I’m so sick to death of this forced bilingualism everywhere I go, because I think it’s phony and is politically correct pandering. There aren’t THAT many United States citizens out there who only speak Spanish or who prefer to speak Spanish that being forced to choose this country’s official language should be an option on ATM’s, phone menus, etc. Instead, because they’re the largest growing minority, these companies want to pander to them and be politically correct, forcing a fraudulent bilingualism on the rest of us.
We don’t live in a fucking border town. This is America. We speak English here. Let’s drop this forced bilingualism.
Feh. You’re lucky you got a prompt to press 1 for English … I called a customer support line just the other day and the prompt said to press 1 for Spanish, or 2 for English.
You know you can just press ‘1’, right?
Oh yeah, I forgot how toxic listening to and seeing a forgeign language is to most Americans. Burns flesh and retinas.
And then your ear burned.
If you didn’t get English, then it wasn’t bilingual. I can see how that shit would be annoying but that isn’t what this particular rant is about.
I go back and forth with myself on this. On the one hand, other countries teach a lot of English in their schools so their students can speak “the international language of business”, I suppose, and American school’s emphasis on learning foreign tongues is pretty tame by comparison.
I also suspect that many people from other countries learn English from our TV and movie programs, but…if they can say “Betty Grable, zsa, zsa…” I suppose it’s as complimentary as knowing only “Wo ist zie toiletten” when in Berlin.
But, I also kind of resent people that live here in America making zero effort to learn the *UN-official * language of their new home in order to better integrate with the rest of us.
I don’t like it when I go to my local store in my home country and I cannot understand the employee because he doesn’t speak my language, and I shouldn’t be compelled to learn his here in the States. He should be compelled to learn mine, at least to the marginal point that we can communicate over a purchase or a service.
Sadly, being fluent in foreign languages used to be a mark of an educated person and that seems to be falling away in America.
I remember getting into a discussion about this with someone that was mad that they had to push a button to get English. That’s it. They were mad that they actually had to do something active. They didn’t disagree that companies had the right to serve customers in their preferred language, but didn’t want to have to do anything themsleves.
I wondered aloud how this would work.
“For service in English, please wait until we read off the list of languages we offer support in. For French, press 1. For Spanish, press 2…”
Personally, I’d just push the button.
ETA: Okay, I’ll contribute instead of just being an ass.
I saw something very telling in the difference in attitudes between different people when I went to Brazil for my buddy’s wedding. His mom told her mom, “I wish you spoke English so you could understand me.” His dad told her dad, "I wish I spoke Portuguese, so I could understand you. In other words, what** FoieGras** said.
“Hey, our company has a substantial number of customers who need or want a particular accommodation. Let’s accommodate them. It might be good for business.”
Fucking panderers.
Actually, I do have this much sympathy for the OP: I too hate having to go through an extra step (in this case, the “pick a language” step) before I can transact my business. The local ATMs used to start by making you pick a language. Now they’ve been reprogrammed so that the default is English, but you can select one of several other languages if you want to before punching in your PIN. I’m much happier now.
Fuck, forced bilingualism? I can’t imagine the gall of a government forcing you to learn an extra langu-
Oh, wait. You mean that you were forced to listen to someone speaking in another language. After the option you were after had already been given. And which in fact causes zero harm to yourself, other then your apparently fragile state of mind.
I’m not entirely sure what it is you’re after here, to be honest. Will you not be using those services again? I can’t imagine that it costs a huge amount to record whatever company’s messages in another language. Why should they drop a service that might well gain them customers because you’re slow at pressing a button?
Well you better get used to it. Many of the customers I deal with don’t speak English at all and it doesn’t sound like they’re going to start any time soon. Where there’s a will there’s a way. I just use more diagrams with them.
Sometimes I’ve pressed the Spanish option, even though I’m fluent in English. Reasons include:
My accent may be too strong for whoever is the representative.
My accent IS too strong for many automated services that ask you to speak the option.
If I have what I consider a complex problem and want to bitch and rant and get it straighten out, it will be easier for me to do it in my own language, in which I’m more comfortable and adept and don’t need for the other person to repeat nor the other person misunderstands me (for the most part, at least less than English speakers).
I don’t see what is the problem for other English-only customers. What, like Biggirl says, your ears will burn?
