Picture this:
You are planning a vacation out of the country. Say you want to go to Turkey. What is one of the first things you do in preparation for this trip? Well brush up on your Turkish of course!!! You cannot go into a foreign country with out at least making an effort to learn the basics of the language. If you are planning to take a short trip of course it is not necessary to master the language, or even come close, but you will want to know a few key phrases so you can at least communicate.
So now let's switch gears. Your trip to Turkey is AMAZING! You decide you want to live there for the next 5 years! You love everything about it and it offers many new opportunities for you! Now what is the first thing you do? LEARN THE LANGUAGE PERHAPS? Yes of course! You are going to want to start practicing. Once you actually settle in you will not be a pro, you will not be fluent in Turkish, but you will make an effort everyday until you finally master the language.
What if you could just go into a country and speak English? What if you did not have to learn the native language. What if you could just skate through with English. What if there were signs in English everywhere, when you went to the supermarket, and clerks were offered in English, the bank: English speaking tellers. Would you even bother to learn Turkish if that were the case?
NO! You would never trouble yourself more than you have to!
This is exactly what is happening in America!!! We are promoting laziness and sloth in our immigrants with the use Spanish language.
It is an unnecessary luxury to go into a foreign country and speak your native language. If you like speaking your native language so much why did you move? For example if you wanted America to be just like Mexico, then why did you leave Mexico?
I am in no way racist. I love people of all nationalities and have friends from all walks of life. Many of them are Mexican. My best friend Rob is from Guadilijara. There is a HUGE difference in respectable Mexican/American citizens who come into this country legally and learn English to the best of their abilities and succeed in life, and the illegals that utilize our multilingual opportunities and steal our benefits and health care. But why then when we hear the word "Mexican" do we suddently have a negative connotation in our minds? Well that is simply because of experience. We have been through a lot with the Mexican people. And our issue of language is not the only battle we are fighting.
I have so much respect for people who speak 2 or more languages. It is such a benefit for them and they will be so much more successful! I totally think that it is fair to offer people who excel in more that one language higher pay and better opportunities, but the thing we have to realize is that it is the multilingual person who is succeeding, and our country which is failing. In what other country do you hear threats of a secondary language taking over, or even a new language becoming primary in that country? None! That is simply because other countries don't put up with all the crap that we do!
Why in the world do you need your own personal teller at the bank who speaks your language? You don't! IF you learned English you would have more opportunities, and life would really be more simplistic for you.
To me moving to a new country means becoming multilingual. It is expected and respected. People have patience with new people learning the language. I know many people who struggle and I don't look down on them in the least! I respect them more for trying so hard, and love it when they tell me to correct them, and make sure they are getting it right.
I am not asking you to forsake your heritage or leave your past behind. Speak Spanish in your homes, teach your children Spanish, but do NOT go out into public places spouting off Spanish an looking for Spanish signs and Spanish service clerks. Do not call and press 2 for Spanish. Do not neglect to teach your children English simply because you don't feel it necessary.
This is one topic that really bugs me because in my life-time I have seen so much about immigration and illegal aliens ect. It just brings me to this conclusion: We are promoting it in America by the way we treat those of different nationalities.
I am not suggesting that we treat everyone like crap who is not a natural born American citizen mind you, but I am simply suggesting that we demolish these things that are bringing our country down. We are not the "United States trying to please everyone and make everyone at home"...We are the "United States of America". We as Americans stand for certain things and we cannot be torn down by the immigrants who are pulling us in every direction! We need to be united in every sense of the word.
What kind of unity is it when everywhere you go people are speaking a different language? What kind of unity is it when you call and get the option of pressing 2 for Spanish? It isn't unity. It is conformity. We are the USA. We stand for freedom, choice, and liberty! We should encourage growth from other countries after all our country is one of immigrants, but there are certain ways this has to be done so that America does not become Mexico, or China, or even Turkey. We are America. We are a sought after country. Why are we conforming so much that we are slowly losing our identity. Not only our personal identity, but our identity as a nation.
How is an American child for example, growing up in today's modern world ever supposed to feel at home when there is so much diversity and so many languages all around? And on that note, don't get me wrong. Diversity is a good thing. To an extent. God created each of us to be different and diverse. That is a wonderful knowledge that we have. But I don't think God intended for us to be so ready to please everyone else that we loose who we are ourselves. Or a better way to think about it: we are not meant to encroach on other people's personalities and expect them to be like us. And by this I mean not only be like us, but talk like us, act like us ect. We are individuals, from different walks of life, and we should learn from each other, but we should not become each other. We should not forsake our true selves.
This is an age old debate, I know, but as long as there are people calling me at work saying "habla espaniol?" I will always be outraged!
I want so badly to say to them! NO I SPEAK ENGLISH! THIS IS AMERICA! I WORK FOR AN AMERICAN LAW FIRM! Why would I speak Spanish? WHY?!?! But the problem is they can't understand me! They don't speak a lick of English! How frustrating!
So if you couldn't tell this is actually where the stem of my blog came from. Work. I get calls DAILY from people who don't speak English expecting me to understand Spanish. And they are not nice about it because they have become so accustomed to being waited on in the sense of speaking their language. I try to explain in English of course that no I don't speak Spanish and the lawyer who does is on the phone and they just yell at me in Spanish! I really don't think that we should even offer lawyers in Spanish! It really annoys me that we do! If you are engaging in the law in America, wouldn't you want to understand what is going on? You are so naive if you just simply trust your Spanish speaking lawyer. I really hope that he screws you over! (sorry! That is really harsh!)
MORAL OF THE STORY! LEARN ENGLISH POR FAVOR!
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