ReportFromTheFront's Blog

Give me your tired, your poor, your wretched masses yearning to be free…..”

            No line from any poem is as famous throughout the English speaking world or is as instantly recognizable as this one from Emma Lazarus’ ‘The New Colossus’ which appears at the base of the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island, NJ. (That’s right – New Jersey. Don’t believe me? Look it up.)

            Robert Frost once defined poetry as nothing more than “the right word in the right place.” In this case, I wholeheartedly agree, for no other phrase of which I am aware so aptly expresses our national open invitation to the rest of the world.

            And so they came and are still coming today. By train, by plane by boat or on foot, it matters not to us for we are all the children of immigrants. If you can get here and promise to abide by our laws & way of life and do your best to become one of us, c’mon in - we’re happy to have ya.

            Oh, and one more thing.

            Learn to speak English.

            No, really. We mean it and we’re not kidding.

            In fact, I mean it and I’m not kidding, either.

            You see, it just so happens that English is the language we speak here in the good old US of A. We don’t speak oh, I don’t know……(let’s just pick a language at random, here) say, SPANISH. Nope. We speak English. And since you chose to come here (We didn’t hold a gun to your collective heads and kidnap you.), it would be nice of you to acclimate yourself to our culture and learn to speak our language and not the other way ‘round.   

            I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m getting real tired of having to resurrect my high school Spanish in order to communicate in my own country. By all rights, I should be able to walk into any business, anywhere in America and transact my business in English. I shouldn’t be forced to creatively put together a combination of English, Spanish, Pig Latin, American Sign Language and whatever other remedies I can think of in order to get my message across. More times than not – and even after all the aforementioned effort – I usually have to wait around until my friendly smiling adversary chases down someone to translate. Even then, chances are less than even that I’ll be able to accomplish my goal – whatever it happens to be.

            What irks me more than anything I suppose, is that when I ask many Hispanics I encounter – most of whom speak little to no English whatsoever - many of these same people will admit they’ve been here for years and still just speak little, very limited English. I just can’t seem to understand why anyone would knowingly move to another country and not bother to make the slightest effort to learn the language.

            Speaking strictly for myself, I would feel rather impotent if I had to always be dependant on someone else in order to be able to function beyond my own door. What do they expect to do in an emergency – especially if there isn’t a bilingual someone on the other end of a 911 call? - Just wait until the 911 operator can find someone to translate while Dads’ heart bursts out of his chest and on to his lap?

            This just makes no sense to me.

            On one hand, I blame the utter laziness of our new Hispanic citizenry. I firmly believe that it’s not that they can’t learn the language, it’s that they don’t want to bad enough. And when you get right down to it, why should they bother when they have good ol’ American business coddling them? Take a good hard look around and you’ll see what I mean.

            Almost every sign in every store window is bilingual – English and Spanish. Not Korean, not Arabic and not Chinese even though the D.C. area has very large groups speaking these languages and more. Have you been in a Home Depot lately? If not, you should go. In the three stores close to me, every sign is in Spanish and English. Businesses of all kinds are falling all over themselves to recruit anyone who is bilingual & fluent in English & Spanish. What? You are fluent in Hindi? Try the CIA; They’ve got an office just down the road.

            If I were a member of another non-English speaking ethnic group, I’d want to know why no one has bothered to accommodate me the way they have the Latinos.

            On the other hand – as I’ve already intimated – I also blame the American business machine in their relentless pursuit of the good ol’ American greenback. They’re in the catbird and laughing themselves sick all the way to the bank, thanks to the readily available and incredibly cheap (and I mean really cheap, brother!) labor pool who will work like slaves and won’t quit or complain, no matter what. Rather than encourage or require their employees to speak English, they blithely look the other way while their staff & customers struggle to communicate. After all, why should they care? They obviously have something the customer wants or the customer wouldn’t be there in the first place. If the customer bolts? No worries; There’s a lot of people out there and that guy can be replaced.

            A perfect example of what I’m talking about here is McDonalds. I cannot begin to relate you how many countless times I’ve had to revert back to my high school Spanish just to order two cheeseburgers (dos hamburgesas con queso), fries (las papas fritas) and a Diet Coke (un Coca Cola diet) because the person at the counter couldn’t hablo our lingo.

            After a recent visit to a McDonalds in New Jersey where I twice tried to order a Sweet Tea and was first handed a bag containing two cheeseburgers. My second attempt got me a small hot tea on the next attempt, I finally asked for the Manager who – in a combination of broken English and Spanish – apologized for the errors and explained that they don’t have Sweet Tea in Jersey.

            If the guy they posted at the Drive-Thru spoke English, he would have been able to tell us that in the first place.

            So how do we solve the problem? Well, like all social issues, there are lots of facets and gray areas however, I have the following suggestions:

1.         The states should not grant Drivers’ Licenses to people who cannot   

            speak English. After all, if applicants can’t speak English, they cannot

            read the manuals in order to become familiar with the laws, nor can they

            read and understand signs, other traffic control devices or even the

            instructions on a parking meter.

2.         Businesses should require all employees to speak English at all times

            while at work. If they knowingly hire someone who doesn’t speak the

            language, continued employment should be made conditional upon the

            employee’s enrollment in an English course along with a passing grade.

           

            This isn’t the entire answer, of course, but it would be a great place to start.