Sunday, September 6, 2015

press 1 for English


Another rant. I know, right?
  

Friday I was out in the car and was listening to a show on Pacifica (the local public radio station). The topic was Jeb Bush addressing a latino community in gasp Spanish. The caller didn't think that was appropriate...this is America, these people need to learn English, these people aren't even trying to learn English or assimilate into this country they just want to take without giving back...on and on he went. The show host eventually, through judicious questioning, got him to admit that by 'these people', he meant Spanish speakers. The show host rightly pointed out to him that this country was built by foreign language speakers, that there is no official language in the country (which the caller tried to dispute by saying the Constitution was written in English), that many presidential candidates in the past have addressed constituents in Italian, Polish, German, etc...how else do you inform voters of your position who don't yet have a good grasp of English? The caller sort of brushed that aside as his focus was on Spanish and his opinion, one completely devoid of facts to back it up, and he gave an example of how disrespectful it is about going into a store and the clerk/cashier he dealt with didn't speak English. This highly offended him and he went and spoke to the manager about why he hired people who couldn't speak English (uh, to help with customers who don't speak English or speak it well?) and he was convinced that this woman was an illegal even though he had no proof whatsoever and when pressed on why he thought she was, all he could say over and over was...I guarantee she was illegal.

Obviously, English or no English, they managed to communicate well enough for him to buy whatever it was he was buying so the non-English speaking clerk didn't really affect him in an adverse way. It makes me wonder though, what his objection is really about, why he and people like him are so intolerant of other people conversing in a language they do not understand, as if they have some sort of inalienable right to understand every word spoken within their hearing.

I was recently pilloried on FB resulting in the unfriending of one person and the blocking of his granddaughter and one of her friends because I took issue with an 'English only' meme he shared which I found to be petty, pointing out that, like it or not, this is a multicultural and multilingual country, that this country was built by people who did not speak English.

Wave after wave of non-English speaking people have immigrated to this country. It's why we have Chinatowns, Italian quarters, German enclaves, Jewish and Muslim neighborhoods, Barrios, etc. First generation immigrants do not usually assimilate. They may cling to their language, their culture because being in a new place is daunting and scary. They get comfort in familiarity but they are here for the same reason all of us are here...they want better futures for themselves and their children. They come here and they work hard. If they have trouble learning English as an adult (and English is a hard language to learn), so what? It is their children who assimilate. While they may have a different cultural heritage, these children and their children grow up fully assimilated. Assimilation takes time and to proclaim that first generation immigrants don't want to assimilate is absurd.

This is a big country filled with great diversity and instead of accepting that diversity as the strength it should be, too many people spend far too much time being divisive with hate for and fear of their fellow citizens who are different...in color, in heritage, in culture, in religion, in sexuality, in language, the list goes on. What they aren't seeing is that we are ALL equally Americans and I don't understand why anyone would object to companies and local/national government making information available in however many languages it takes to insure that all citizens get the help and info they need.

I mean, really, how hard is it to press 1 for English?


Next post I promise will be pretty pictures.




18 comments:

  1. Not a rant, in my opinion. Nothing but the facts, m'am, as Officer Friday would say. We are a nation of immigrants. Before my children pass from this earth more than half of us will be, gasp, "non-white." Won't that be a shocker to people who can't press 1 for English.

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  2. I was prepared for an unfriending or slam when I posted on FB that I was glad I lived in a country under many Gods. Instead all I got was crickets!

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  3. It's gotta be fear??? I don't know... I do know that I feel richer by enjoying and embracing other cultures.

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  4. My ancestors came here from the Azores, and I guess everybody came from someplace else, except the Native Americans.

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  5. No need for pretty pictures every time. I appreciate the opportunity to read a piece someone has put some thought into, and which also makes me think.

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  6. I am 4th generation and the first 2 spoke German in the home. My father spoke a limited version but not enough to pass it on to his children.

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  7. Since the whole Trump nonsense started, a lot of people whom I believed not to be idiots of bigots have proved me completely wrong. Like you, I don't understand their historical amnesia... not even the English spoke American English when they arrived to this country. And how is it that this individual fails to realize that as languages go, English is not native to the US? It's a sad topic... and infuriating topic... one that shows just how self-blinded some people are, and how little they understand the country they claim to be theirs.

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  8. Word.
    "How hard is it to press 1 for English?"
    Haha!
    Love you, woman.

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  9. Agree , It must be fear that causes folks to be so irrational.

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  10. Los estadounidenses pueden ser estúpido

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  11. I really think that Americans should be highly encouraged to travel outside the U.S. It would help in extracting their heads from up their ass.

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  12. I have a British friend who says he wishes Americans would stop insisting that everyone speak English when they don't themselves, and Canadian, indigenous American, and Mexican friends who wish that citizens of the US would refrain from telling the world that they're the only "Americans" around.

    I think the US has been sold the melting pot assimilation schtick a little too thoroughly. If a child has anything approaching a reasoning brain it should figure out that the vast waves of African, German, Swedish, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Polish, Arab, Russian, etc., immigrants didn't dive into the melting pot and come out as English-speaking white people...no matter what it says in the social studies book.

    Personally, though, I don't think it'll be a problem in a generation or so, at least not for Spanish. A good way to turn a bigot into a staunch defender--as LGBT marriage initiatives have shown--is to develop his victims into a solid voting block.

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  13. Archie Bunker still lives in the U.S., as a matter of fact, thousands of Archie Bunkers live here. Some people never evolve into decent humans and live their life hating everyone who does not look like them, speak like them or go to the same church as them. They, of course, believe themselves to be good Christians.

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  14. Absolutely. Hear, hear!

    I don't know why people aren't fascinated by living in a multilingual society. Just because, in their own small-mindedness, they're intimidated, I suppose.

    Previous immigrant groups like the ones you mentioned -- the Italians, the Jews, the Poles, the Chinese -- were all pilloried in their time, too. It seems the people who are already here always see fit to express contempt at the new arrivals. (We used to see the same phenomenon, on a statewide level, in Florida!)

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  15. I applaud you for your refreshing views. Well done!

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  17. I just finished a Trump article in a recent New Yorker and the writer was saying how many white people are afraid of being out-numbered by various immigrant groups. It will come to be that Mexicans will indeed out-number white folks but this doesn't have to be something to fear. A lot of whites admit this is their fear and many others have yet to internalize their fear or accept that their prejudice is based on the fear of being a minority. They just know they hate immigrants and find all these weird reasons to justify their hate and fear - like they don't speak English.

    Our politicians feed into this fear and I read somewhere that congressional reps are feeding into the problem by saying that letting in Syrian immigrants would include terrorists. They play on the fears of white people who are not all that bright.

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  18. Well amen again! (And some excellent comments here too)

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.