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Forget the Joneses Blog

while i didn't read the article, i think that those living in america need to make the effort to learn the language. however i understand the need to hang onto one's culture and language as well, but it doesn't hurt to learn SOME english, especially if you want to reap the benefits that living in america offers.

my husband learned english fluently but many of his family members here have very spotty english. he said that when he came back to america from south america, he had to either learn english or be out of luck...so for him, he taught himself to read and write, because no one else would.

now his aunt! haha...when we speak, i have to have an interpreter for her

i am very proud of him, because other than saying certain things backwards, his english is crisp, clear, and his vocabulary is very extensive.

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Personally, I've found pocket dictionaries to be useless, depending on the language. I speak enough spanish to not need one in a spanish-speaking country. Most European countries - the restaurants have english language menus unless you are off the beaten track. So, even in Hungary or Czech Republic, I was able to order very easily. On top of that, most Europeans in major tourist areas speak English. Very few Americans speak a second language well enough to help out a tourist. Lastly, America is the land of speedy service. I can just picture a tourist in this guy's shop pulling out his dictionary & trying to find the words for the sandwich he wants to order, trying to pronounce it, and having the counter person be patient enough to wait for the order.

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personally, i think a lot of the people living in America are spoiled. if there's some difficulty in communication, we just blame the person who's not speaking English, because, English is the only language out there or something. this is a land made of mixed cultures, heck, many words in the "English" language were borrowed from other languages. i work in retail, and if i get a customer who doesn't speak English, which really isn't a huge deal, i'll spend all the time necessary to get us on the same page. there's plenty of non- verbal ways we can communicate.
speaking of nonverbal, what would this man do if someone only knew sign language, and he didn't know how to speak it. yeah, it's his business and he can technically do what he wants, but there's lots of people like him. it's pathetic.

It was surprising when traveling in european countries to see how many people spoke English. In fact, many only wanted to speak English to us so they could practice and then we didn't have a chance to practice their language. In many countries, it is normal and expected to speak more than one language, sometimes 3, particularly universal ones with similar bases like French, Spanish and Italian (the romance languages). They travel more widely than we do and use those languages to aid in their travels. Why can't our country do the same thing so we also can fit into more of a world society? I think it's sad that we see English as the only necessary language to learn and use. I do agree that people should make an effort when coming here, but we should too. (me included....I need to work on my Spanish, badly )

Don't you think people should learn English, if not for communicating in public, but at the very least for the children they are bringing up in this country??

Do you know how difficult it is for American teachers to have students in their classrooms that speak NO ENGLISH?? English speaking students are SUFFERING, yes SUFFERING, because of the time that teachers have to spend with students TEACHING them ENGLISH before they can even get to the lesson plans.

So don't you think it is a good idea for that reason alone?? Just curious.

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

I never said that I do not think everyone should learn English in this country. YES, parents and children who come here to live should learn English, I am not excusing that. I used to teach children who were learning English as a second language, 99% of my class was hispanic. It was difficult, but I worked closely with their parents also, many were learning to speak and read English from the child's homework and school experiences. I never had a parent that was not trying to speak English, they were embarassed by their lack of English skills and some were scared to try to speak to me. It took understanding on my part to encourage them to work with me and I would see improvements in our communication. Many were also taking English classes at night.

My point was that it is important to recognize that there are other languages in the world besides English. If folks in other countries can learn our language when they never plan on immigrating here (as in many European countries), why can't we familiarize ourselves with some common languages in the world too? The little bit of Spanish I knew (and it was a VERY little bit, basic words, not sentences) and spoke to the parents made them know I was not judging them, I wanted to help them and then they were comfortable with taking a language risk with me. I also think for the sake of travel and tourism here, it is good to know the basics of another common language, not to excuse people from English, but to help when people are confused and flustered.

I understand what you are saying I do. Believe me. I just find it hard to believe that the "tourists" are the "problem". I think most tourists that are here just for a visit, could order at that resturant with no problems. If it were just the tourists, I don't think that sign would be posted. Just my opinion though....

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

I do agree that the sign was not posted to address tourism , its pretty silly to think that's what he was trying to say.

However, I do think that posting a sign like that would automatically make an ESL customer uncomfortable and scared to go and order from him. Maybe they are trying to learn and improve their English, but he just denied an opportunity to practice. I just found that patience helped English learners improve and being intimidating got us nowhere and hurt their motivation. KWIM?

Exactly!!

You weren't the one to mention tourists, so that comment wasn't to YOU specifically.

Not to anyone specifically for that matter, just a thought I had after reading the whole thread.

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe