You know... I'm completely sick of hearing about how they should just learn English.

[conuly]

Anybody wanna help me learn Mohawk? Or any other Native American language? Because seriously, if you have so many Spanish speakers coming into your place of business, don't you think you should get off your high horse and... learn spanish? Seems like that *might* be a good business decision. Capitalism, okay? It's not entirely a bad thing.

Comments

[wetcircuitry.livejournal.com]

I'm sick of hearing how I should learn Spanish, frankly. They're coming to an English speaking country, maybe they should learn English? Seems common sense to me. I wouldn't go to, say, Germany, and expect everyone to learn my language, make signs in my language, and do commercials in my language just because I don't speak German.

I'm not saying don't ever speak Spanish, I'm just saying they should learn at least some English if they're going to live in America and use it in the workplace, if the workplace is predominantly English speakers -- especially if someone in charge asks you to speak English.

I'm a little touchy on this issue. I live in central Florida and hearing Spanish all the time is grating on my nerves.

Heh, word.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Because seriously, if you have so many Spanish speakers coming into your place of business, don't you think you should get off your high horse and... learn spanish?

Or for that matter, get a new job. See, insensitive blanket statements work both ways! :D

Seriously, I get as frustrated as anybody else when I can't understand somebody (like my poor confused pizza guy) but dude. Somehow I doubt they're speaking Spanish (Portuguese/Italian/Vietnamese/really thickly accented English) just for the fun of fucking with your head. :P

[conuly]

The difference is, if you were in Germany, there'd probably only be a few other Americans there. If you're in a strongly-Hispanic area, you can expect a lot of people will speak Spanish. This ISN'T an English-speaking nation. It's a nation with many people who speak English... and a strong minority which speaks Spanish. Since so many people speak Spanish, why should they learn anything else?

And quite a few Americans DO go to other countries and expect everyone to speak English for them. In other countries where they get many American tourists, those who expect to come into contact with the tourists often learn English.

[wetcircuitry.livejournal.com]

I'm sick of hearing how I should learn Spanish, frankly. They're coming to an English speaking country, maybe they should learn English? Seems common sense to me. I wouldn't go to, say, Germany, and expect everyone to learn my language, make signs in my language, and do commercials in my language just because I don't speak German.

I'm not saying don't ever speak Spanish, I'm just saying they should learn at least some English if they're going to live in America and use it in the workplace, if the workplace is predominantly English speakers -- especially if someone in charge asks you to speak English.

I'm a little touchy on this issue. I live in central Florida and hearing Spanish all the time is grating on my nerves.

Heh, word.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Because seriously, if you have so many Spanish speakers coming into your place of business, don't you think you should get off your high horse and... learn spanish?

Or for that matter, get a new job. See, insensitive blanket statements work both ways! :D

Seriously, I get as frustrated as anybody else when I can't understand somebody (like my poor confused pizza guy) but dude. Somehow I doubt they're speaking Spanish (Portuguese/Italian/Vietnamese/really thickly accented English) just for the fun of fucking with your head. :P

[conuly]

The difference is, if you were in Germany, there'd probably only be a few other Americans there. If you're in a strongly-Hispanic area, you can expect a lot of people will speak Spanish. This ISN'T an English-speaking nation. It's a nation with many people who speak English... and a strong minority which speaks Spanish. Since so many people speak Spanish, why should they learn anything else?

And quite a few Americans DO go to other countries and expect everyone to speak English for them. In other countries where they get many American tourists, those who expect to come into contact with the tourists often learn English.