Supercuts sued for ban on Spanish

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | August 12, 2005 | NATASHA KORECKI

[Myrddin]

No. These people REFUSE to communicate in English. They are not unable, they REFUSE!!!!!!!!

I was a regular customer at the La Salsa restaurant in Mira Mesa. I knew the staff. One day they starting addressing me in Spanish. We had conducted business exclusively in English for almost 3 years. When they refused to speak English, I ordered my food in Welsh. They looked really perplexed. Their understanding of Welsh was less than my understanding of Spanish. I suggested we both function better in English. End of problem.

[IYAAYAS]

You know it's kind of funny when you talked about your 9/11 Spanish experience. The same sort of thing happened to me. On the morning of 9/11 at work we wheeled a TV into a conference room, the only channel we could pick up was the Spanish language channel. 50 people gathered around most crying, watching the Spanish channel. The only people in the company who spoke Spanish were two low ranking Dominican girls. Between sobs they spent the rest of the morning translating before we closed for the day and sent everyone home.

[Tulane]

Hey, my wife is Welsh...Pembroke!

[Tulane]

Yeah...I think when the chips are down, we all know we're all Americans.

[magnieye]

English is language of the business world if you exclusively do business in the United States. Even then not really. If you want to target your entire market, you should consider the portion that does not speak English.

I have to disagree with you on those who speak another language and learn English have a greater advantage than the other way around.

Look at most of the classifieds in major metropolitan areas. You see statements as "bilingual (English/Spanish required) Portuguese a plus."

[Stu Cohen]

Fine, we'll stick with Stupidbastard Cohen. "Stupidbastard Cohen," is that Jewish?

It's whatever you would like it to be. I've no idea what point you are trying to make.

[Lead Moderator]

Cool it.

[Myrddin]

Hey, my wife is Welsh...Pembroke!

Ydy chi yn siarad Cymraeg?

[Tulane]

Good points...try practicing law in Miami without a working knowledge of Spanish...

[Tulane]

My apologies.

[Tulane]

Oh boy...I am going to have to cut and paste and have her answer...definitely do not speak/read...

[Tulane]

If it helps, we celebrate St. David's day,,,

[Iron Matron]

A 6 guard on top and a 2 on the sides is hard to mess up too badly.<<<

LOL!

And me, I turn fifty this year..somewhere along the way to that age, I quit caring what others thought about my hair!

[Misterioso]

I have a habit of doubting the citizenship of anybody speaking Spanish.

Unselfconscious candor. At least you are honest. Did you really mean to say this?

[Shazolene]

Even in your example, English is a given.
I stand my ground, you've made my case.

[longtermmemmory]

They shop keeping is informing the public that Spanish is the language of their business, english is secondary in that American city's business.

Even then, in those establishments it is not unusual to find NOBODY speaks funtional english.

[Tulane]

I don't find that offensive...though it is clearly (potentially) bad for business.

[magnieye]

"Even in your example, English is a given. "

But so is Spanish. Don't be so short-sighted as to believe that Spanish is going away. When Hispanics account for the largest growing minority (recently a majority in Texas), yo can rest assured that major corporations are not going to ignore that demographic.

If it takes Spanish commercials and signs that say "Se Habla Espanol", you know smart businesses are going to do it. That is why you hear the prompts press 1 for English or press 2 for Spanish.

[T.Smith]

Actually, yes. That is a pretty safe assumption in Atlanta these days.