[liberalh8ter]

Sigh.....my grandmother worked very hard to learn English and did a great job speaking clearly. She was very proud to be American and would scold relatives who reverted to their Native Italian in public. “It’s rude”, she would tell them. I sure wish more people thought and acted like her.

[FreshPrince]

I do have a problem when a non-English speaker talks to me in another language and expects me to understand them. But if people of the same tongue want to talk to each other in that language I dont care at all. Grew up with that around me all my life. This manager was probably talking to his staff in Spanish. What business was it of the customer? I always did and still do envy the fact my eldsers could speak another language besides English

[jimmango]

Interesting. All of my grandparents were born in Italy. I think part of the difference was their age when they came here. Mom's parents were adults, and dad's were children. I never knew my grandfathers, but I never heard my maternal grandmother speak English, and I never heard my paternal grandmother speak Italian. Mom grew up speaking Italian at home, Dad did not (although I think he understood it).

I once asked my mom why she never taught us to speak Italian. She said that dad did not want her to, we lived in America, and did not need to speak Italian. The funny thing is that when I was a teenager, dad told me I should learn Spanish (grew up in San Antonio)!

[sheana]

At one time I was the bar manager for one of our local country clubs. The country club manager hired a bunch of Salvadoran waiters. They would often resort to Spanish while talking to each other in public. I would pull them aside and tell them to knock it off. It’s rude.