Why must everything be in Spanish?

eldergamer

eldergamer

CAGiversary!
WTF. I know this is slightly petty but why must I be forced to read two languages or 'choose' english each time I go the counter anywhere? Sears, Wal-Mart, all of their signs now are both in english and spanish.

Who are we catering to? Do you think in Germany and Japan they tack on english to all their signs? No, they expect you to learn the language of the country you're in.
This is just pandering to the 'latino' market that does not want to assimlate and join the rest of the american culture. American business need to realize that their integrity as americans is more important than gathering greenbacks.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']American business need to realize that their integrity as americans is more important than gathering greenbacks.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure they would disagree with you.
 
Oh my god! I am so sorry you have to be exposed to Spanish in your normal daily life. Heaven forbid you have to look for the English label. You should sue somebody, anybody, everybody. You are a saint for bringing this to everyone's attention. Gracias.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']
Who are we catering to? Do you think in Germany and Japan they tack on english to all their signs? No, they expect you to learn the language of the country you're in.
[/quote]
Actually many in Europe are bilingual, trilingual and beyond, knowing several languages besides their mother tongue. My best friend is from Germany and he knows German, English, French, Japanese and some Turkish. Another friend of mine from Lithuania, by virtue of her location, had picked up Russian, German, Polish, Lithuanian and English by the time she was 13. We Americans are especially attached to our xenolinguiphobia I imagine.

And in Japan, depending on where you are, you're likely to see a lot of signs in English in an effort to accommodate foreigners. :/
 
[quote name='looploop']

And in Japan, depending on where you are, you're likely to see a lot of signs in English in an effort to accommodate foreigners. :/[/QUOTE]


seems like a checkmate to me
 
[quote name='looploop']Actually many in Europe are bilingual, trilingual and beyond, knowing several languages besides their mother tongue. My best friend is from Germany and he knows German, English, French, Japanese and some Turkish. Another friend of mine from Lithuania, by virtue of her location, had picked up Russian, German, Polish, Lithuanian and English by the time she was 13. We Americans are especially attached to our xenolinguiphobia I imagine.

And in Japan, depending on where you are, you're likely to see a lot of signs in English in an effort to accommodate foreigners. :/[/quote]All very true.

The US isn't doing as good as a job to help translate for everyone OP!
 
Yes, but why spanish. What makes this immigrant community entitlted to such special treatment? In some places of the country asian and african immigrants outnumber hispanic and we make no effort to translate their languages.
Hell, even the fucking coast guard commercial is in spanish now.
 
Because Asian and African communities are less likely to bitch?

Squeaky wheel...

Surprised it took 10 or so replies to call the OP a bigot. That must have taken CONSIDERABLE restraint.

Remember, we're not a melting part any more, we're a patchwork quilt!
 
To be fair, when someone asks a question (I don't care if you're liberal or conservative) you really shouldn't just start saying "you fail" and "lock thread."

That's not (obviously) encouraging any rational discussion and makes people sketched out about talking about things openly.

That said, my spanish is so-so. I'm a big proponent of people knowing multiple languages. God, everywhere I have traveled people always seem to know a little English. It would be nice if more Americans spoke more languages and a little less ethnocentric, perhaps.

I really brushed it up on my Spanish when I went to Central America because I didn't want to have to rely on my English.

I worked at a group home for mostly Latino kids a few years back. I have to say, it really distressed me how a lot of the parents had been in the United states for anywhere from five to ten years and could not speak any English. Not a lick. I mean, does one actually have to TRY extra hard to not try that hard? Do you know the problems that this can cause? Not being aware of what is happening with your kids, is a common result.

English is a hard language to learn, but seriously, wouldn't you want to try, (especially if you had kids?)
 
[quote name='dallow']He's also a bigot.[/quote]This is why most people don't express their true opinions, because of people like you throwing around your accusations.
 
