Posted on 05/28/2018 8:46:14 AM PDT by artichokegrower
Natalia Meneses was shopping at a Walmart in Georgia this year when her 3-year-old daughter began a conversation that triggered an ugly experience.
The little girl did not blurt out a profanity or otherwise say anything inappropriate. She simply pointed out flower hair clips to her mother: "Mira, Mami!"
Overhearing the conversation that ensued in Spanish between mother and child, a woman snapped at Meneses, an American citizen who was born in Colombia.
"You need to teach this kid to speak English, because this is America and kids need to learn English," she said. "If not, you need to get out of this country."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
You ain’t from round here is you?
In SoCal you might not be hired if you do NOT speak Spanish. Most people here are Hispanic. Most people hired to deal with the public need to speak Spanish. Clerks at stores or banks switch from English to Spanish depending on who is next in line.
At first I hated it. Now it’s just the way things are. What I personally resent is how much effort my grandparents put in to learn English, and how much effort I put in to learn three languages so I could speak well in Europe when I lived there.
Of course, the little kid should learn both. Children have a unique ability to learn languages when they are young. Europeans learn many more languages because they are required to take at least one or two foreign languages typically including English and beginning in grade school.
In Europe, most people can speak passable English. In fact, I was recently in Italy, and I always find it amusing when the Italian waiter will speak to French tourists in English even though Italian and French are Romance languages with many similarities.
Nonetheless in the U.S., she must master English because this is language of the legal system in this country and the first language in business worldwide.
Now, leftist globalist types would coddle such a person in order to enable their ignorance and victimhood. That way, they’ll be a good little Dem voter.
The only English they need to read is written on their welfare checks
Don’t let them fool you too much with the “No Ingles”. I did field collections for a utility and not many understood English....until you took their electric meter for non-payment. Then they learned it within a second, even the foul words.
If you are speaking of the woman who criticized the hispanic mom, then I agree........
People should be free to speak their native language to their family members no matter where they are. My best friend grew up in Hamtramck, MI, and there wasn't a Polish bakery or meat market where the merchant and their customers didn't speak Polish to each other. And that included my friend's mom and dad........
As a side note, Srodek market in Hamtramck has a store front near me in a northern suburb and any time you walk in to purchase Polish sausage and any other Polish cuisine, you will hear a Polish customer speaking Polish to the person waiting on them..........I certainly have no problem with that and only wish I knew how to speak Polish.
The three year old child in question will learn how to speak English in school while at the same time keeping her Spanish speaking heritage with her family at home.........
People can be just so damn rude..........
Yes, HT. I was referring to the woman who criticized the Mom.
Ethnic neighborhoods are a national treasure in my opinion and to go to a Polish store & hear Polish or German in a German store, Chinese in Chinatown is a wonderful thing.
I think people are certainly free to speak to their relatives in the language they choose where ever they are, as you do. I think in many situations, where everyone else is speaking English, they will however participate more fully if they speak English.
I do not believe this crap.
My wife is from Mexico but speaks perfect English as she attended universities here in my beloved state of Texas. I also speak Spanish from growing up on the border and working in South America in my twenties.
At home we speak both languages. In public we will speak either language dependent on whom we are speaking with. In public if we are only speaking to each other we use either language we want to and that is our privilege.
I cannot believe you have no clue about ettiquette.
So you like when people are whispering around you and don’t get the weird feeling they might be laughing at you (esp. when they’re giving furtive looks your way). Of course, they could also shyly be commenting on your magnificent looks, but one can’t be sure.
Ever watch the Seinfeld episode with the Koreans and Elaine? Fictional example in point, very realistic.
There is also an old Civil War story about 2 prisoners on a train with a guard. They spoke Swedish or something and assumed no one else knew, so they tried to come up with plans to escape the train. Too bad the guard nearby knew what they were saying.
I can’t believe you never incidentally hear people talking and what they’re saying out in public. Give me a break. Do you righteously go around closing your ears and shouting “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” when they’re in easy earshot?
This is why, just as an example. Don’t think it happens in real life?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn_id7JQH0o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycDfwns61Tk&t=14s
And here are some related items mostly whispering, but much on foreign speech as well.
https://www.thespruce.com/whispering-and-other-rude-communication-1216730
http://work.chron.com/workplace-etiquette-whispering-11842.html
I’m awful tired of having to spell out a common Anglo name, Kenneth, that has only one recognized spelling. I wouldn’t need to have “Juan” or “Pablo” spelled out for me. Indian names are more problematic, being from a language which doesn’t share as many common roots. But I can assure you, were I to move to India and take advantage of whatever imagined benefits it may have, I would make a real effort to to become familiar with its language and customs. Its simple manners, which, as i grow older, are obviously a (white) American thing.
That’s just incomprehensible to me (especially in the case of the times in which the old Polish woman grew up). Everyone that I know that’s been in the US since infancy can speak very functional English even if it wasn’t their first language. Maybe with a bit of an accent, but understandable. Your stories are just weird to me, given how readily children pick up languages (course if they’re in a school district that allows them to do most of their work in their native tongue, then they might never get any significant exposure).
Meant to include you in my #111
That is a very common situation at that base. Some how certain TexMex families can get numerous relatives placed on the payroll generation after generation. I am convinced that a number who are hired initially as low grade wage grade employees are illegals. The increaseing number TexMex shop and office supervisors makes effective confrontation of the situation almost impossible.
My wife speaks Russian to our children in public all the time. I've never considered it rude.
If you can't understand the conversation she's having between her and her children, that's not her problem. If she was speaking to you, she'd speak English.
Sounds good to me. 3 out of the 6 of my immediate family might answer her in Russian to have a chance to practice.
If you can’t speak English if you’re not willing to learn it you have no business being in this country.
Thank you. I know many legal immigrants that despise those that do not learn the language. Retention of a language other than English is saying you immigrated not to become an American, but to live apart and that is not good and puts us on the road to Balkanization.
A common language unifies a people.
Sadly I think you are correct.
WTF does that have to do with telling some woman at the store to make her kid speak english?
>>Some needed to be bitch slapped.<<
No free speech unless you approve what’s said, right?
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