crazyml
Posts: 5568
Joined: 7/3/2007
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[Edited to correct the typos I noticed]
[FR]
This thread has brought up a bunch of issues.
First, I'll be honest and admit that I was surprised that the USA doesn't have a "national language", so until one is decided upon, I'm fairly sure that it would be odd to make permanent residence or citizenship dependent on a person's understanding of English. I happen to think it would be a good thing, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect people to have a functional understanding of a common language before they earn a right to citizenship. I wonder if it would be possible for America to choose a national language now?
Then there's the question of supermarket cashiers that don't speak English well, hmm... as others have said, surely that's a hiring decision made by a particular company? When I lived in Concord MA, I had a wide choice of supermarkets I could go to the lowest cost supermarket and be ready to speak a little Spanish, or I could spend quite a lot more on my groceries and go to Cosby's, which had a pretty limited selection (very little "foreign food" for example) but a sensitive person could be sure that the check-out people would be comfortingly Anglo. It seems that there might be a correlation between employment practices and "cost".
Given the emphasis that many Americans (rightly) place on allowing the individual and the corporation as much freedom as possible it seems odd that they should get a hard time for exercising their freedoms - Surely the market will dictate? Surely, it would be more convenient to offer only English at your call center, there must be a reason why these corporations believe it makes sense to offer English and Spanish? Perhaps they feel that it is in their commercial interests to offer customers choice? As far as the individual is concerned... America is supposed to be the land of the free dammit! Surely people should be allowed to speak whatever language they want to ?
Off-shoring is similar, it doesn't make any sense to deny corporations the right to look for the most effective way of delivering their services. Sure, many would make the point that they're being foolish by seeking to cut call center costs at the expense of the quality of the customer experience but surely, again, the market will ultimately decide?
In terms of the languages spoken by legal immigrants, this will be interesting to some - http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-22.pdf
It does seem odd that the biggest immigrant group (Spanish speakers) should have a "Spoke no English at all" percentage of 9%, which is only exceeded by the second biggest immigrant group (Chinese speakers) of whom 9.7% speak no English at all.
I do think that the problem of integration is going to be helped much by simply blaming one group or another... I suspect the causes are more complex. As one example (of many) I think the types of jobs people do will have a bearing - the very very poor are less likely to be able to integrate.
So while, I'll admit to having been frustrated at times by the poor language skills of call centre staff, I know that I have a choice - and if it meant that much to me, I could switch. I certainly don't allow the experience to draw me to a place where the things I say could quite easily be interpreted as being just a little bit racist.
< Message edited by crazyml -- 12/27/2013 2:04:15 AM >
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RE: I am quickly developing a problem with immigrants. - 
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