The poorer Hispanic parents that I know that never learn English do so because there is almost no need for them to.

They live in tight knit communities, they have everything they need.
There's no incentive for them learning English.
 
nExactly. You tried to learn spanish when you went to central america. Just like I would try to learn Japanese for Japan or French for France, etc. But over here we don't want to appear bigoted or racist, so let's accomidate all our new immigrants (legal or otherwise) and have everything in spanish anyway.
Honestly, was spanish translations this prevalent 10 or even 5 years ago?

In the hospital ER's you often get large numbers of long term residents with no english speaking ability. There's no need when you don't leave your community and don't integrate with the rest of the nation.

/quote
I really brushed it up on my Spanish when I went to Central America because I didn't want to have to rely on my English.

I worked at a group home for mostly Latino kids a few years back. I have to say, it really distressed me how a lot of the parents had been in the United states for anywhere from five to ten years and could not speak any English. Not a lick. I mean, does one actually have to TRY extra hard to not try that hard? Do you know the problems that this can cause? Not being aware of what is happening with your kids, is a common result.

English is a hard language to learn, but seriously, wouldn't you want to try, (especially if you had kids?)[/quote]
 
There's nothing wrong with having a unifying national culture. That's basically what the melting pot is. Every immigrant in the past has settled in and adapted to the culture, and added to it as well. Dorky as it sounds, that is what makes a nation strong.

Frankly, I think part of the problem is that the average American has little need to learn an alternate language, and there's no one that a single individual would use on even a semi-regular basis. Given that we're one of the big dogs, we deal with and take in people from just about everywhere. That's a LOT of languages to learn. Not that there's anything WRONG with learning new languages. Nothing wrong with it at all, just so long as we're learning languages we'd use, not for the purposes of erudition.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']This is why most people don't express their true opinions, because of people like you throwing around your accusations.[/quote]I'm pretty racial myself.
We all are.

You're a fatty.
 
[quote name='dallow']I'm pretty racial myself.
We all are.

You're a fatty.
[/quote]
Nigger

Sorry. I just love that censor.
 
Yeah real bigoted. My wife is black and one of the groomsmen at my wedding was philipino (and gay).

[quote name='dallow']He's also a bigot.[/quote]
 
Supreme bigot!

You make fun of them, and still use their women.

And then use Asians as groomsmen/servants.

Also, it's Filipino, not philipino.
 
spanish ftw

Todos americanos neccessitan hablar epsanol un dia.

Not a native speaker, but I feel I should get some use out of the required two years at my college I took.
 
[quote name='jer7583']spanish ftw

Todos americanos neccessitan hablar epsanol un dia.

Not a native speaker, but I feel I should get some use out of the required two years at my college I took.[/quote]

Por que?
 
You think you have it bad? Here in Ontario everything has French and English on it. I could count on one hand how many native French speakers I have met in my 6 years here. Some French jackass politician decided it would be a neat thing to have and everyone suffers.

In the greater Toronto area, more people speak Chinese than French.
 
Too many fuckin' frauleins around Ft. Myers, man. I hate all this German getting in the way. Why can't they learn English, instead of getting all schprechenzie in my shit?

OP, I wish for your living standard, so I can get bent out of shape over things that are merely inconvenient for me, like bumping into Spanish, or those damned kids running through my lawn. Lemme know if you'd like to trade, but first, tell me your annual income. I want to make sure you're genuinely well-off, and not parlaying your life failures onto a topic unrelated to them.
 
Sometimes I feel like people sit around and try to find things to bitch about.

Honestly, what difference does it make? What if everyone suddenly had to speak Spanish? Would it really matter? Is that really an issue?

I mean if you still had your family, friends, your same economic situation, same TV and video games only everything was in Spanish, why would you care?

It's not even like that either, you simply have the option to get things in Spanish or English or they're provided in both and you're bitching about that?
 
Myke, getting bent out of shape that someone is bitching about something petty on AN INTERNETS FORUM.

