Boy, I'm gonna have a hard time sleeping tonight, worrying about how Habib converses with Hernando
Stories like this are one of the reasons I so love America. It will all work out. Commerce in action.
I have Indian friends who own a 7-11, and the wife is currently taking spanish classes because of the number of patrons who know NO english. It's a business decision, which I understand...because the immigrants could easily go down the road to the Persian owned 6-12 market.
My sister is looking for a new job as a Social Worker and finds most employers want social workers who can speak Spanish as well as English.
Yo, Patel! Don't hire illegals and you won't have to learn Spanish.
BTW, we were in Austin yesterday and went shopping at Highland Mall. The kids asked why everyone was speaking Spanish, so I had to explain Austin is a sanctuary city. Then we wandered downstairs and low and behold I found Mexcio. Yep, there was a clothing store ("Exit" or some such) that, I swear, the entire enventory and the employees were sneaked past customs in the back of a '57 Chevy. I just HAD to go in and check it out. Every thing was $10 or less - jeans were $10, ball gowns were $6. When there were labels, they were in Spanish and most didn't have sizes. The employees were all speaking Spanish and the cashiers were telling puzzled customers the totals in Spanish.
Folks, in case you aren't aware, the invasion has begun and is nearly complete.
How do you say, "Oh, crap!" in Spanish??
I believe this is called 'enabling' and is doing
Spanish-speakers (or any other language) living in America a disservice--if English became the legal national language of the USA, then all this expensive redundancy and bureacracy wouldn't be necessary! Think how much paper could be saved if things didn't have to be copied multiple times in multiple languages! How many trees are recklessly destroyed for this foolishness every year?
Hey, yeah! Let's get the tree huggers involved! Maybe they'll find a way to stop this idiocy. ;-)
Press 2 for Spanish.
Press 3 for Gujarati.
FMCDH(BITS)
It is Balkanization, or is it a recreation of remnants of the Indian caste system? Either way, it's the same system that many middle age Indian Americans were born into in India. Language is one of the major determinants of caste in Indian society today. Spanish is just another dialect of the Indian Diaspora's business empires.
Also, my company's Patel clients have all been very decent people, a pleasure to work with, with almost everyone one of their kids going on to college. The children, now in their 20's and 30's are all very Americanized, except the fat daughters. That might be a stereotype, but it's been 100% true in my experiences in NY/NJ.
Sadly, I found that my Spanish skills helped me a great deal in traveling throughout the Midwest, and other parts of the country. I always got better service from the hotel and restaurant staff when I spoke to them in Spanish.
It shouldn't be that way in OUR country, and I know I was enabling them, but I was simply looking out for #1, trying to get the best service I could.