Thursday, August 14, 2008

Whine, whine, whine

C: My friends and family dislike very much having so much paper space anywhere written in Spanish. Takes twice the space that's written in English - My grandparents learned to spell, talk, and read and write in American after coming here from Budapest Hungary. Nothing was written in Hungarian (Just English/American) for them anywhere - for any reason. Who's idea was it?" To start this Spanish stuff? Hope the O-R doesn't devote half the paper to the Spanish printing. - P.R.

A: Retail giants like Lowe's print signs in Spanish and English because they choose to accommodate their customers. Lowe's has stores all over this country, and in some of the places it has its stores, Spanish is spoken by the majority of customers. Latinos now comprise the largest minority in the country.

The reason why there were no signs in Hungarian when your grandparents came here was because there were not 54 MILLION of them. And chance are, they did not learn "American" instantly. Most European immigrants at the time - like my mother's people who came from Poland - settled in ethnic neighborhoods where native languages persisted. Young people caught on quickly to the new language, but older people took longer or did not. My great-grandmother lived in this country for 50 years and never learned to speak English.

The number of Spanish speakers in this area is very small, and there is no market for a Spanish-language newspaper. That could change. Across the state, in Reading, the Eagle is now printing a Spanish edition, and for good reason. More than half the students in the Reading public schools now come from Spanish-speaking homes. Printing a product that people will buy is just good business.

A shift in the winds of history could have easily made us French or Spanish speakers here in the U.S., but instead Britain won out in the age of exploration, and English will always be our language. But consider that we are the United States of America - "America" being that land that stretches between the Arctic and Antarctica, where the majority of people speak... Spanish.

3 comments:

Ellipses said...

El idioma del negocio es latino: E Pluribus Unum.

-ellipses

Anonymous said...

Ole! Ole ole ole!

Anonymous said...

Mi casa est su casa nada! unless you are my friend and countryman or are here LEGALLY

Hope I got that one right -- I live in Phoenix and the % of Latinos is very high. I can appreciate wanting to hold on to your heritage. Like many of our ancetors who emmigrated here decades ago the WASP majority butchered last names and completely changed others because they were oft ignorant, illiterate perhaps and certainly without compassion for those trying to better their lives by coming here and subsequently bettering the lives of the ones who processed them.

The major difference here is that historically immigrants came here as a new permanent home. Today, they (majority of aliens) are here for an extended period of time but by no means intend on being here permanently. They are here for the $$$$$ and nothing more. So the long tem makes no snese for them to truly learn English nor to invest their emotions etc. But as kids before them the youngsters are very bi-lingual and can play either end of the spectrum to their advantage. There is no embarrassment if a family member cannot speak the language in todays world. Because they dont care.

My beef as is the complaint here is why do we have to succomb to their demands? Again, its all about $$$$$. These big box retailers and most every other company knows the demographics of each and every facility they have and the market shares they can secure. And they spend millions to protect their investments.

The problem started with us needing labor to help expand the south and west and having somebody who can work in the incredible heat only made sense. We needed them and turned our heads to the issues they caused because we all made money or improved our life due to their efforts. Now that the economy has soured, we dont want nor need them and expect them to return like a pest carrying the pesticide to their nest. Unfortunately, its way too late for that. I wish they would learn English first, stop bitching because we as legal citizens want our country back and they know they are here illegally wanting us to change fo suit them.

I am all for immigration LEGALLY -- nothing less nothing more. i support the law enforcement who chooses to see it that way and the crying on the other end of the spectrum I care not.