Huh? What? Whaddaya want? Buh? Oh. Hmmm.
Right then.
Gracias, and adios.
I know this sounds kind of callous, since it was a life-or-death issue (and I agree when it comes to life-and-death things like this, every effort should be made to warn people) but…but…I feel such frustration about these needless accidents happening because people use things when they are unable to read the warning labels!!! It still is no skin off my nose if some people never learn the language of the country they’ve moved to, but if they don’t know what the warning labels say…they must realize that they are taking a risk! And it is their own hide that they are saving if they are able to comprehend what the warning labels are saying.
But heaven knows, if I went to another country, it would probably take me a while to get familiar with the native language. I can certainly sympathize with people who are recent immigrants. But when I hear about people living in a country for 10 years or so, and they don’t know the language yet (and I don’t mean they can speak it fluently, but just kinda sorta stumble along) then I figure it’s a decision they made. And I lament about the risks they may take if they use stuff without being able to read the warning labels. (And yes, once again, I think when it comes to life-or-death things, that every effort should be made to warn as many people as effectively as possible.)
As a lifelong resident of South Texas, and now San Antonio…which is almost exactly a fifty-fifty split between Anglos and Latinos…this is a common complaint, particularly from transferred employees. “Why are they ALL, like, speaking Spanish? In front of me, and stuff! That’s just rude!”
If the conversation doesn’t relate to work, it shouldn’t matter what language it is conducted in; I think your principle error here, **Mingo, ** is that you assume that you are welcome in all conversations. If they had been speaking English, you assume that you would have been part of the conversation; the fact of the matter is, if they wanted to converse with you, they would have used English. If they are having a conversation among themselves, that does not involve you, it seems a bit rude to expect them to make your eavesdropping easier. They are, after all, the ones who are “fluent” in TWO languages; why should they only utilize one?
I am as eager as anyone else to encourage all Americans and immigrants to learn and use English; my issue is with this silly idea that all English-only Americans are entitled to understand every conversation that goes on around them. Sure, in my workplace, there’s occasionally a few employees who switch to Spanish just to talk about the person who doesn’t understand the language…but for the most part, speaking Spanish/whatever foreign language for these people is like me talking slang. It’s the language I’m comfortable speaking with my friends; it’s the language of comrades.
And besides, I’ve learned all the Spanish I know from these people; they know English AND Spanish. Why should I be pissed off that I only know English, and that they have a bilingual advantage? I see it as a learning experience.
I’m living in Norway, which really isn’t that different from the US on fundamentals. But you’d be amazed at how some of the expats (and not just from the US) rant and rave about the differences that do exist. One was literally on the verge of tears, complaining about what a backwater her husband’s company had sent them to, because she couldn’t find chocolate chips in the stores. I can almost believe in her case the real problem was homesickness and the chocolate chips were just the last straw… but then I meet other expats, English speakers, who after several years still have only learned a few words of Norwegian and don’t seem to mind. In fact they often think this is funny. “Everyone here speaks English, what do I need with Norwegian?” they’ll laugh. And often in the next breath mock Norwegian culture out loud, apparently forgetting that ‘everyone here speaks English’ :smack:
The bright side is that I’m treated as some sort of rare and precious thing: The American Who Speaks Norwegian…
I find people that move to the US as permanent residents and don’t even make an effort to learn English as contemptible as the guy in the OP. But my main disgust is not that, it is that he expected other people to learn a foreign language and thought that they were stupid for not being able/willing to do it while he himself would not learn the local language. Pot calling kettle and all that.
If you are a tourist and you will only be in a place for a week, well, nobody expects you to be fluent in the language before travelling (air companies would be in bigger trouble than they are now). But residing in a different country is a totally different matter. A butchered Spanish is better than no Spanish at all.
Does it have the same effect if one’s abilities don’t rise above the “Rut og Jon” level? As a teenager, I spent a summer living with a family in Sauda (up-fjord from Stavanger) back in the late 60s. Before we met our host families, our minders tried to give us some basic Norwegian, but they used the books that are aimed at little kids. I found that being able to enunciate the Norwegian equivalent of “run, Spot, run” was not particularly useful in everyday life. 
Audrey Levins, Well truthfully I never looked at it that way and you make a good point. I’m trying to show growth by not just defending my positions when I can be shown that another has merit. I think this is one of those times.
Modest moment of mirth.
In Brussels, while out to dinner, conducted all exchanges with our waitress in tourist French, she replying in French. At the end of the meal, she caught us speaking English and laughed with us, she was from the US and hadn’t picked up on the fact that we we’re too!
(I know, I know. Just too cute, I should submit it to the Readers Digest. :rolleyes: )
Hell, even most of the natives of the country I live in can’t speak the native language, and I’m still trying to learn it anyway.
Joke from SJ Perelman (or Robert Benchley?):
“My maid has been in this country so long she has forgotten how to speak Spanish. As she never learned to speak English, she can no longer speak at all.”