See, to me, that’s a little short-sighted. Those of Spanish heritage are members of the fastest-growing minority in the US. Spanish as a second language is an important skill for a native English speaker, especially in the Southwest, Central and South Florida, and the large cities of the North. Many of the employment ads placed in my local paper offer a 10% or more bonus for anyone who is functionally bilingual. I assure you, if I grew up in a household with a speaker of another language, I would have followed him everywhere and learned the language as best I could. I don’t understand the sort of willful ignorance you espouse in this post. What’s not to gain by learning something? Especially something with an actual, practical application?
I agree that learning English (or whatever language may eventually dominate) is an important step to take when moving to the US, but you have to remember that many immigrants to the US are severely disadvantaged economically and may be struggling to support themselves and their families. I’m not saying that they should never learn the predominate language, but perhaps some have other priorities, such as food and shelter? My county has had a large influx of Eastern Europeans (Czechs, Serbs, Bosnians, and others) over the past 15 years or so. Many of them get a job first and worry about language acquisition later, so they can feed and clothe their families. These are the people to whom I was referring earlier, when I mentioned the baggers and janitors who learned English on the job at my store. They simply did not have the opportunity to take English immersion courses before fleeing their war-torn homelands.
As to not having an official language, I believe that having no specific language instituted in the US is a beautiful, symbolic gesture of the openness this country once stood for. This is a nation of immigrants and their descendants; I think we tend to forget that.
I have this image of you in my mind, ranting about this from another perspective. It is an image formed by your constant shifting of the blame off of yourself on to anyone else who happens to be nearby. It is my (kinda uninformed) opinion that if you were just across the border in Mexico trying to order something at a counter, you would be bitching and moaning that the idiot working there can’t be bothered to learn English, because “everybody else in the world speaks English.” You did not specifically mention any of this, but given your posting history and apparent general attitude, it would not surprise me in the slightest to hear you saying it.
And yosemite, I am not advocating the position taken by people who have been here for 10 - 20 years and insist that you learn their language. I am saying that it is IDBB’s job to serve her customers, and that in an area with so many people who don’t speak English, learning a few phrases in the dominate second language might help her to ease communication between her and those customers. I believe that it again comes down to her (so far evidenced by her posting history) attitude of doing nothing but the bare minimum required.
IDBB, listen closely. Instead of ranting about trying to “decipher what you want through mime and half-grunted semi-intelligible English”, understand that their language barrier is probably more an irritant to them than to you. Further understand that with a modicum of good humor and common kindness, you can ease their discomfort with the language and disarm the potentially hostile situation before it starts. And as you consistently complain, you are surrounded by kitchen- and counter-workers who speak Spanish, and a couple of Middle Eastern managers, one of whom probably speaks either Arabic or Farsi. I find it extremely difficult to believe that at least one of them would not come help you translate for your customers.
It just irritates me that there are some customers who just don’t speak English is all.