Posted on 06/20/2006 3:12:51 AM PDT by RWR8189
Some years ago, I visited a cafe in an American border town, right across the river. Not a soul was conversing in English.
But this was no "They're all speaking Spanish" experience. The town was Madawaska, Maine. The river was the St. John, and the language was a kind of French.
Last year, I came across a parallel, southern version of border dining -- in Brownsville, Texas. Local friends took me to Betty's Tortas, where everyone was speaking Spanish. A student of Spanish, I tried to order, but the language of Cervantes got me nowhere at Betty's. The confused waiter turned to my Latina dining mate, who, in her rapid-fire border Spanish, told him what I wanted.
My reaction to places with U.S. post offices but little English spoken was: Big Deal. It always nice to find parts of America that don't seem like every other part. What makes our northern border different from our southern one, of course, is that millions of Canadians aren't coming into the United States for work. But that's an immigration issue -- which should be kept separate from language.
Believe me, this column does not advocate giving any language other than English an official status. English is our tongue and may she forever wave. Rather, this is a call to reconsider heated claims that Spanish is gaining on English as the language of the United States. That's not really happening. Madawaska and Brownsville are exceptions that prove the rule.
It makes little sense to look at border areas as a predictor of what will follow in Denver and Dallas. Families often spill over both sides. And if a border town is isolated from the big U.S. population centers, it can become a cultural cul-de-sac.
Elsewhere, however, English dominates. American-born Latinos, who now make up 60 percent of the country's Hispanic population, are rapidly moving away from Spanish. The two Spanish-language media giants, Univision and Telemundo, now worry that the immigrants' children seem to prefer "American Idol" to their offerings. Latina magazine, aimed at "today's Hispanic woman," is already mostly written in English.
The immigrants themselves are another matter. Immigrants have always clung to their native language. In the late 19th century, entire towns in the Great Plains spoke the German or Slavic tongues of their immigrant settlers. "Champagne music" man Lawrence Welk was born in German-speaking Strasburg, N.D., (in 1903) and didn't learn English until he was an adult.
I, too, bristle a bit when the recorded message at the bank starts off with "Press one for English." I don't mind if the bank offers a Spanish option, but it should make English the default language. J.C. Penney's bilingual policy is quite unnecessary. You don't need a sign above 10 racks of dresses that reads "Vestidos" -- or "Dresses," for that matter.
The recent Senate vote making English the "national language" is also mostly symbolic, especially since it exempts programs already offering services in other languages. The measure was added to the Senate's immigration bill -- and intended, perhaps, to distract the public from the bill's glaring inadequacies.
Does anyone doubt that English is our language? Perhaps the Senate should resolve that hamburgers are the national chopped-meat sandwich.
Speaking of food, I found it odd that the French toast at the Madawaska breakfast place was called Canadian toast. Proprietor "Big Daddy" Gervais said he didn't know how the name had come about.
Move a few more miles south of the Canadian border, and French toast is again French toast. And nearly all the people, including the ones with French last names, are speaking the language of Katie Couric.
English in the end is the conqueror, not the vanquished. Just ask the French minister of culture, who spends half his hours trying to stop his citizens from using English words. Americans have excellent reasons for wanting to control their borders, but fear of Spanish taking over should not be one of them.
but fear of Spanish taking over should not be one of them...unless you have the U.S. government speaking spanish...
I live in a heavily Spanish-speaking neighborhood (mixed in with some old-time New Jersey folk and a sprinkling of yuppies) and I agree with this article. I think young Hispanics want to speak English. Like rock'n'roll, English is here to stay. It will never die.
A student of Spanish, I tried to order, but the language of Cervantes got me nowhere at Betty's.
Well, I notice that the announcements at our local Walmart, and the constant commercials they play on their TVs hanging every twenty feet from the ceilings are ALL in Spanish now.
And I'm 150 miles north of the border in what used to be a very upper-middle to middle-upper income community.
They don't even pretend to cater to their English Speaking customers anymore.
I don't mean limited English. I mean no English as in being completely incapable of understanding any question, no matter how slowly or simply put, that an English speaking person might ask.
This is not in a border town. Contrary to the writer's impression, it is not cute. It is a pain.
I'd love to hear your Spanish speaking neighbor speaking with a Jersey accent. Then I'd love to see you try and function in an area where you can not go into a store and get service, where the literature is printed first in Spanish and English as an aftertought.
You really ought to get out of Jersey, see the world.
"I live in a heavily Spanish-speaking neighborhood (mixed in with some old-time New Jersey folk and a sprinkling of yuppies) and I agree with this article. I think young Hispanics want to speak English."
That may be the case in the northwest, but here in the southwest there is an anti-english movement among illegals. The illegal in my favorite illegal taco shop had a t-shirt that said "no hablo ingles", which is by the way a declaration of war rather than a statement of fact.
They built it. They KNEW you would come.
I can tell that the author has never been to Miami.
A friend tells me that French Canadian movies are shown in France with French subtitles.
Sounds about right to me. Canadian French is full of false stops, slang, slurring etc. such that it is very hard for a schoolboy to understand.
* Press 2 for Spanish
* Press 3 for Ebonics
True. There is, and always has been, a very powerful Americanization force in this nation, thank God. It has always transformed the language and culture of immigrants to American. That's as it should be. If they should have kept their language and culture then they should have stayed in the country they came from.
As for the Arabic Muslims, they are an enemy within the gates insofar as they don't assimilate, and the incarceration of the Japanese Americans in WWII comes to mind as a solution. They could be offered the option of going back where they came from. What nation has survived a Trojan horse?
"Harrop is well sheltered "
Yes, the author seems totally ignorant of reality and writes a vapid article of no significance.
"My reaction to places with U.S. post offices but little English spoken was: Big Deal. It always nice to find parts of America that don't seem like every other part."
Problem is these parts are not just confined to the border. There are several towns in NC now where it is hard to find English spoken and our schools are full of young spanish speakers, many of whom are in ESL programs and speak little English.
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