Spanish is the language of the poorly-paid, unskilled help.
It might be my top pet peeve to hear foreign languages spoken at Costco and the gym. It drives me so utterly bonkers at the gym that when I hear people speaking another language, I stop what I'm doing and go where I can't hear them to continue my workout. At our local Costco, English is spoken by less than half the people talking loudly in the store. Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic and who knows what else dominate.
It doesn't bother me to hear foreign languages in a foreign country. It's the utter disrespect for America that gets to me. If you wanted to speak Spanish or whatever, why did you bother coming here?
There's a corollary to this and that is that foreign language speakers are way overrepresented in the category of loud, rude people. At the gym, everyone wears small, workout headphones. These are the ones with adequate sound quality and poor noise cancellation properties. We listen to music, books or podcasts. If we wanted to hear you talking loudly to each other or having phone conversations, we wouldn't be wearing headphones. I am tired of having to hear this while I lift or tread the infinite mill:
Y ENTONCES LE DIJE, NO PUEDES TRAER ESA ENORME ROEDOR A LA DUCHA CON NOSOTROS PORQUE NECESITA VESTIRSE PARA LA QUINCEANERA DE MARÍA Y NO TENEMOS TIEMPO PARA SECAR SU PELO.
It is for that reason that this warmed the cockles of my heart this morning and warm cockles are always a good thing.
1 comment:
I'm told my great grandfather never spoke English. There was plenty of Norwegian and Swedish spoken in upper Wisconsin at the turn of the 20th century. My great-grandmother could understand English but didn't speak it. The kids spoke English to Mom, and she replied in Norwegian.
My one thing from my Grandmother is the family Bible in Norwegian.
I think the problem you are having, is that America is "the Great Melting Pot". And up until the 1970s or 1980s, immigrants believed that and did that for the most part. Yes, everyone kept some of their culture but they came here to be Americans.
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