Arkie here. Some people around here seem to assume that Spanish speakers behind them in the checkout line are talking about *them.*I like to think they’re saying things like, “I’m all about index funds now, I took a bath in commodities.”
I’m the foreigner who doesn’t speak (actually can speak some but cannot understand) the ambient language of the place I have lived in for 48 years. I tried, God knows I’ve tried, but I just don’t seem to have an ear for it. I am not proud of this BTW. It comes naturally to me because my father’s parents barely spoke broken English till the end of their days.
But my cousin who has lived in Richmond since he was 10 and absorbed some southern attitudes absolutely floored me a few years when he told me that it really gets up his nose when he hears people speak any language but English. And this is a cousin I like. I know from his FB postings that he is utterly disdainful of Trump. The grandparents he shares with me are not my father’s parents. All four of his grandparents were totally fluent in English.
Do I consider this irrational? Yes, I do because I can find no rational explanation.
I’ve noticed that foreigners who speak languages I can understand tend to talk to each other about boring topics, like their kids or what they had for lunch. I expect that people who speak languages I can’t are talking about boring stuff too.
Sometimes they are, though. I had coworkers when I worked retail between school years who constantly switched to Portuguese to talk crap about other people, both coworkers and customers, and didn’t realize that some of us understood them pretty well.
I live in a fairly small town, and I often find myself in the rev center locker room with people speaking to each other in not-English. I’ve come to find that non-Americans like to stay fit and have no compunctions about using the locker rooms.
Honestly I love love love it when I am the only one around who doesn’t speak the language. I have lived in this very white Midwestern town my whole life and it totally makes me happy that people came from other countries to live here too, and have kept their culture. It’s like a point of pride to me to know that people are yelling at their kids in Vietnamese right here in my home town!
I think what Little Nemo said about projecting seems very wise, though. It doesn’t seem too weird to me that people might feel suspect about a language they can’t understand.
You have two different issues here. The first is people who are bothered by others speaking a language they don’t understand in public places. Does it bother me? Sure, because I’m a nosy eavesdropper and I want to hear what others are saying. However, that doesn’t mean I think they don’t have the right to speak whatever language they want.
The other issue, however, is the poll question “It bothers me when I come into contact with immigrants who speak little or no English.” This to me is a little more understandable because I see how it affects my life personally (case in point-I gave up trying to buy anything at the local Wal-mart because literally (and I do mean literally) none of their floor employees understand or speak English and unfortunately despite taking 6 years of French and 2 of Spanish in school, I am apparently hopeless at languages and cannot seem to make myself understood). As another annoyance, the law requires that as a physician I provide an interpreter for those that speak other languages, with the caveat that family members or my staff members interpreting are not considered adequate unless the patient insists. My payment for a typical visit is around $65 but an interpreter costs me at least $100-$200 minimum. If the patient or I am delayed, the interpreter still gets paid. Is it annoying? Absolutely! But that doesn’t mean that I don’t understand that people have the right to communicate in whatever language they want, or that I think they are talking about me or that they don’t belong here because they don’t speak English at home.
How is it irrational? It is inconvenient when other people don’t speak the same language that you do. Some people even get annoyed when other people use English in a different manner i.e. see the usage of the word “literally”.
But that’s not the real reason people gets annoyed by other people speaking a foreign language. The real fear here is that everyone else will be speaking language A, when you only speak language B, therefore you squeezed out of a job. (And for adults it can be extremely difficult to learn a new language.) Basically this fear is not about other people talking about you on the streets, but about immigrants taking your jobs.
Which is less than the chances of finding help if they spoke English also.
(Interesting that you leap to the conclusion they are “foreigners.” They might easily not be.)
My college roommate freshman year was from India. Very often the room would fill up with our other friends from the subcontinent and the sounds of Hindi being spoken exclusively. It never crossed my mind they were talking about me because I knew these particular guys well enough to know they were probably just talking about business and finance. One of them is now a honcho at CNBC.
Considering the overwhelming majority of people in this country speak English, how is anyone going to be squeezed out of their job by somebody who doesn’t speak English? The reality is that non-English speakers have a much harder time finding jobs than English speakers do - and will probably end up getting replaced by an English speaker.
Yes, currently that is the reality. But people are afraid the opposite will happen, that is why they feel troubled by people speaking foreign languages.
I have no trouble with people speaking any language they so choose.
I have major, big time trouble with people who don’t speak English telling me that I should learn their language. I live in America and I see no reason to speak any language other than English.
I think that’s a highly unlikely possibility and therefore an irrational fear. But even if it happened, how does it justify telling people they have to speak English? Shouldn’t we instead be telling the English speaking minority that they should be speaking Spanish (or whatever the new majority language is)? That’s the argument the English speaking majority is making now; non-English speaking minorities should use the majority language. That same argument should hold if Spanish became the majority language.
I don’t mind if people speak their native language as long as it doesn’t cause harm to me or others.
However in my job, I’m finding that not to be the case.
I work in a tech department, where the primary language in the office is Chinese (nearly entire department is Chinese) – people rarely speak English
I joined the company a few months ago, and was put on a project where I was the only non-Chinese team member. I was excluded from meetings and training because I don’t know Chinese (I’m American born), not given the same access to information as my counterparts (folders/files, etc.), completely ignored by the project lead, and eventually removed from the project and put on a project that has no growth opportunity to eliminate the need for them to speak English on the project.
I don’t even know if this is legal. I read that employees are not required to speak English unless it affects their job, but I don’t think that means eliminate the English speaking people so that it doesn’t affect their job.
I talked to an English speaking colleague at a different company in the same industry, and she is experiencing a similar situation.
Translation for the rational: these people are fearmongerers.
And no, it doesn’t bother me, make me worried in any capacity or anything other than wishing I was multi-lingual.
Doesn’t bother me in the least, especially after a career in the military and living overseas for many years where I was the one speaking a foreign language. I knew guys in the Navy who got their knickers in a twist over the Filipino guys speaking Tagalog amongst themselves. It was the same stupid logic: what if they’re talking about us? My response was always “Well, you’re talking about them, aren’t you?”
So what’s your objective reason why everyone else should start speaking English for your convenience? Shouldn’t you start speaking Chinese, which is the majority language?
It takes years to learn Chinese. I’d have to quit my job and study and practice Chinese for 3 or 4 years to learn it fluently enough to speak and write professionally. The Chinese start learning English in elementary school, and after they move here, it still takes them 2 years of speaking and writing in English to become fluent. It’s not realistic to require Americans in the tech industry to learn Chinese fluently or no longer be able to support themselves or their families. I’m pro-diversity, and I enjoy different cultures, but I shouldn’t be forced out of a job because I don’t know Chinese when I live in America. I would expect to face this type of discrimination in China, but not the U.S.
Depends on the context.
Hearing English in 1941 Berlin should quite rationally raise some eyebrows.
As for 2016 in America, as long as everyone knows and can speak English, I don’t really care what language they use.
This is essentially saying that everybody should learn to speak English for the convenience of English speakers but English speakers have no obligation to learn another language. Unless there is some special quality to the English language, that’s not an objective policy.