Some bosses don't want to hear Spanish

Houston Chronicle ^ | JAMES PINKERTON

[FrdmLvr]

The incident, settled for $31,000 after a discrimination suit was filed in a Houston federal court, is an extreme example of cases fueling a growing debate over English-only policies in the workplace, experts say.

What???!!!!! The guy pulls a knife on them, and he's prosecuted not for that but for DISCRIMINATION?????

[VOA]

bump

[ßuddaßudd]

Let’s see, from my cube I can hear Chinese, Portuguese, Viet, Tagalog, Russian and sometimes Espanol. I guess it could be worse....

[april15Bendovr]

As a customer I don’t like hearing it. I would love nothing more than to see Spanish Americans assimilate and speak the Americas language which is English.

They can speak it Their traditional language at home and in their community just like other people did that assimilated into our melting pot. If they want to keep it and force it on others than they are making this country a tossed salad rather than a melting pot.

Nothing personal but I don’t find the Spanish language very attractive. For me its like going to a firing range and listening to a machine gun go off without ear protection.

[seoul62]

Problem where I am situated is that people have a hard time understanding me because I speak clear ENGLISH!!!!!!!! I think we are living in a parallel universe, one where the bizarro is the gaining norm./Just Asking - seoul62........

[puroresu]

Yeah, that pretty much describes America circa 2007. A parallel bizarro universe.

[King of Florida]

I speak Spanish. I have family that speak Spanish, some as their first language. (They are either U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, thank you very much.)

It is natural for them to want to speak Spanish to other native Spanish speakers, just as it would be natural for us to speak English to another native English speaker, no matter how long both of us may have resided in a non-English speaking country whose language we have learned.

And also just as it was natural for immigrants in the first half of the twentieth century to speak Italian and Yiddish to each other, and for immigrants in the nineteenth century to speak German to each other.

The children of these immigrants will always speak English better than they speak their parents' native tongue, and the grandchildren of these immigrants will often not be able to speak a word of it.

It has and will always be the American way, as long as America is a place that welcomes (legal) immigrants from other countries.

[mtbopfuyn]

Some customers don't either.

It totally ticks me off when I call a company and have to pick #1 for Spanish and #2 for English.