Spanish not spoken here (or please learn the damned language).

Sometimes it is the little things that bother me. Today it was just the thought of US Government and State government agencies insisting on putting documents in Spanish. I realize we have a rather large Spanish speaking population here in the USA but why does this particular group of immigrants get treated any differently than previously large groups of immigrants? I have no problem with folks speaking their native language but I also expect them to have the decency to at least attempt to learn the language of the country they have come to live in.

When the Italians and Germans and French came to the USA they learned English. Why? Because that was the language of their new home. The Romanians, Hungarians, Czechoslovakians and Polish all learned English. They didn’t ask to be treated differently and they certainly were not treated as special. That is not to say that local merchants and such shouldn’t cater to the population in their area but I draw the line at the government coddling new immigrants of one particular group who simply need to learn the language of the country in which they live.

If you were to move to Germany would you expect them to learn English, provide paperwork in english, etc. Of course you wouldn’t, you would learn the local language. The only paperwork our government should provide to aliens in their native language is a list of places where they can learn English. There should be no phone answering systems that say “press 2 for español”.

I would like to point out that I have absolutely nothing against anyone speaking Spanish or being an immigrant. I simply think that if you make a decision to move to another country you need to be willing to become a fully participating member of the local community and that includes speaking the language.

I have no intention of learning to speak Spanish, unless I decide to take a trip where it is spoken. In that case I will do the folks I am visiting the courtesy of at least attempting to learn the language. But until that time I can say for certain that there is no Spanish spoken here.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled surfing.
Tim

For more good stuff check out my primary website.

Follow Tim on twitter @tl1000rzx2