Posted on 05/18/2004 10:07:14 PM PDT by kattracks
Two politicians in Maryland are now in trouble for stating the obvious: People who work in customer service should speak English. And out-of-control multiculturalism is to blame for the failure to preserve America's common language.
The professional victims are up in arms as usual -- demanding apologies, whining to the press and clamoring for government subsidies to nurse their hurt feelings. But for once, the truth-tellers refuse to back down. They are role models for the rest of the nation's spine-deprived public officials.
It all started a few weeks ago when former Gov. William Donald Schaefer walked into a McDonald's restaurant he had frequented regularly for years. Schaefer, a Democrat who now works as comptroller under Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich, ordered the same thing every morning: hot tea and a biscuit. After encountering difficulty with a newly hired worker with poor English skills, he quit going to the restaurant out of frustration. "I don't want to adjust to another language," he declared publicly. "This is the United States. I think they should adjust to us."
Who hasn't had an exasperating experience like Schaefer's? In my neighborhood, I've run into English-challenged McDonald's workers who can barely muster a "Hi," a "Welcome" or even a grunt acknowledging my existence while they fiddle with their dumbed-down cash registers. I expect my order to be wrong when I pick it up at the drive-through window, and I never bother going back to get it fixed.
At a Michael's craft store last week, I asked an employee (loitering listlessly in the scrapbooking aisle) where the fabrics were. "Fah-brics?" I repeated slowly and gestured fruitlessly, drawing a rectangle in the air with my index fingers. She shook her head in horror and mumbled: "No understand." Oh, silly me.
At my local Wal-Mart, nationwide employer of workers of dubious immigration status, I listened as a checkout lady from Africa blabbed endlessly in her native language to two visitors hanging out by her station. She didn't bother greeting me or looking at me. When I asked for a bag of items that she had forgotten to put in my cart, she ignored me. "Pardon me, can I have my bag?" I asked. "WAH?!" she finally said with a snarl, offended that I had interrupted her conversation.
Whatever happened to "Thank you, please come again"?
Asked about Schaefer's commentary, and what an arctic blast of fresh air it was, Gov. Ehrlich provided full-throated support. "I reject the idea of multiculturalism," Ehrlich told WBAL host Ron Smith. "Once you get into this multicultural crap, this bunk that some folks are teaching in our college campuses and other places, you run into a problem. With respect to this culture, English is the language."
And it is under increasing assault. In the classroom. At the ATM machine. And on the phone (pet peeve: "For English, please press '1'"). The difference between past and present immigration experience is the existence of a defiant anti-assimilationist lobby that encourages legal and illegal aliens to resist adapting to the American way of life.
Look at our voting booths, where local and state election officials across the country are being forced to provide foreign-language ballots, bilingual poll workers and voting materials to non-English-speaking people. In March, the Bush administration ordered Harris County, Texas, to provide all voter registration and election information and supplies, including the voting machine ballot, in Vietnamese as well as English and Spanish. So absurd is the drive to protect the rights of "minority-language citizens" that the little town of Briny Breezes, Fla., was required to publish election notices in Spanish -- even though everyone there speaks English.
The language-Balkanizers naturally attack their opponents as racists and immigrant-haters. Jorge Ribas, a Hispanic activist, likened Gov. Ehrlich to Adolf Hitler and Gov. George Wallace. Most politicians would crumple in fear and start singing "Kumbaya." But both Ehrlich and Schaefer have refused to retract their remarks. Befuddled professors and reporters view the controversy as some kind of calculated political maneuver by Ehrlich, instead of a rare outbreak of common sense.
We could use more of it. Plainspoken English is an effective antidote to muddled multiculturalism.
©2004 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Where I live you have to press "2" for English.
Gotta' love it.
Even worse, don't you despise the internet sites for US companies that have you scroll through a list of every country in the world to find USA, even though 99% of their business is US?
Ping--for no comprendo English.
Aprenda Espanol hoy, evite la prisa manana.
I think Michelle must be my neighbor. Or she shops where I do.
Y'know, I have mixed feelings about this. First of all, I have a personal stake, since part of my job is to communicate info about our 401(k) plans to Spanish-speaking employees. My company offers that as a feature of our services. But that's what one business has voluntarily decided to do, and nobody (except the marketplace) is forcing us to do so.
On the other hand, I do NOT approve of taxpayer money being used to print up government forms, ballots, etc. in Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, etc. Especially ballots! If you are going to live here and become a citizen and participate in our democratic process, there is NO EXCUSE for you not learning English.
I lived in Argentina for 2 years. I never once demanded to have forms, bills, books, prescriptions, or anything else printed nor explained to me in English. The Argentines would have laughed at me and cursed me out something fierce. If I wanted to understand something, I had to do so in Spanish, the language of the land. If I moved to South Korea, I doubt very much the government would bend over backwards to make sure everything was printed in English for me. Why do people expect/demand it of us?
Mujer muy, pero MUY bonita.
I have actually had to spell S-M-I-T-H. I was also asked, after repeatedly spelling the name of a major city in Tennessee, which county it was in. So, apparently, we now need to learn all of the counties in the country, in addition to the States. I would estimate, that at least 60% of the time, I am given the wrong number...often in the wrong city.
I am beginning to feel like a visitor in my own country...
Sí, y ella está en nuestro lado.
A Nation with two languages is two Nations.
Point to your language and we'll get you an interpreter.
It listed over a dozen different languages, using their alphabets... tagalog, vietnamese, chinese, spanish, korean, arabic, etc... I noticed no Hebrew.
Bonita, inteligente y conservadora. ¡La "trifecta"!
(Como mi esposa.)
Michelle lives in Germantown, MD -- lovely view of the lake from her back deck -- and the Wal-Mart she shops at is in the Milestone shopping center on MD355.
Of all the languages spoken by the foreigners in Germantown, oddly enough, German is not one!
:D
The irony is that if they can read the sign they don't really need an interpreter.
Hoo boy. That makes the blood boil. So, they can take our tax dollars, but they don't even have the decency to demand the money in English!?!!
Good grief.
Do as I do in that situation: DEMAND to speak to an english speaking supervisor!
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