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Well if it makes their pile of poo poo food appeal more they'll call it whatever they want. If they want to make loads of money call it what they call it in Europe like Le Big Mac. That makes it sound fancy... lol
Ok English Teacher, lets say you manufactured a product everyone could use, toilet paper is a good example. Why would you only market your product to one demographic (English speaking Americans) when you know everyone in America uses toilet paper? If you have a product everyone can use, sell it to everyone! Speak their language and they in turn, will remember to buy your brand name. Makes sense to me.
Who cares ? Its only the name of a product / advertising campaign. At the end of the day if the American public dont get it, or the new campaign dosent appeal to them, the product will fail and hit the companies where it hurts, in the wallet.
Perhaps those who don't realize the negative impact the saturation of Spanish-speaking has on the American culture does care. They should.
It's costing us a large part of our national treasure and it's segregating our society. Language unifies a culture... and it can rip it apart.
Consider what happens when large chunks of the population in our country speak a foreign language predominately: safety issues, money issues, discrimination issues (for both English speakers and non-English speakers).
Really? As zonababe says, its their product, why would they market to English speaking people only? I think youre looking way too deeply into an advertising campaign than you actually should. I mean, the campaign has obviously failed with you. IMO an ad campaign should not make you think, it should make you buy. If you see an ad, you should no think long and hard about it, it goes into your sub conscious (cant spell!) and you should in theory, buy that product. The ad campaign has failed with you! Making it a bad campaign for you, but it wasnt aimed at you!
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Consider what happens when large chunks of the population in our country speak a foreign language predominately: safety issues, money issues, discrimination issues (for both English speakers and non-English Consider what happens when large chunks of the population in our country speak a foreign language predominately: safety issues, money issues, discrimination issues (for both English speakers and non-English speakers).
I take it that you dont know where im from ? In my country, when we were 'taken over' it became illegal to speak the native language, illegal to be catholic, illegal to own a young horse, illegal to own a gun, illegal to speak agaisnt the new 'government', illegal to give your land to any of your sons you wished, illegal to be a catholic priest, i could go on. Millions of my people were killed by the gun or starvation. And yes, im talking about Ireland and the US's biggest Allie, the British.
Up until recently, ATMs offered English, Spanish and Polish in my neighborhood. Now that Chase has taken over, I have my choice of about 8 languages to complete my transaction in. I received my voting instructions in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. I fail to see what the the problem is.
Oh, and when I visited Germany in 2003, I saw things in a myriad of languages, and while I know a bit of German, I never had a problem getting assistance in English. It is a multi-lingual world, I for one think that is a good thing.
Oh, and on my television there are a few Spanish channels, but there is also programming in Korean, Polish, and Chinese (and an Indian Channel, but as to be expected, that is in English). I find the mix of cultures and languages fascinating and enjoy it.
Now, I work with probably 10 people who speak Spanish as their first language, but every single one of them speaks English at work and after work if they are hanging out with people who do not speak Spanish (yes, I've gone out to dinner and had drinks with my coworkers as I enjoy their company, I don't care what language they talk to their mother in), they just simply know two languages.
Good post... I've traveled all over the world, and have yet to encounter anyone as "language phobic" as some people here! I also haven't ever had a problem finding English speakers, even in the more remote places like rural Costa Rica, Belgium, Turkey, etc. Not to mention, they usually have multilingual signs, and often speak 2+ languages.
And like you said, just because somebody speaks a different language, that doesn't mean they don't speak English as well. Would you (general) completely abandon English, even while speaking with other Americans/Brits/etc., if you moved overseas?? Earlier tonight I spoke with a man from Puerto Rico, about some of these issues... he & the other employee were speaking Spanish when I entered his store, but switched to perfect English as I approached the counter. I said "yo entiendo" (I understand) when he giggled about something she said, which led to a long conversation in Spanglish - LOL. Anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but it was very interesting to hear his perspective! Maybe some of you could try speaking with them as well, instead of focusing on selfish and ignorant opinions.
I too have encountered English being spoken in a variety of foreign countries. Having Americans capable of conversing in a language other than English is fabulous and encourages life-long learning but isn't the point.
English as a common denominator amongst Americans shouldn't be optional.
Communication is critical and often difficult enough (as evidenced on this forum) when people are speaking the same language. When people cannot understand each other, there's negative consequences....as we've seen in our own culture.
Then write your law makers and urge them to make English the official language of this country.
And ... I'm moving this to immigration.
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Why We Should Care--Segregation and Money
Travel & Language
