English/Spanish Bilingual PREFERRED (illegals, gasoline, Americans, work)

[camping!]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

barinnas, I'm an American in my own country, and I enunciate clearly. They were employees of a national chain famous for one food item and offering the convenience of telephone ordering, but they were not English speakers, (and they weren't that busy.)

How can you rationalize away the lack of understanding the most basic job vocabulary in your field in English within U.S.? This was neither a specialized, mainly foreign clientele restaurant, nor an overburdened mom and pop-type place. I'm an American, ordering a simple item in English in America. I don't find the lack of any English whatsoever in the U.S. fascinating, I find it separatist and destructive.

camping!, my nature is such that in future I'll ask them to repeat my order back to me; why get underlings fired for their bosses' mistakes in hiring non-English speakers? I save my complaints about lack of English to genuine, egregious examples of same in Los Angeles, which of course one finds daily. I.e., I had no hesitation about calling the national headquarters of a nation-wide gasoline station chain to complain that one station's owner has habitually removed all signs in English to put up solely those in spanish. This station is in America, in a major city, in an area of citizens and immigrants from all over the globe. I complained to headquarters that whatever specials the company was offering, they now were not available to all clientele, and that the owner, when queried by me to where were any signs in English, spat back, "No signs English 'cos I speak spanish!" Again, this was a national chain in America; again the lack of English in the U.S., is separatist and destructive.

I'm sorry that you have to live like that........but be prepared to defend yourself against allegations of 'not caring' for the poor immigrants who only want a better life for themselves.

On a side note, I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why all other nationalities must learn English except Spanish speakers. And the reason because theres a lot of them doesn't fly.

[grove_nurse]

Well, I guess I'm joining this thread a bit late, but nonetheless, I wanted to give my 2 cents. First, the Hispanic immigration has been steady for a long time, so at any given time you will encounter a mix of generations of Hispanics throughout a city, lets say, like Miami. Yes, it is true, that there are many recently arrived individuals who assume that Spanish is enough to get by in a city like this one, but on the other hand, there are many second and third generation Hispanics that can barely speak Spanish (let alone write it), because they grew up as Americans speaking English as a means to advancing their education and professional status. Sure, some remnants of the native language persist, mostly as a means to ask the Abuelita for food (someone coined the term kitchen Spanish), but in reality, most good jobs and universities only ask you to be fluent in English.
On the other hand, those hard-headed Spanish-only speakers are highly visible for most of us, as they take low wage jobs as cashiers in the supermarket or McDonalds, making the problem seem worse than what it really is. My opinion on this matter is that in the end, those who refuse to assimilate and learn English are just hurting themselves in the process, as they deny themselves the opportunity to get a decent college education, leading them to be stuck in a miserable crappy job for the rest of their lives. I have personally seen that happen to several people through the years, and in the end, those individuals tend to only socialize with other marginalized folks, struggle to make ends meet, and continuously complain about how "hard" life is in the US. My question to them is always the same: why did you come here in the first place?

[barinnas]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

barinnas, I'm an American in my own country, and I enunciate clearly. They were employees of a national chain famous for one food item and offering the convenience of telephone ordering, but they were not English speakers, (and they weren't that busy.)

How can you rationalize away the lack of understanding the most basic job vocabulary in your field in English within U.S.? This was neither a specialized, mainly foreign clientele restaurant, nor an overburdened mom and pop-type place. I'm an American, ordering a simple item in English in America. I don't find the lack of any English whatsoever in the U.S. fascinating, I find it separatist and destructive.

camping!, my nature is such that in future I'll ask them to repeat my order back to me; why get underlings fired for their bosses' mistakes in hiring non-English speakers? I save my complaints about lack of English to genuine, egregious examples of same in Los Angeles, which of course one finds daily. I.e., I had no hesitation about calling the national headquarters of a nation-wide gasoline station chain to complain that one station's owner has habitually removed all signs in English to put up solely those in spanish. This station is in America, in a major city, in an area of citizens and immigrants from all over the globe. I complained to headquarters that whatever specials the company was offering, they now were not available to all clientele, and that the owner, when queried by me to where were any signs in English, spat back, "No signs English 'cos I speak spanish!" Again, this was a national chain in America; again the lack of English in the U.S., is separatist and destructive.

Maybe, but, you've seen hoe the british need to sub-title the programs seen in the U.S., people in the U.S. tend to forget that there is a world out there,
sometimes people from different trailer parks can not communicate with each other.

[sassyone]

Maybe, but, you've seen hoe the british need to sub-title the programs seen in the U.S., people in the U.S. tend to forget that there is a world out there,
sometimes people from different trailer parks can not communicate with each other.

[+] Rate this post positively ROFL

[fastfilm]

So, are you infering that you approve of voluntary non-communication within our U.S. borders? That refusal to learn the lingua franca of the United States isn't internecene to our social harmony? Or do you merely knee-jerk reflex online ROFL at any post that is anti-American citizen, culture and lingua franca?

I reiterate that "non-English preferred" as practiced in Los Angeles' work force employment is separatist and destructive. There are so many citizens here in the U.S., both naturalized and born, from all parts of the globe that English must be the unifying communication to all. There is no other country with that pedigree of people from everywhere; hence, "E Pluribus Unum" as Americans, not vice versa.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by barinnas

Maybe, but, you've seen hoe the british need to sub-title the programs seen in the U.S., people in the U.S. tend to forget that there is a world out there,
sometimes people from different trailer parks can not communicate with each other.

Very true there:

English speakers from trailer park X usually cannot communicate with Spanish speakers from trailer park Y.

Besides: the birthrate of English speaking Americans (of any race/ethnicity) is at replacement level.

[andreabeth]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

So, are you infering that you approve of voluntary non-communication within our U.S. borders? That refusal to learn the lingua franca of the United States isn't internecene to our social harmony? Or do you merely knee-jerk reflex online ROFL at any post that is anti-American citizen, culture and lingua franca?
<snip>

Those of you who selected 'all of the above' are correct.

[Dave Rosarito]

[quote=fastfilm;3384277]So, are you infering that you approve of voluntary non-communication within our U.S. borders? That refusal to learn the lingua franca of the United States isn't internecene to our social harmony? Or do you merely knee-jerk reflex online ROFL at any post that is anti-American citizen, culture and lingua franca?

What the . . . . am I supposed to go and learn French now? Just getting into this Spanish thing .

[ArizonaBear]

[quote=Dave Rosarito;3385304]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

So, are you infering that you approve of voluntary non-communication within our U.S. borders? That refusal to learn the lingua franca of the United States isn't internecene to our social harmony? Or do you merely knee-jerk reflex online ROFL at any post that is anti-American citizen, culture and lingua franca?

I suspect that lingua franca is now an English phrase like 'burrito', 'tsunami', 'de facto' and a few other words

[Dave Rosarito]

[quote=ArizonaBear;3385334]

Originally Posted by Dave Rosarito

I suspect that lingua franca is now an English phrase like 'burrito', 'tsunami', 'de facto' and a few other words

Thank God!!! I was afraid I'd have to start drinking fancy wine . . . and wearing those silly ruffled shirts