A NEW YORK ATTORNEY went on a rant when he heard store clerks speaking Spanish among themselves and with customers.
“This is America!” he told them.
He was right and he was wrong.
I LIVE IN SOUTH FLORIDA where job applicants are expected to speak Spanish. (Puerto Rican Spanish? Cuban Spanish? Mexican Spanish?)
I grew up here and vividly remember signs in Burdine’s Flagler Street store that read
- Se habla espanol
Conditioned air
Many years later my Spouse (who speaks four languages) and I (only two; one badly) tried to buy a special stove – one with a gas cook top and an electric oven. We had one when we lived over seas and given the frequency of hurricanes in Florida, thought it a good idea.
We went to several stores and in none of them were any English-speaking sales people. Not one.
I reacted similarly, sans the rant, to the lawyer in New York: “This is America. Speak English.”
I still feel that way, but with a caveat.
It’s OK to speak whatever language you like in your home and among your friends.
HOWEVER, in a place of business, speak the language of your patrons.
If I go to Borough Park in NYC I expect to hear Yiddish, but don’t try to sell me something in Yiddish.
If I go to the French Quarter in New Orleans, I would not be surprised to hear French or Creole. But I only will do business in English.
Why?
Even though there are many international pictographs, there remain many signs that are only in English. Perhaps because the U.S. covers such a large geographic area, signs in most areas are in English only. Smaller countries, especially those with non-Latin alphabets, often put signs in the more common local languages. As it turns out, English is NOT the only international language for road signs; French also is found in areas (once) controlled by the French (e.g., Morocco, Quebec)
Most of the people with whom I regularly associate speak two of the languages I speak. When we know there is a person who lacks our “other” language, English immediately becomes the language of the conversation.
Because I cannot mow the grass anymore, we engaged a Guatemalan couple to keep the weeds in check. Their command of English is survival level; “just enough” to communicate with their non-Spanish speaking customers and to understand non-pictograph road signs.
My personal bottom line is I don’t care what language you speak at home and among others comfortable with your language. I don’t complain when I hear Spanish (or Creole) spoken, but when I am in a store in the U.S. I expect the clerks to have at least a basic comprehension of English and the ability to do business in that language.
The U.S. does NOT have an “official” language; unofficially, the language of the country is English due the number of legal transactions documented in English.
President Trump had a good point when he suggested that citizenship candidates should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of English, the dominant language in the U.S.
It helps with integration – the person with English as a Second Language (ESL) is able to escape the language ghetto and can interact with others who lack the immigrant’s first language.
No one should ask the new immigrant to forego his or her native language, just add English to the mix.
To that end, it behooves the governments – federal and state – to make ESL classes available, free or at low cost, to anyone with a desire and commitment to learn the language. The U.S. used to do this. Poland does it. Israel does it.
Something to think about.
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