<p>& who doesn’t like a good riot?</p>
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<p>That’s just your profession and area within NYC. In my old NYC neighborhood, if you insist on only speaking English as a business owner, you won’t last very long because of the large Spanish speaking populations…including those who are fluent in English…but prefer to use Spanish on their home turf. And this was back in the '70s and '80s. </p>
<p>It isn’t just an inability to speak English…but also a way for immigrant/first generation populations to maintain their cultural identity much like previous immigrant populations over the last century or so as I continue to see in my current neighborhood where Hebrew signs still abound and Yiddish/Hebrew is still commonly spoken by some neighbors…even after some of these families have been in the US for 130+ years. Also, contrary to popular stereotypes from some “English only” types*, they’re very integrated into mainstream American life thank you very much. </p>
<p>Moreover, I don’t know about you…but I’ve noticed plenty of NYC area employment ads various professions in which mandated fluency in Spanish over the last 2 or more decades and more recently…mandated fluency in Mandarin Chinese. </p>
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<li>Had a nasty brush with some folks of this ilk while an undergrad in a rural NE Ohio town when they took issue with my speaking Mandarin Chinese with some Chinese international students. Had fun going off on them and lecturing them on the fact the First Amendment gives me the right to use whatever language I please without having to be accosted by censorious busybody types who act more like stereotypical political commissar types commonly identified as part and parcel of Fascist/Communist regimes…not the good old US of A.</li>
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<p>Smorgs, part of why places CAN be open on sunday here is our diversity. I assume you realize that for many people the holy day is Saturday???</p>
<p>I used to volunteer at the polls before we went to all mail balloting. We only had ballots issued in one other language according to numbers of residents in the county who did not speak English. To my surprise it was not Spanish, but Mandarin.</p>
<p>I still think it would be to your advantage to speak Spanish, but everyone I have come across speaks English as well. Which is good for me, as I have tried to learn both Spanish & Mandarin, but being dyslexic ( & partially deaf), it apparently takes more effort than I wish to invest at this point.</p>
<p>I don’t think not knowing a second language should hold anyone back from traveling however. My youngest lived in Tamil Nadu for three months when she was 18 & the only other language she came with was three yrs of high school Spanish.</p>
<p>I spent my elementary school years in Europe (Belgium) as my dad was in the Army. When we moved back to the states - I will never forget my first day in 7th grade when not one student in my class knew where Belgium was. How sad - I was embarrassed for them. What does that say about our education system? The students didn’t even know what language(s) were spoken in Belgium. Really ? This is quite pathetic.</p>
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<p>Are we trying to destroy other cultures? That’s a heart attack on a plate. We’ve already undermined their health and made them fatter by introducing American fast food world-wide. Are we finishing them off with chicken fried steak?</p>
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<p>I’ve lived in CA for nearly 3 decades without knowing Spanish. The only times it has caused me any frustration is when car wash employees and fast food employees cannot understand my needs. I look at those problems as being caused by <em>their</em> lack of English skills, not my lack of Spanish skills. People who live in the US without learning English are the ones deserving of criticism; not the other way around. I avoid businesses that do not offer or advertise their products and services in English; they are the ones losing business for obvious reasons. They apparently have no desire to do business with those who cannot speak their language. In which case, I am happy to spend my money elsewhere.</p>
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<p>Not necessarily. It could merely be a Darwinian test of one’s hardiness. Personally, I wouldn’t mind having the above right about now. Haven’t had chicken fried steak since college. Mouth is salivating already…:)</p>
<p>And that is one of the wonderful things about our country, that business can be conducted in whatever language the owner wants. It may hurt them or benefit them but no one is telling them that it has to be conducted in English or only in Spanish.</p>
<p>And for anyone who gets grumpy about ATM’s asking if you want an English or Spanish menu, I will tell you that I was never so happy in Argentina to get that choice. I really did not want to do banking in a language I didn’t really understand.</p>
<p>I really did not want to do banking in a language I didn’t really understand.</p>
<p>That reminds me of when I first got an iPod & was fascinated by the different languages it could display. I wanted to see what it would look like in Croatian. Ooops. :o</p>
<p>cr2012, I’m quite sure that when you were in seventh grade there were plenty of countries that YOU couldn’t find on a map. Get over yourself.</p>
<p>I’ve lived in a couple of European countries and gone to school in one. I’ve shopped for food at the butcher, the greengrocer, and the hypermart, taken public transportation, used the public library, generally lived like an actual resident. I’ve traveled to various places, including North Africa and Central America. I find that many Americans idealize Europeans based on a week or two touring historic sites and museums, staying in hotels and eating in restaurants. I have quite a bit of sympathy for Maikai’s point of view. There are plenty of people out there who think they know all about the US based on tv shows. When they come to the US, they go to NYC, LA, and Disney. They know almost nothing about the huge variety of America life. The size of the country is beyond their comprehension. They are surprised when they encounter Americans–like us–who do not conform to any of their stereotypes.</p>
<p>I grew up in an American household. My mother cooked meals using real ingredients, we supported the arts, we learned to play instruments, frequented museums, went to concerts, we learned French in school, we read a lot, we were allowed to watch perhaps 2 hrs per week of tv. We never had fast food. (I experienced a Wimpy Bar in the UK before I ever ate at a McDonald’s.) There are plenty of Americans out there like us.</p>
<p>I certainly have learned things from he various cultures I’ve come in contact with, but I refuse to engage in this ritual abasement that some Americans like to perform. (Naturally, they exempt THEMSELVES from all of the flaws that the rest of us fat, lazy, ignoramuses evidently share…)</p>
<p>I’m quite sure that when you were in seventh grade there were plenty of countries that YOU couldn’t find on a map.</p>
<p>That reminds me of how many times the boundaries & names of countries have changed since I first learned them 45 years ago in elementary school!</p>
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<p>I haven’t had this in at least a decade, but heart attack or no, there’s not much better. </p>
<p>We used to eat this meal after a late night studying (or having a few drinks 
) in college. Nothing better for a tough start to your day than chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes for lunch!</p>
<p>I wish I had studied Spanish instead of (or at least in addition to) French. Living in Texas, I could write my own ticket in my nursing career if I were fluent in Spanish.</p>
<p>^Why don’t you learn it?</p>
<p>^^^You’re absolutely right. I should, I really should.</p>
<p>It’s not too late. Spanish is quite easy if you have a background in French. I was able to frame simple sentences and communicate basic information after only a week of Spanish classes when I was in Guatemala. French is much more difficult.</p>
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<p>Used to have chicken fried steak at a diner in college when my class schedule had a late afternoon/early evening class which prevented me from going to the dining hall for dinner(closed at 6 pm). Soo good after a long late night study session.</p>
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I was working in Australia one time when the wife of a person I was working with expressed the above sentiments. The H very much wanted to visit the USA because he fought with American soldiers in Vietnam and liked them but his wife was convinced that all of America was dangerous and overrun by gun-wielding thugs. I told her that I can go walking outside my house at any time of night with no concerns and she was shocked and somewhat dis-believing. I asked her how she reached her conclusions since she’s never actually been to the USA and it was from TV shows. At the time a lot of the imported TV shows to Australia were the cop shows geared around crime in San Francisco, LA, NYC, Chicago, and the like and she believed that those made-up drama shows reflected reality.</p>
<p>I encouraged her to visit sometime and see what it’s really like. I don’t know if they ever did.</p>
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<p>That happens even within the United States. When I was in high school, a girl moved to my town in Texas from California. She confessed that she was surprised to see that we didn’t ride horses to school and that we weren’t all rich oil families. :rolleyes:</p>