Combine this with your post two threads down, and I gotta ask, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?
 
[quote name='RollingSkull']
Combine this with your post two threads down, and I gotta ask, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?[/quote]

Scooter Libby, obviously. Now that he's off the hook he's out to piss in all of our cheerios.
 
It's just that I feel that government and business/corporations should accomidate a certain population of immigrants (most of them illegal) who clearly show now willing desire to either be American citizens or fit into american culture.
 
[quote name='coltyhuxx']To be fair, when someone asks a question (I don't care if you're liberal or conservative) you really shouldn't just start saying "you fail" and "lock thread."[/QUOTE]

Obviously you haven't dealt with evanft before (okay, to be fair there are others that do the same, just that evan posted the message in question).
 
I've noticed the growing "learn the language" argument lately. To that, I say that English is one of, if not the most difficult languages to learn. None of the tenses make sense, nor do the conjugations. Figure that most Americans don't learn English well enough to call themselves "fluent" until they're 25 (if that), and then cut the Spanish speaking members of society some slack.
 
[quote name='JJSP']I've noticed the growing "learn the language" argument lately. To that, I say that English is one of, if not the most difficult languages to learn. None of the tenses make sense, nor do the conjugations. Figure that most Americans don't learn English well enough to call themselves "fluent" until they're 25 (if that), and then cut the Spanish speaking members of society some slack.[/QUOTE]

I think most people are not upset that someone for whom English is not the first language doesn't speak it particularly well. As you correctly point out, for many of us, just having English as a first language hardly guarantees anything close to correct usage, God forbid a reasonably expansive vocabulary. But I would say most are concerned about Spanish-language "ghettoes" where people come here and live for 20+ years and never learn even rudimentary English - not even enough to go about their daily lives if they must visit non-Spanish language stores and the like. Since I would never go to Mexico City and expect that I could live there and function as a full member of society knowing no Spanish, I can certainly understand this viewpoint.

Long story short, I think most people are not going to be critical of others as long as they TRY.
 
Even for those who learn the language, they could read and speak Spanish much easier and faster and having things in their native tongue makes for easier communication. I don't think it's necessarily an accomodation for immigrants who don't want to learn English.

Non-English speaking towns have always existed because of the fact that things outside weren't available in their language and they couldn't speak/understand English (and also people hated them and confined them to those places much of the time, but that situation isn't necessarily much different now either).

Wouldn't the availability of things in their native language make them more likely to move out of ghettos and into the normal population since they know they'll be able to understand things well enough to function and be able to learn the language at their own pace? It's not like there are Spanish-speaking cashiers at every store; things on boxes are just in Spanish and you can call a Spanish-speaking support line or something.

If you want ghettos then you can make it impossible for them to function outside of a tightly knit society that they understand. That's always worked in the past. Actually many people (not putting you in this category OP) that argue against multiple-language things do so specifically because they'd rather not have to be around "foreigners" and they dress up their racism/xenophobia in nationalist/cultural rhetoric.

I know most people don't care as long as somebody is trying to learn the language, but you can't know who is and is not trying to learn. Even people that would prefer things in their native language could be trying to learn English and just haven't gotten there yet and I see no problem offering them things in their language.
 
I work with anywhere from 2-12 of these guys a day. I work in Minneapolis and we have a temp agency where we get guys to do our bitch work.

Overall, they're good people for the most part, but we seem to get a couple now and then that aren't much above monkeys with jeans. We get guys that hock loogies on the floor, throw styrofoam or tinfoil in the microwave for 10 minutes, pick their nose and wipe it on the wall, leave dirty plates on the tables and generally don't even feign washing their hands after taking a big old bean-powered shit.

It's almost like they don't even have a fucking brain sometimes. I know there are cultural differences, but fucking honestly, where is it acceptable to blow your nose on the fucking wall?

