Random thought

[conuly]

Language Log is doing a series on the English Only Movement.

This all involves one of the saddest quotes I've seen in a while.

Aside from being generally offensive and insulting to me as an American citizen, all ATM machines which use more than English for transactions should be closed.

That has got to be one of the most unAmerican attitudes ever. Poor, put-upon girl!

Yes, it's reasonable to expect that, in the US, wherever you go you can do your business in English. It *is* the majority language, after all, and unless you routinely patronize stores and whatnot that cater to a specific immigrant population (in which case you're just being silly) it makes *sense* for those businesses to offer services in the majority language!

But she *can* do business in English at her local bank!

And if her local bank finds that there's a profit to be made in also doing business with those who prefer not to speak English, they should damn well go ahead and do so! That's the whole point of capitalism.

Why does she hate the free market so much?????

(Down in the comments in one of the entries in this series (didn't link to it) somebody made the more reasonable point that it would be supremely easy for the bank to automatically record your preferred language so that when you swipe your card it comes up no matter what. That'd totally rock. But methinks this girl would still be upset. Oh, and seriously? If this is all it takes to "generally offend and insult" you? I'd say you're lucky, but it can't be easy going through life like that.)

Comments

[ancarett]

I live in a land of, at minimum bilingual, increasingly trilinqual or polyglot ATMs and other machines. English/French for sure but, with an influx of Chinese students at the U, the U machine now also caters to them and, when idle, runs through the three different languages. Once you swipe your card, if you're a customer of that particular bank, the machine recognizes you and provides the menu in your preferred language. If you're using another bank's ATMs, you'll be prompted to choose your language from a list. It's a keystroke, at most!

Whatever is the problem? The English-only movements fill me with puzzlement as does the ferocious lack of language education in American schools (of which I was a product, sad to say).