Thread: Who expects to see the day Spanish replaces English

My Spanish isn't too bad. I took 3 semesters of it in high school and 4 semesters in college.

Whenever I encounter somebody who doesn't speak English (happened last week at a Chipotle Grill where I ordered lunch with some co-workers) I refuse to speak Spanish to them and force them to struggle with English.

On this particular occasion, the girl making my lunch was trying to ask me if I wanted a chicken burrito or a chicken bowl. But she was really struggling and could only get out "burrito" and "bowl". I pretended not to understand, and she ended up having to go get a bowl and show it to me. Then I said, ooooh..."BOWL" and made her repeat it after me.

americangirl, I agree with what you did in that restaurant. In the long run it is the kindest thing because that is how you learn to become fluent in a foreign language. That's part of the problem as I see it: we are making it too easy for people to get along by speaking Spanish, and they are not learning English. And slowly but surely, we are being forced to speak Spanish in our own country to survive! It's just not right. But, we are partly to blame for it by being too accommodating.

My great grandparents and grandparents (as young children) came from Italy. They spoke Italian at home and at their social clubs, but when they went to work or had to do business, English was the language. But, see, the country was different then. It was unthinkable to anyone (either the Americans or the Italians) that Americans would adapt themselves to the Italians; it was just assumed that the newcomers would learn English.

Now with the multicultural mindset, that is becoming less and less the case. And that is why we are in the mess we are in. Even with massive immigration, we still wouldn't be in quite this much trouble linguistically if our society were more like it was 60 to 100 years ago in standing up for English and forcing the newcomers to speak English instead of their native language. I mean there were tons of Italians who came here 70+ years ago, but America pointed its finger at them and said, "SPEAK ENGLISH." And they did!

Also, just as an aside, my mother was born and raised in France. She came here and became fluent in English within a few years; but even more impressive was HER mother who came here at age 55, and learned English.

One last point, I think another contributing factor to this creeping "bilingualism" is this plan to form a trade zone between Mexico, the US, and Canada. I think business have been gearing up for this for years, and part of accomplishing this is to blend these languages together. We have signs up in stores in my area in Spanish, and we don't even have much of a Spanish speaking population!!

I had to go to the bank this morning

so what?

. Posters on the wall are Spanish with English translations underneath.

you lie

No, I'm not making this up, next time I'll take my camera-cell phone in the bank.

Originally Posted by Coto

I had to go to the bank this morning

so what?

.
[quote:k952ratg]Posters on the wall are Spanish with English translations underneath.

[/quote:k952ratg]

Now this is infuriating!!

you mean is hasn't already?

Originally Posted by Coto

I had to go to the bank this morning

so what?

. Posters on the wall are Spanish with English translations underneath. [quote:21yzp6df]you lie

No, I'm not making this up, next time I'll take my camera-cell phone in the bank.[/quote:21yzp6df]

This is such BULLS....! I too know Spanish but refuse to speak it. The most recent time I uttered anything in Spanish was too a police man who pulled me over for speeding. I said "no hablo ingles". Needless to say, he wasn't amused.

But, we are partly to blame for being too accommodating.

Boy did you say a mouthful. The more we give the more they take.

I have nothing against people learning or using any language they so desire to use. However, there are thousands of people all over this country lobbying for English as the ONLY official language. I don't expect anyone to force me to speak Spanish unless the US gov't starts equipping the Mexican invaders with the same sort of WMD they gave to Iraq and other countries who now wish to use them against us.

I see that Spanish is required more in South Florida. Many jobs ask for bilingual people which in someways can be a legal way to discriminate against non Hispanics. In the near future I can see certain jobs such as law enforcement having to be bilingual. In Dade County you often get we need a Spanish speaking officer and then you find out the person has lived and worked here for the last 5 years or more! The more they ask for that, the more the they will look at the possibilty of hiring bilingual officers only even though you learn some Spanish in the police academy.
What is really scary now is the fact other nationalities are starting to jump on the bandwagon. The Russians are starting to learn from the Hispanics and some of the are actually saying: "Why should I learn English. The Hispanics don't and they have jobs and many are successful without speaking English!".

Swatchick, I agree. It is a very thinly veiled form of discrimination against American workers!

The city of El Paso Texas has been that way for a number of years now. Only the jobs that they everyone hates are obtainable by people who don't speak Spanish. I was literally turned down for a job at WalMart in 1997 because I don't speak Spanish but not so long afterward there were several people working in that very same store who don't speak English. Needless to say, I won't darken the door of any Wal Mart store in El Paso, but I do at Wal Mart there when I'm on the east coast-- until the first time I approach some employee who can't speak English, that is.

So it isn't actually an issue of bi-llingual at all. As a matter of fact, I AM bi-lingual, it is just that my language in addition to English is not Spanish. The newspapers advertise bi-lingual for almost all the jobs but they don't even know what the word means. Bi-lingual doesn't mean English and Spanish or vis versa. It means speak two different languages fluently. I have friends who speak SEVERAL different languages, but since none of those languages happen to be Spanish, they aren't considered by employers to be bi-lingual. One more example of why people are becoming so angry over this issue and why they will never get things changed around to their way.