One in 5 can speak rudimentary English. We have three Mexicans on the staff, one is fluent in English, one is pretty good, but sometimes things take effort to explain, but I like them both. They both work hard at their job and both work hard at using English. The third one, however, has been working there for about 5 years and knows less English than I do Spanish. Any question you ask him he answers, "Yes" or "its ok." However, I think he's actually retarded as he'll say the same thing about 15 times in a row and he walked up to a girl in our office and just honked the hell out of her tit....

I don't know.
 
I'd advise the OP not go to Disney World. They've been dual announcing instructions in spanish on the monorails for over 30 years.

What's the big deal, it's spanish. Is there a law that says we're only Americans becuase a majority of us speak english? Majority rules, right? Entonces, necessitas apreder otra lengua porque la mayoria no hablara ingles en el futuro.
 
i got a solution for the op?
whats the big freakin deal about it?
not spanish here, i take french in skool. but seriously comon, this is not an issue.
 
[quote name='bmulligan']
Entonces, necessitas apreder otra lengua porque la mayoria no hablara ingles en el futuro.[/quote]

damn straight:bouncy:
 
[quote name='sonicfreak5']i got a solution for the op?
whats the big freakin deal about it?
not spanish here, i take french in skool. but seriously comon, this is not an issue.[/quote]Maybe you should be taking English in "skool". Comon.
 
freetranslation.com - neat little website

C'mon guys! whats so wrong with Spanish? Don't you all at least want to know what all those hot chicks on Telemundo and Univision are saying?

ok... i guess not
 
[quote name='RollingSkull']Myke, getting bent out of shape that someone is bitching about something petty on AN INTERNETS FORUM.

Combine this with your post two threads down, and I gotta ask, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning?[/QUOTE]

Now, I often read your posts and can't quite grasp which portions of your brain are alert at what point in time, but given that you glanced over something so clearly sarcastic, I'm somewhat pleased to see that your obtuseness is on at all times.

I read a book the other day that spelled 'behavior' 'behaviour.' Why can't these fuckers learn the language, y'know? I demand reparations!
 
This is AMERICA.Learn english.I had no problem learning spanish. When I go to Mexico I speak spanish.I do not see signs in both english and spanish.Why is having somone learn our language so bad.Do you now how bad it is when you go shopping and the person who is there to help has no idea what you are saying.As Americans we have the right to expect people to speak english in this country
 
[quote name='browneyedgal68']This is AMERICA.Learn english.I had no problem learning spanish. When I go to Mexico I speak spanish.I do not see signs in both english and spanish.Why is having somone learn our language so bad.Do you now how bad it is when you go shopping and the person who is there to help has no idea what you are saying.As Americans we have the right to expect people to speak english in this country[/quote]Bitch bitch bitch.
English isn't even the States' official language. We have none!
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']This is why most people don't express their true opinions, because of people like you throwing around your accusations.[/quote]

If I expressed my true opinion I'd get ban't pretty fast :lol:

So I usually just lay low and read the topics in the Politic/Controversy forum.
 
I believe thats our problem.

[quote name='dallow']Bitch bitch bitch.
English isn't even the States' official language. We have none![/quote]
 
No one has really answered the question yet of "Why Spanish?" Why is my Verizion instruction in english and spanish. Why is the coast guard psa in english and spanish. Why does visa ask me to choose between english and spanish?

What makes the spanish/mexican population so important that we feel obligated to include information in their native tongue? And why has this become so much more common within the past 10 years?
 
Because of all our illegal immigrants, 11 million of them are Hispanic.

Or maybe they just bitch the most.



[quote name='eldergamer']No one has really answered the question yet of "Why Spanish?" Why is my Verizion instruction in english and spanish. Why is the coast guard psa in english and spanish. Why does visa ask me to choose between english and spanish?

What makes the spanish/mexican population so important that we feel obligated to include information in their native tongue? And why has this become so much more common within the past 10 years?[/quote]
 
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