patriot if they were in China.

I used to work in a restaurant that employed illegals who were essentially making 10 bucks an hour working very leisurely. Nothing pissed me off more than asking those guys to work and they roll their eyes at me. I thought "are you kidding me? I'm just asking you to do your job, nothing more. I ought to call INS on you."
 
notreally, English isn't the native tongue, it's the conqueror's tongue.


I do think people are more pissed at the illegal speaking spanish than they are of the 3rd generation Italian speaking Italian. That to me is xenophobic.


breakfast taco, I don't get why the multiple signs bother you? Is it the money spent on them? And you never know, your neighbor next door may have just arrived to this country . He may not speak English and that is not a crime.
 
english.gif



btw, if some restaurant worker couldn't speak english, I'd take my business elsewhere.
 
I think it's hilarious. I also hate having to press 1 for English. It should be assumed I want English. That's just one of the stupid things that come up in everyday life.

How about HEB and other stores putting out their ads with the main pages in spanish? f that.

You can think whatever it is you want. People always want to toss around "narrow-minded hillbilly." Like that's going to hurt feelings? I'm sure anyone that you label that would have some nice labels for you as well.
 
Apparently some people didn't get the memo. There isn't an official language in the U.S., hence the use of multiple languages on goverment documents.
 
The fact that most Americans are NOT bilingual (pick the second language) is pretty pathetic. And I say this as someone who has only a totally basic understanding of another language.
 
I don't get why anyone would have a problem with Spanish print ads. That's a new one. I'd print ads in Turkish if I thought it could help my business.


Good luck eating at a restaurant where there isn't one person who doesn't speak English. I don't care if it's Eddy V's or Mcdonalds, there's gonna be someone there who does not speak it.
 
Businesses do what is good for their business. If they provide secondary language help or information it is because they want to do that.

I'm curious. Where is the waste of tax dollars the government is spending on other languages? Why is it a waste? More details please.
 
It's been iterated, but the ads are reactionary practice to the environment of the business and its target audience, based on demographics research and psychography, to an extent. It's an effect, not a cause. That's like really basic audience analysis for marketing/P.R. research (high schoolish even
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).

Why would an organization communicate with the public in a way that unnecessarily limits the reach of the message, just to satisfy the sentiments of a few? The signs in Spanish are an effect of the prevalence of Spanish-speakers, it doesn't cause them to appear.
 
I saw an American guy trying to get his taxes straight in Rome. He was living, long term, in Italy. He was trying to get across complex and important points, in English, to a woman who spoke Italian. That guy was a jackass and he didn't deserve any special aid (nor did it seem that he was receiving any).

That is as it should be.
 
On a historical note, i have to disagree with the statement that our european immigrant forefathers had the same issues then we descendants learned English because of some "invisible hand" push. My grandparents were native Texans but grew up speaking only Czech. When they got to be school age, they were whipped if they spoke Czech. That's how they learned English. And that's how/why their descendents speak English and zero Czech.
 
another that agrees the "you are racist" argument is total ********. like someone said, this puts most conversations to end and to me the reason why race issues don't get any better. you call "racism" and everyone backs off because having that label is a curse so people just shut up and don't say anything else.
 
Anyone born here does not have to prove english proficiency, they are citizens already. You may have meant that for an immigrant to become a naturalized citizen they need to learn english.
 
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