Thread: Child ID cards - No Habla Espanol

My mother bought a franchise of C.H.I.P. (http://www.4childid.com/) thinking it could be a profitable business. As it turns out, the money made from the business was usually barely enough to covers costs. Oddly enough, her biggest complaints about the business have not been about money but rather issues regarding immigrants.

The ID cards are not for proof of citizenship but for identification purposes (matching a kid with a home address). Any child who attends a public school is eligible for one of these cards. My mother says she gets calls on a daily basis that are from people speaking spanish and refusing to speak English. She tells them, "No Espanol. This is America. Speak English!" I am proud of her for doing this, but she is concerned that her business could be hurt by not catering to a non-English speaking crowd. She services a lot of mostly hispanic schools, and most of them are eager to receive these ID cards (I believe it helps them in traveling back and forth across the border).

Her other complaint about customers who are immigrants is with the people from the mid east. She says they all speak the English, but they keep making silly demands. Some of them want to redesign the background image of the cards, and others want to include unnecessary titles to the already incredibly long names.

I am a bit curious as to why Mexican immigrants seem to be the only ones who refuse to learn to communicate in English. During the days of my mission trips to Mexico I carried along my Spanish text book from class (for common words and phrases) as well as a Spanish-English dictionary. I spoke Spanish the best I could out of respect for the people's native tongue. (I did find out, however, that you can speak English in most market places because the merchants will make every attempt to understand you if it means they can earn U.S. dollars.)

Why won't they make an effort to learn our national language??

Personally, I think many can but won't. Because like you mentioned in the tourist areas they can muster a few words if they want to make a buck. It's the unwillingness to do so that bothers me. Learning another language is hard. You should have been in my french class.....we had an austrian teacher and the rest of the students were from the middle-east and me. I doubt very serously any of us could have survived in France. But there's always free classes the churches offer. Many offer free night classes at the schools. It's not like we haven't made it as easy as possible........but no. Alot do not want to assimilate. Period.

FYI -- I think a business in Ohio was fined one or two years ago for having a sign requesting customers speak English (he didn't speak Spanish and I think he was getting Spanish speaking customers).

So it's smart to check with your attorney to make sure you remain in compliance with your State and federal laws. Your opinions may not be in sync with the law, and that can be costly.

Steve

Originally Posted by Steve

FYI -- I think a business in Ohio was fined one or two years ago for having a sign requesting customers speak English (he didn't speak Spanish and I think he was getting Spanish speaking customers).

So it's smart to check with your attorney to make sure you remain in compliance with your State and federal laws. Your opinions may not be in sync with the law, and that can be costly.

Steve

In our state, businesses reserve the right to deny service to any person for any reason. My mother is not even denying service; she is simply requesting for callers to speak to her in English because it is the only language she knows and also happens to be the standard language of the land. One of the requirements for U.S. citizenship is to demonstrate an understanding of the English language. If the callers cannot speak in English, they are most likely not legal citizens. Therefore, my mother has the right to deny service to non-English speaking persons because they are not even here legally. If she is fined, I will personally hire an attorney to help get her money back. Thanks for the warning though.

my brother is in high school in Az and he says that kids tell teachers they "don't understand" or "they don't speak English" so they can get away with not participating in class or doing class assignments.