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It's within the owner's right to do this, the same way owners have the right to dictate what greeting an employee uses, the dress code, what type of music is piped in or not, etc. If it's a bad business decision he'll find out when people vote with their dollars. Even though it's a Hispanic neighborhood, perhaps the majority of customers are not Spanish speakers and he does not want an atmosphere where non-Spanish speakers feel alienated, or have so many non-English-speaking customers that he's forced to hire only bilingual people (thus terminating monolingual employees). The guy that complained to the media is English-fluent so what's his problem?
On one hand, I suppose I can understand the frustration and feelings of some who think people come to live in this country without speaking English or wanting to learn how to speak it.
On the other hand, I've never felt offended or upset when people talk to each other in Spanish or whatever other local language they speak in public or at work. I've been to countless fast food places where I've been in back of and in front of customers who spoke Spanish to the server, and didn't bother me one bit at all. Heck I wish I could speak more than one language.
The thing about being in business for yourself, there was a time you picked your market and the customers you wanted to serve. Today, government owns all business and you have no liberty to run "your" business how you want to run it, or who you market your services to.
MILWAUKEE -- A south side business that found itself facing a possible boycott for its English-only policy has decided to make some changes.
Leon's Frozen Custard's owner, Ron Schneider, tells TODAY'S TMJ4 he's dropping the policy.
Schneider said he still prefers that people order in English, and that his employees all talk to each other in English. But starting Thursday - Leon's employees will be able to speak to customers in whatever language they speak.
"I just made it official. If you can help the customer, just help them any way you can," Schneider said.
Sorry, but in this three dimensional reality we call life, there are limits to everything. It's not up to you to decide what you can or cannot do. You live by a social contract, of which you are a member of whether you like it or not, and that social contract says it's in bad taste, therefore should be illegal, to do XY and Z. The day that a society developed and then turned into a civilization was the day that everyone in that society agrees to a common set of rules. Those rules evolve over time, either organically or through public action
Some folks, apparently, do not find it convenient to believe in a social contract.
& apparently from our very beginnings:
"Perhaps the greatest, if not the only difficulty, which will arise against the adoption of this New Federal System of Government, will be made by those ambitious citizens, in the different States, who either now are in power, or who will practice their political wiles on the ignorant and unsuspicious part of the people, in order to obtain their own private purposes. It is a lamentable consideration, that men of this stamp too frequently, by the folly and blindness of the people, are put in the exercise of such offices as give them a very dangerous degree of influence – Hence the social compact is often violated, and sometimes dissolved."
- Daily Advertiser, September 24, 1787
I don't have a problem with people speaking other languages. I'm a foreign language teacher, so I would hope for everyone to speak another language.
However, I do have a problem with signage and official documentation in other languages. We should welcome speakers of other languages by saying "Welcome to the US, we'll gladly assist you, but the de facto language is English, here are some places where you can get help with learning." Posting signs in non-English languages is just enabling people.
I wouldn't move to Russia and expect people to speak English to me and expect that all signage be in English.
I don't have a problem with customers ordering in Spanish, but do not like it when employees talk to each other in non-English, in front of English speaking customers. An ethnic store is an exception.
This happened in a business zoned area, it is not a neighborhood but a long strip of suburban restaurants and stores, and vast majority of shoppers are not Hispanic. The employees of this store were ALL Hispanic, speaking to each other loudly totally in Spanish in front of all of the customers. Rude and should not be allowed.
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