Posted on 12/28/2021 3:09:06 AM PST by Kaslin
I'm signed up with a worldwide questions-and-answers board named Quora, which sends me daily digests of its content in the categories I've chosen: history, culture, and languages. Most of the time, the posts are informative and a pleasure to read, but once in a while, they seem to be designed by trolls with an agenda to sow discord in society, just like what the active measures were designed to do in the pre-internet era. That pretty much describes today's social media anyway — one has to take it or leave it.
Today's digest contained just such a leading question with over a hundred answers that read like a smug, virtue-signaling hate-fest. As an immigrant in this country, I just had to answer it, if not the way the author had intended. I thought the readers of the American Thinker would like to see it as well.
The following is the question and my answer to it.
Q: You are sitting in an American restaurant speaking with a friend in Spanish. Somebody at the next table takes offense and shouts "This is America, speak English!" What is the best way of dealing with this situation?
This is a loaded and dishonest question. In my almost 30 years in America (and I've traveled almost everywhere from New York to California), I've never seen this happen. I speak three different languages fluently, and when I'm with people whose first language is Russian or Ukrainian, it's only natural that we communicate in their mother tongue. If we have an English-speaker at our table, we naturally switch to English. No one has ever been stressed about this very normal behavior. The only memory that comes to mind is the opposite of what the question implies, but more on that later.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Why should it matter what language is spoken, if the complainer is at another table?
I do wish that employees in a store would speak English, though.
People coming here to live should speak English. I’ve heard plenty of stories of kids who spoke another language, and the parents would scold them, and tell them you’re an American now, speak English.
30 years ago, Miami Sears store announcements were made in Spanish.
Quota is loaded with childlike opinions, so I left it years ago.
But sometimes a search engine brings a halfway decent Quora answer.
the best way is to say, sorry, got carried away, and then speak English
in Mexico, it’s considered a show of respect for the people and country for folks to attempt to converse in spanish instead of expecting everyone to speak English.
It’s no different in the US = speaking english in the US is a show of respect for the people and country
Spanish takes too many words to express a thought—even worse in engineering.
I’ve seriously thought about dropping Quora but they do have some good people there contributing sensible posts so I hang on but delete anything that annoys me. Besides, when you give a thumbs down, the post disappears from your feed anyway.
Es un pais libre.
Author is correct. Premise is fake strawman stuff.
I rememberr as a GIBrat, living in base housing, that ‘the mother tongue’ was spoken in the house, along with ‘old country customs’, but once out the door, it was English, only.
I still hold to this belief, and believe it should be tthe rule, countrywide, because of those bemoaning the deathof the old language, which would be a loss.
After several years the club was able to buy a club house were our monthly business meetings were held. Than after the business meeting was over we socialized. Whenever a group of Germans sat together we spoke naturally in German, but when an American was in the group we switched over to English so the American could participate.
I reply, If General Washington had not defeated Lord Cornwallis in Yorktown, in 1781, we would still be speaking English in this country. Go bugger yourself.
When we were in the military, we were advised to be polite and speak the native language when we were guests in that country. It’s the polite thing to do.
I get tired of hearing people nattering away in spanish at the top of their voices, on their phones, or in stores. Drives me nuts.
Was also browbeaten at times as a nurse by certain public health crusaders admonishing me for not speaking spanish to immigrant patients. I’m sorry — you come here on our doorstep, asking to be fully taken care of like you’re some kind of helpless idiot, and I think it’s the least you could do to learn 5 words of English.
It’s America, speak English. All those opposed? Go back to your native land! My family immigrated, they learned English. I work in healthcare, what most who think it’s OK to not speak English do not realize is that it costs A FORTUNE to pander to these people! You must have forms in their language and translators. Every phone call you have to pay a translator. In California voting ballots are printed in MULTIPLE LANGUAGES- that’s insane. But, you know, give them this ‘inch’ of language, surely they’ll never then take a yard!
Not being able to speak English limits the person a lot. Not being able to deal (or trust) others to do repairs, finances, etc. I tried to help out a Mexican gal years ago with her car that had a broken hose and was over-heating.
Her little daughter could speak English and explained that her mom didn’t trust anybody, and would drive it 30 miles back to their town to get it fixed.
I told her they wouldn’t make it. I even offered to pay for the hose and install it (I was in college). They said no.
I noticed that with signs. For example, in a waiting room, train station, etc. The Spanish version is usually about 25% longer. And there aren’t as many synonyms (and thus their connotations)
When everyone speaks English, you have the melting pot. When everyone speaks a different language, you have balkanization.
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