Do Target's SPANISH ONLY commercials **** you off? (Huntington, Italy: crimes, attorney)

[VA Yankee]

Originally Posted by long isle

I think the US citizen puerto Ricans would disagree wholeheartedly with many of you posters.

Puerto Rico has repeatedly has the option to vote on 1) Independence 2) Become a state or 3) Continue with the current status. They continue to vote to remain with the current status.

So I guess they will work/speak with English,

[long isle]

Originally Posted by VA Yankee

Puerto Rico has repeatedly has the option to vote on 1) Independence 2) Become a state or 3) Continue with the current status. They continue to vote to remain with the current status.

So I guess they will work/speak with English,

I'm pretty sure they will be bilingual, as usual. Expect Spanish to increase tremendously in advertising. I'm sure the local high school has night classes if your so inclined.

[thgreatalex]

Puerto Ricans learn English from the moment they enter elementary school. They dont expect people to speak Spanish to them and most are bilingual (although the older generations arent).

[l1995]

Originally Posted by VA Yankee

Yes many languages have been spoken and still are but to quote my Great Grandmother "You learn English, you become American" that's what is getting lost. It seems recent immigrants don't want to assimilate, learn our language become part of the American fabric they want us to accommodate them. Sorry you chose to come here it is your job to change, being bilingual is great but learn to function in English.

What makes you think that? Businesses choosing to air some of their ads in Spanish doesn't mean that immigrants from Spanish speaking countries don't want to learn English. I've went to school and worked with many people from those countries and they all spoke at least some English.

Originally Posted by ovi8

I'm with you on this - but I have to ask - what kind of people are we seeing not assimilating? We are 2nd generation and we learned English as our first language through all the experiences of growing up here. The 1st generation gradually learned it, some better than others in my family, but some barely get by (they are now over 65 and know how to get around and read basic signs). Are immigrants' 2nd generations not following this same path? Hard to say they won't or aren't. We will always have this pattern if kids continue to go to schools here. We just don't need/want them being taught through schools in a different language as primary, and in the same vein, we don't want to see mainstream tv ads/shows aired in a different language. That's the line in the sand IMO.

I've literally never met any 2nd generation who couldn't speak English. So at worst, the assimilation comes after a generation at most.

The bolded is not in the same vein, Target airing an ad in Spanish is obviously catering to the immigrant demographic, while an American school teaching primarily in a language other than English is completely different. I wouldn't agree with that but nobody is advocating for that to my knowledge anyway.

[southwest88]

Originally Posted by l1995

...

I've literally never met any 2nd generation who couldn't speak English. So at worst, the assimilation comes after a generation at most.

The bolded is not in the same vein, Target airing an ad in Spanish is obviously catering to the immigrant demographic, while an American school teaching primarily in a language other than English is completely different. I wouldn't agree with that but nobody is advocating for that to my knowledge anyway.

Linguistic assimilation takes place in the US - but it may take longer than two or three generations. It mostly depends on the family's determination to have the children learn English, & the resources available to make that happen.

US schools (I assume you mean) need to lend some support to foreign languages. Especially if the US keeping haring off to the Middle East & other remote bits of the World to carry out surveillance, intercept signals traffic, raid, invade, etc. Post 09/11, we had a tremendous outpouring of Arabic speakers who wanted to work or even volunteer their language services. AG Ash-croft (under Pres. W) managed to alienate a lot of the native Arabic speakers in the US, by arbitrarily arresting & holding young men without representation, without notifying the families, moving prisoners about from place to place. In terms of recruiting linguistic expertise (which we still lack 15 years on in Afghanistan, Iraq, & all the other places we routinely listen in on) - it was a disaster.

Yes, maintaining the home country language & culture is mostly up to the enclaves of people who speak those languages & practice those cultures. But as our WWI & II experience with code talkers shows (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker) you simply never know.

"The name code talkers is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by Cherokee and Choctaw Indians during World War I.
Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Lakota,[1] Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were also used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating."

(My emphasis - more @ the URL)

Knowledge is a good in & of itself.

[ovi8]

Originally Posted by l1995

The bolded is not in the same vein, Target airing an ad in Spanish is obviously catering to the immigrant demographic

I'm still having trouble understanding why Target would spend the time and money to do this. Was it simply dubbed-over in the editing room? They are a national retailer with products for everyone. This is why I mention this should not occur in the mainstream media. I've not seen any other big retailers prepare special ads in a different language and air it, especially nationally (mainstream). Locally is a different story, but even that is rare.

[ovi8]

Originally Posted by southwest88

Yes, maintaining the home country language & culture is mostly up to the enclaves of people who speak those languages & practice those cultures. But as our WWI & II experience with code talkers shows (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_talker) you simply never know.

"The name code talkers is strongly associated with bilingual Navajo speakers specially recruited during World War II by the Marines to serve in their standard communications units in the Pacific Theater. Code talking, however, was pioneered by Cherokee and Choctaw Indians during World War I.
Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Lakota,[1] Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were also used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating."

I remember the movie they made based on this: Windtalkers (2002) - IMDb

[long isle]

Originally Posted by ovi8

I'm still having trouble understanding why Target would spend the time and money to do this. Was it simply dubbed-over in the editing room? They are a national retailer with products for everyone. This is why I mention this should not occur in the mainstream media. I've not seen any other big retailers prepare special ads in a different language and air it, especially nationally (mainstream). Locally is a different story, but even that is rare.

Should there be laws to prevent it from happening?

[southwest88]

Originally Posted by ovi8

I'm still having trouble understanding why Target would spend the time and money to do this. They are a national retailer with products for everyone. This is why I mention this should not occur in the mainstream media. I've not seen any other big retailers prepare special ads in a different language and air it, especially nationally (mainstream). Locally is a different story, but even that is rare.

Yah, except that it's practically un-American to question what the corporates do, or how they spend their money, or their rights of free speech. (& the way things are trending, I fully expect that relatively soon it will be un-American, & with laws to enforce it - see the SLAP suits & the various state laws penalizing questioning beef-raising [or any meat, come to think of it], or milk, or cheese, or corn, or genetically engineered foodstuffs - the fields are as endless as the cupidity of the ivy-league boutique law firms that cater to this kind of raging corporate paranoia. See tort reform - the famous McDonald's coffee spill case, for instance.)

If there's a good enough anticipated return on investment, the corporates are willing to spend some money - if nothing comes of it, they'll quit that particular effort. The big box stores hang signage in Spanish & French, as well as the usual English, if they think the market's there.

@ the corporate level, it's profit & loss. As consumer markets tighten - depressed incomes on average - the corporates that rely on volume sales have to try more & more exotic steps. The battle for incremental gains in volume sales will get worse, I'm sure. Past efforts along these lines tended to go to Univision & related & print ads in Spanish - in niche media. As those markets also contract, some of the corporates will decide to simply diversify their ads - & roll them into current buys anyway - leveraging their money, always a good thing in the corporate world.

Hispanic families - especially recent immigrants - tend to have larger families, & so are natural targets for PJs, baby clothing, diapers, baby furniture, walkers, strollers & on & on. Formula, teethers, toys, baby monitors, pabulum, other food. If you generate good-sized numbers, the profits roll in.

[ovi8]

Originally Posted by long isle

Should there be laws to prevent it from happening?

No