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The industry is irrelevant - I work in a city with a primarily Hispanic population so naturally there are many immigrants with a low or no level of English.
My problem is that they don't ask me if I speak Spanish - they just assume I do. I don't wear a badge or have a sign that says "Hablo Espanol." Me bring brown is enough for them.
Do you ask white people you encounter if they speak English before speaking with them?
Because it is rude to assume that someone speaks a certain language because they look a certain way. And also because we are not in Mexico or Cuba or El Salvador, etc. We are in the United States of America and our primary language is ENGLISH. When I lived abroad I never expected anyone to speak English because I RESPECTED the fact that Spanish was the official and primary language of where I lived.
But is it people who speak Spanish primarily themselves, or are you talking about people switching to Spanish thinking it's for your sake? The part of Texas I live in, bi-lingual employees are required (not by law, just companies want them for Spanish-speaking customers) so those customers are used to being able to speak in their native language, which is easier for them. And some do not speak English at all.
Perhaps OP doesn't want people assuming she is one of the millions of illegals. My cousins are half Mexican but when asked about their ethnicity, say they are French which is half true. Their mom was a legal immigrant from Mexico.
If someone makes assumptions about someone's immigration status, that says more about them than the person to whom they are speaking.
The industry is irrelevant - I work in a city with a primarily Hispanic population so naturally there are many immigrants with a low or no level of English.
My problem is that they don't ask me if I speak Spanish - they just assume I do. I don't wear a badge or have a sign that says "Hablo Espanol." Me bring brown is enough for them.
I could understand being offended by white people who assume you don't speak English. Getting in a huff because fellow Latinos in a city with a heavily immigrant population speak to you in what is very likely their first language? Not so much. Not being a POC, perhaps I should keep my opinion to myself, but it's hard for me to see this as a personal insult, which is what you appear to be doing.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by irspow
Maybe because these days there are so many people who absolutely refuse to assimilate as they have no desire whatsoever to be American. People USED to come here to enter and assimilate into the culture, now they come to loot it for all they can and destroy any common culture. You are the victim of changing times...
When my great grandparents immigrated here legally from Austria-Hungary (now Slovakia), they never learned English. They spoke Slovak here in America until the day they died
I grew up in NYC. My Mom was 2nd Generation Italian (Sicily). When she went shopping in Little Italy, she was always spoken to in Italian and she answered the clerks in Italian. We lived in a Spanish (Puerto Rican) area and people spoke to her in Spanish there. She would answer them in Italian. I suppose the two languages are similar enough to converse in general?
Yet, when she went shopping on the Lower East Side, clerks would speak to her in Yiddish. I suppose they assumed she was Jewish? Mom thought all of this was very amusing. "Nobody know what ethnicity I am". If she had gone to a Greek neighborhood, I am sure people would have spoken to her in that language too. lol
My Grandma always said that her family originally migrated from Spain to Italy. When my younger daughter (blue eyes and red hair) did her DNA, she got a percentage of Spanish (Iberia). Guess Grandma was right, even through my daughter looks nothing at all like any of her maternal ancestors.
The bottom line is really so what language people speak, or what their heritage is?
I am of Latino background, and I do speak Spanish fairly well; it is my second language and I lived in a Spanish-speaking country for an extended period of time. However since I've returned to the United States and gone back to work I have CONSTANTLY been spoken to in Spanish by customers WITHOUT BEING ASKED IF I SPEAK SPANISH. Most people don't take the time to ask "Hablas espanol?" conveniently forgetting the fact that we are in the United States of America and English is the primary language! Until just recently I would simply respond in Spanish, but now I am sick of this rude mentality and I don't even bother to respond in Spanish, only in English, until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to communicate in Spanish!
I am sick of this!
PC people are easily offended / sickened by trivial issues.
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