Speak AMERICAN
One of my best friends here called me up yesterday to let me know how she had quit her job. She was a costumer service manager at Wal-Mart. The problem was that there was this old lady complaining about an emuloyee there that didn’t speak English. When the old lady called a manager, my friend had to respond (my friend is hispanic) and ask the lady what was the problem. The lady without thinking twice told her “you guys should fire this woman, how can somebody who doesn’t speak American work here? Immigrants should learn American or go back to their country.” My friend (whose parents DONT speak American) tried to lecture this lady about discrimination and racism now days. She also told the lady how she was hispanic and her parents didn’t speak American, but the lady repeated her thoughts once again. My friend got so mad about this that after she went and talked to her supervisor about this (and he didn’t pay attention) she went ahead and quit because she doesn’t like to work in a place where not even her supervisor understands how “speaking American”is not everything that counts in thi country.
Perspectives on Race 
First off, that is the first time I have ever read about someone saying they didn’t speak American, her response back should have said I don’t speak english, not American. Yes English is the dominate language in America but it should not be declared American since it is a language shared by multiple countries and this would be pretty arrogant, however Spanish is spoken by a very large amount of Americans, as well as lots of other Americans, so honestly, to speak American could be several hundred languages.
matthewcel
February 21, 2010 at 6:00 pm
I think that it was pretty stupid of her to say “American” as the language instead of English. I do believe though that English is the main language here and in order to communicate effectively with customers such as the one in Walmart you would need to know English. I think that not knowing English will close many doors for you in this country so it is important to learn even if a lot of people speak Spanish.
amgostigian
February 21, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I think that if you are going to live in this country, at least be able to communicate in English to some degree. If I go to another country to live, I would learn that language so that I can communicate and be part of society.
I don’t know why people wouldn’t want to learn the language in order to communicate. I would think that not knowing it would be horrible because it would be so hard for me to rely on someone else to communicate my ideas to another person who didn’t speak my language.
melp8
February 21, 2010 at 8:07 pm
I don’t completely agree with all these comments, and I don’t feel like having the discussion. But, I want you all to keep in mind that English IS NOT LEGALLY the official language of the United States. It is a good thing to know English (as well as as many languages as one possibly can), but not knowing English does not determine how successful a person/immigrant can be in these country. My dad is a winner and he doesn’t speak English.
P.S: Please don’t get offended and start bombing me with hundreds of arguments to support your opinion. I just want you to take a moment and think about this with a more open mind. Put yourself in both sides of the argument and try to walk in somebody else’s shoes before expressing your thoughts. Maybe we are all right and nobody is wrong. : )
lisbecita
February 21, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I think that it is unfortunate that America is supposed to be a “melting pot” but yet there are individuals that are can not accept diversity. I dont think that anyone should be forced or feel pressured to learn English just because they are living in America. Nor, do I feel that anyone is justified in discriminating against someone whose native language is not English. I can only imagine that it is hard enough trying to assimilate into another country without having to deal with people like that old lady.
deanna15
February 22, 2010 at 9:14 pm