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Europe? Where do you think the Spanish came from? Hispanics (many of which are white, like my family) complain about immigration too. My dad was talking once about how what used to be a Denny's became a Chinese grocery store. He was saying "Damn Chinese coming over and taking over every business. Soon we're all gonna have to learn Chinese!" and I was like "Dad, you barely even speak English.."
Subway is just one example, and the point has less to do with what type of food it is (better Subway than McDonald's or Carl's Jr.) and more to do with the fact that it's ridiculous to hire someone in a public role serving customers with whom he can't communicate.
As for this becoming the norm, the there are many neighborhoods where non-English-speaking illegals have taken over that were middle-class, English-speaking areas only three, four, or five decades ago. Nobody thought then that the areas would undergo such a massive transformation, yet they did in just a generation or two.
I know, I was just taking a shot at Subway.
I saw someone post this one Facebook. A group was protesting illegal immigrants taking jobs, and a Hispanic woman held up a sign to the effect of, if an undocumented worker with no American connections is stealing your jobs without speaking good English, then that says more about the American than the immigrant.
I don't eat fast food, outside of the occasional Chick-Fil-A or Chipotle on cheat meal days, so this isn't something I've noticed. I'll start being concerned when I go to any doctor or dentist and they can't communicate to their non-Spanish speaking patients.
Wait 10 years and you'll wonder why you said this.
Chinese is the future. Those who speak it fluently in addition to other major languages will enjoy an unfair advantage in the business world of the near future.
This is might be true. Not just in business but also in technology. But whether or not it actually happens depends on many things. I try to be optimistic for the sake of my children, but I'm not so sure that its really going to be much of a future to look forward to. Another even bigger shift in the demographics of the USA is coming. I suspect that it will lead to a version of diversity that will find English/Mandarin-speaking Chinese and other Asians, not Hispanics, as the dominant group. Asians now own a sizeable chunk of US real estate, especially in the big coastal cities. They're buying out more and more American businesses, and they have almost completely taken over manufacturing and technology. They also hold paper for a HUGE amount of U.S. government debt. They now get dibs on investor visas; and more and more of them are moving here also...not to mow lawns and pick fruit but to create new businesses and take over more of the existing ones.
Now that TPP and TISA are coming, more of the lower-paying, low-skills jobs will leave the USA, and more working class and middle class Americans will find themselves competing much more seriously against the illegals for most of the lower-paying service-type jobs that are left. Those who aren't bilingual will find that they are unable to compete for jobs in many areas. If you are a middle aged or older American worker who gets displaced in the shift you will not get another job, so you'll be out. Corporate America wants 'em young and cheap. TISA will bring in more tech workers from India and elsewhere at cheaper wages. And professionals in other industries from the TPP region will also be brought in at cheaper wages to replace American workers. The USA will become a lot like the way many Caribbean, and Central and South American countries now are...a few rich people who have everything, large numbers of poor people who hardly have anything, and a decreasing pool of resources that will eventually have to be rationed (for everyone except the wealthy). English may no longer be the most commonly spoken language here after a while. But it won't be Spanish either.
The majority of the people will become too poor to buy the cheap stuff from China, and people who are lucky enough to have jobs won't be earning enough to pay the type of taxes that our massive governtment bureaucracies need to keep going. That's when the whole thing will begin to fall apart. When it gets really bad, and entitlement programs finally run out of money to handout no one will want to move here anymore---especially the hordes of illegals who are sneaking across the Mexican border.
I saw someone post this one Facebook. A group was protesting illegal immigrants taking jobs, and a Hispanic woman held up a sign to the effect of, if an undocumented worker with no American connections is stealing your jobs without speaking good English, then that says more about the American than the immigrant.
No, it doesn't. It says that there are greedy employers willing to pay slave wages to desperate people. And often those illegals do have connections on American soil: other illegals already hired.
I don't know why the US doesn't officially go bilingual (English/Spanish) rather than forever try to fight against the current. It'd do Americans good to learn another language, learn to adapt to others, and it'd connect the US to much more of the western hemisphere.
Should Spanish speaking immigrants learn English? SÃ. But vice versa should apply as well.
Americans are spoiled in the sense they can more easily get away with not learning another language. For example, in Europe, the various countries are much closer to each other that you can start off speaking French, drive for a lot and find yourself now speaking German. Not much of a concern in the US.
I know it's not the same thing, but I'd count computer programming languages as "half a spoken language"
I work out at a 24 Hour Fitness in the Houston Galleria, and I made a point to look at the demographic makeup of everyone there, this morning. It was mostly Hispanic, with a solid mix of blacks, whites and Asians. You could tell dozens of countries from around the world were represented. I absolutely love it, another reason why I love Houston.
It's incredibly amusing to see how worked up some of you are getting over this.
Then again, some of you are scared of your own shadow because it doesn't look like you.
Last week, I was driving to work when I noticed an Indian family sitting on their front porch. About a half block down from there I saw Jewish people leaving their synagogue and on the next block there were white 20 somethings hanging out at the park. I smiled because I love seeing my hometown bloom with diversity.
Me and my boyfriend almost had to move to Miami next year. He's Mexican-American. His parents and grandparents were born in Texas. His great grandparents from his dad's side were born in Mexico and his mom's side, not sure. He speaks English and Spanish is a language he's rusty and not too fluent with. He can get by in basic Spanish, but will get lost in an in depth conversation. I told him in Miami, you'll most likely need to know Spanish for even a cashier position. He was NOT happy about that. His belief is "This is America, speak what you want at home, but you should still learn English." I agree with that 100%. I'm a native Spanish speaker but even then I would hate to speak 90% of Spanish at my job, not only that, I'd mess up too many words.
Thankfully we won't have to move to Miami after all and will stay in Texas. The language problem is something Miami needs to change. It's great to be bilingual, but bilingual doesn't mean knowing only Spanish either, which in many areas outside of downtown and other neighbourhoods, is the case. Some businesses don't even have ANY one speaking English. Diversity is beautiful, but there needs to be an anchor to hold us all down, like common tongue. Language barriers do not increase diversity, they further self segregation if anything.
That's the great thing about America. You can find so many different cultures in this country. If Miami has attracted and continues to support a mostly Spanish speaking population, so be it. We have no official language in this country and I don't believe we should. Don't like it? Learn Spanish or move somewhere that is more English speaking.
Wait 10 years and you'll wonder why you said this.
Chinese is the future. Those who speak it fluently in addition to other major languages will enjoy an unfair advantage in the business world of the near future.
English/Mandarin/Spanish is going to be a money-making combination.
Why is it an unfair advantage?
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