Prof Says Business Owners Ought to Be Obliged to Be Multilingual

AZCONSERVATIVE ^ | 22 Dec 2007 | John Semmens

[John Semmens]

Testifying in the case against Philadelphia sandwich proprietor Joey Vento, who as owner of Geno’s Steaks purportedly discriminated against non-English speaking patrons by posting a “Speak English” sign at his South Philadelphia shop, University of Pennsylvania professor Camille Charles insisted that business owners have an obligation to be multi-lingual.

“No one should be humiliated by being asked to use English or by being misunderstood for speaking a foreign language,” Charles argued. Pointing out that the number of foreign-born residents living in the South Philadelphia neighborhood near Geno’s grew more than 200 percent between 1980 and 2000, the sociology professor said “Mr. Vento’s failure to learn the languages of his customers created a ‘Jim Crow’ like atmosphere of intimidation.”

Citing the business adage “the customer is always right,” Charles urged that vendors dealing directly with the public be required to pass “appropriate language tests” to ensure at least a “minimal level of comprehension of the variety of languages spoken in the neighborhood.”

“I’m not saying that Mr. Vento has to be totally fluent in Spanish, Chinese or whatever,” Charles said. “But if he can’t understand basic food-related terms in these languages he has no business being in business.”

[Lokibob]

Reading this, I was composing a reply in my head, till I saw it was by you, John.

You need to be kinder to my blood pressure.
Good one....

....Bob

[the_devils_advocate_666]

I am so pissed at my bank right now as they just recently installed a new ATM machine. Now when I swipe my card the first thing I have to do is select English or Spanish. I’m very tempted to move my accounts to a different bank.

[Jeff Head]

Drop the prof off in Somalia or some other God forsaken place and insist that he become multi-lingual himself.

[rlmorel]

John...you need to stop reeling people in like this! Satire is difficult to discern nowadays...I have always been of the opinion that for satire to be effective (and distinguishable from reality) it needs to be different from reality in some way...there are people who think this way, so this isn’t that much of a stretch!

The top of my head was about ready to pop off as well...

[mak5]

It may be from AZ Conservative, but it is the testimony that the professor gave at the Vento hearing last week.

[Lokibob]

Please read Keyword #3.

.....Bob

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Bilingual = forked tongue.:)

You must speak with forked tongue.

[ccmay]

I had to take a sociology class in college. Its main effect was to teach me that I can dismiss anything coming out of a sociology professor’s mouth as unimportant twaddle.

[org.whodat]

University of Pennsylvania professor Camille Charles insisted that business owners have an obligation to be multi-lingual.

But-hole university employees but-hole professor. Demand that he be fired!

[AuntB]

“Drop the prof off in Somalia or some other God forsaken place and insist that he become multi-lingual himself.”

Exactly!

[Jeff Head]

Okay, okay, now seeing that this is satire, let me amend my serious commnets...

"Drop the satirical prof (or anyone who really feels this way) off in Somalia or some other God forsaken place and insist that they become multi-lingual themselves."

[rlmorel]

Agreed. Sociology class taught me two things:

1.) Sociology is socialism, for the most part. Sociologists believe that everything can be centrally planned or controlled.

2.) College students are extremely impressionable. I had spend 4 years in the USN before going to college, so I wasn't an 18 year old right out of high school, but I thought Sociology was the best thing since sliced bread. I ate it up, hook, line, and sinker. Only later did I see it for what it was.

Which brings me to an associated point about college...so many students (and I was one of them) thought they knew EVERYTHING. Everything is so new and profound. The fact that they are a politically active demographic, and usually (but not always) on the left, is disturbing to me.

My nephew, a nice kid who is a sophomore at an Art college, had a conversation with me about movies the other night, and mentioned the movie "Citizen Kane". I said while it is supposed to be one of the greatest if not the greatest movie of all time, it did absolutely nothing for me.

He informed me that it only seemed that way to me since I viewed it out of context, and all the things in it had been used and reused since then.

It was everything I could do to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head...as if I had never heard THAT about "Citizen Kane" before.

It is one of the nice things about going to college, but also one of the most annoying...it is like socialism itself...

[rlmorel]

Hehe...welcome to the PIT! (The pit of all the other freepers, myself included, who piled in on this type of thing!)

[glmjr]

I would rather vote for a Democrat than that....more government involvment...amnesty pushing... foreign affairs ignorant...Bush bashing....high taxing....parole giving...credential lying.....preacher hick from Arkansas. That's about it (sure I missed something)

Minute Men of America
 Stand Up

 

I always thought our group stood for stopping illegal immigration.  I also thought  that we, The Minute Me, wanted a permanent security fence along our southern border.  It is now clear to me that our leaders are either asleep or have given up on our cause to save America from becoming a third world nation.

"When I am president, I will build a fence."

 

Did you know .....Fred Thompson in a speech in Iowa on the 21st. of Dec. declared  "When I am president, I will build a fence."  He went further on to say...Amnesty and illegal immigration, he said, are not healthy for the U.S. or Mexico. "We need to be a nation of high fences and wide gates."

Is this not what we want?
Where are our leaders?
Why aren't there Minute Men  TV spots endorsing  Fred Thompson?  

If we fail we may very well have a Democrat or a liberal Republican elected, who will then push an amnesty bill through congress. 

Call your Minute Men Headquarters today and give them your opinion.

 

[rlmorel]

Thanks for the link...I am, however leaning towards Duncan Hunter.

The truth is, I am going to hold my nose (if necessary) and vote for anyone who is NOT Hillary, Obama, Kucinich, Democrat or Ron Paul.

Whoever that turns out to be.

[gubamyster]

ping

[ozarkgirl]

Yep, same here. I emailed the bank, no response of course. I have however figured out if I just hit “cancel” instead of #1 or #2, it will take me straight to where I enter my pin number. It’s the simple things in life that make me happy. ;)

[Dust in the Wind]

"I have however figured out if I just hit “cancel” instead of #1 or #2, it will take me straight to where I enter my pin number."

I'm wondering if that will work on other keyboards such as wally-worlds self check line...Thanks for the heads up.

And Happy New Year !