Posted by
Thinking on Sunday, August 05, 2007 1:42:31 PM
Join me in ceasing all business transactions with any company that has messages in English and Spanish while ignoring all other communities, communities which have contributed and continue to contribute mightily to the welfare of this country. What corporations are doing is just plain wrong. It's either English only -- which is what it should be -- or it's all languages.
Linda Chavez (Friday, June 22, 2007, Townhall.com), goes after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (and a couple of other politicians) for pandering to constituents by speaking Spanish during election time and asks that they “Speak English, Please.”
She states that “Spanish-speaking newcomers are going through today in their transition to English” as nearly identical to what every group encountered at periods of high immigration over the last 200 years. She writes that 100 years earlier, there were German-language newspapers, German-language theater, German civic associations, and German bilingual schools. “Even today, nearly 1.4 million Americans still speak German at home; it is the fourth most popular foreign language spoken in the U.S. after Spanish, Chinese and French.”
And she questions “will Hispanic immigrants learn English over time, as the Germans, Italians, Poles and others did before them? “The evidence, based on studies of Hispanic immigrants' children and grandchildren, suggests they will. But it might help if policymakers like Schwarzenegger didn't speak out of both sides of their mouth on this issue.”
With all due respect, Ms. Chavez’s article is somewhat short-sighted. Not only were there newspapers in other languages, including German, French, Chinese, etc., there still are, but what did not exist is every major corporation in America setting up to cater to two languages.
All other nationalities HAD to learn English as they were not pandered to. Does Ms. Chavez not believe that Spanish-speaking people would learn English faster if they had too?
I live in an area with a large Spanish population (many of whom are here illegally) and I hear English less frequently by the day. I was recently in a well-known, quite large department store and did not hear one person speaking English -- not the clerks and not the customers!
I’m becoming increasingly baffled at the insistence of our South-of-the-U.S.-border-neighbors in speaking Spanish once they arrive on U.S. soil and at the pandering to that predilection by American corporations (although I realize that is based in greed).
It seems to me that unless you were born in Spain, the Spanish language is that of one's captors. It is the language of the people that sailed in to destroy Mexican, Central and South American cities and cultures, took their land, stole their gold (and sent it to Spain), raped their women, and insisted that they become Catholic and pro-create even when there wasn't/isn't sufficient water and food.
It also seems to me that people coming to America are seeking a better life, opportunity, sometimes escaping war and strife, etc., and have been more than willing to learn English, which, for better or worse, is the language of this country. I understand the difficulties of learning another language – my attempts at various languages are pitiful, but I do attempt to speak the language of any country I’m in. If you feel somehow that Spanish is a superior language, then stay in or move to a Spanish-speaking country.
Shouldn't American corporations either have to cater to all languages, or only to English? Catering to English and Spanish only fosters prejudice doesn’t it?
A young Mexican-American writer named Dacia Medina was born in America. Her father came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico 32 years ago and married an American. Ms. Medina attended U.S. schools, predominantly Spanish, yet Ms. Medina does not speak Spanish and, ironically, was turned down because she does not speak the language fluently. On July 29, 2007, she wrote on AmericanContent.com, “This has not been the first time this has happened. This is frightening. What is the problem here when an American born and raised in this country can not get a job because they do not speak a foreign language? Isn’t this America? Isn't our primary language English?”
We are all in a position to make a difference, particularly people with Hispanic surnames. I know third and fourth generation Americans originally from South of the Border who speak fluent English, some speak Spanish, and most are embarrassed by illegal immigrants and being lumped in with a group that chooses to fly under the radar.
Ms Chavez’s finger-pointing at Schwarzenegger's inclination to speak Spanish during election time is pointing in a convenient direction, but won't solve anything. What about pointing to all the greedy companies who are the people creating a dual language nation?