Thread: Skirmishes at work now over language

I received this email today from a friend after she returned from work. Apparently there was an ugly encounter over "language" between her and a customer (read on):

"Your mediation is giving me a headache. It's almost as big as the headache I received from the {expletive deleted} at work today who was yelling at me in spanish. I was like, "Well, If you could say it in English..." Oh GOD, don't ever say that to anyone. oh lord god. This other lady started going off about how that was racist, and how if people from my country came here and didn't speak English, I would have to be nice to them. Boy, did that piss off the black lady who was in line. I explained to the lady who accused me of racism that I'm a mexican citizen, and it's not racist to expect one in America to be able to communicate in English. (In so many words) HELLLOOOOOOOO. I explained that if I were to go to France or Germany, I wouldn't yell at someone else for not understanding English. People are stupid."

(name of friend withheld for her privacy)

Ya....got a feeling it's going to get pretty testy.

Incidents such as these are becoming RAMPANT in Florida. The American workers are SICK and TIRED of having to figure out WHAT IN THE HECK the person is trying to say to them in person and on the phone.

There is ENOUGH stress on the American worker and this is only making it WORSE.

George Bush doesn't have a CLUE as to the added stress he has placed upon the American people from this lack of immigration enforcement and FAILURE to STRONGLY advocate for people to assimilate.

He just lets the burden fall on the American worker.

I have to be in certain areas occassionally where, even if the folks can speak English, they won't. Mostly Latino areas.

Soooooooo, I stand my ground as, not only am I the granddaughter of 4 immigrants, I am an American.
SPEAK ENGLISH.......is my very first comment to them with a smile & a little bit of humor. Most of the time they comply.

If they refuse or get testy, I then make it perfectly clear that
I WILL NOT DO BUSINESS WITH YOU.

And........the very few times I've been "pushed or shoved".........
I SHOVE RIGHT BACK and stand my ground.

Folks, never, ever give up your rights as a decent American! Once you back off...........they've won.
{btw: I'm only 4'10" and a pretty good kick boxer. LOL, let em try}

What the implications of this are, is that they want this country to be mexico. They are not recognizing it as the U.S. I was reading something about California last night and they (the hispanics) were calling it "New Mexico North", I had no clue they were not calling California by it's real name anymore. Thus, raising hell about english being the language in this country.

This may seem "petty" to some, but if you were a patient at a pharmacy waiting to pick up your medication and saw how hard the pharmacist had to struggle to understand the Doctor's instructions on what type and how much of a medication he was prescribing while talking to him or her on the telephone........you wouldn't think it was such a MINOR problem.

In fact, most people would be a tad nervous....and rightfully so.

I too live in Florida so I HEAR ya! Just last week I had to politely request to be transferred to someone who was a native English speaker TWICE during the same phone conversation with my son's health insurance. The first lady was nice about it. The second one sounded really annoyed by it.

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

Incidences such as these are becoming RAMPANT in Florida. The American workers are SICK and TIRED of having to figure out WHAT IN THE HECK the person is trying to say to them in person and on the phone.

There is ENOUGH stress on the American worker and this is only making it WORSE.

George Bush doesn't have a CLUE as to the added stress he has placed upon the American people from this lack of immigration enforcement and FAILURE to STRONGLY advocate for people to assimilate.

He just lets the burden fall on the American worker.

This is not a "minor inconvenience" as President Bush would probably assume. It can be a SERIOUS problem, AND extremely dangerous under certain conditions and situations.

Believe it or not, there was a guy on CNN yesterday being interviewed (and his name escapes me at the moment sorry to say) who said that the reality is that Americans NEED TO LEARN SPANISH! I nearly dropped my bagel I was eating while watching. His reasons were much as what you stated below.
So now they are not only saying these folks do not need to learn the language of THIS country (and it has been English for centuries) but that we MUST learn Spanish to accommodate all the immigrants! It was shocking!

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

This is not a "minor inconvenience" as President Bush would probably assume. It can be a SERIOUS problem, AND extremely dangerous under certain conditions and situations.

At last the issue is getting down to the 'meat and potatoes", down to the bone, the brass tax, the heart of the issue, the fact of the matter, the ...


Well, you get the point.

W