Language barriers

I heard about this on a radio show or something, and I figured it'd be something good to expound on. Pat's, Geno's and Tony Lukes are the three cheesesteak places that most people around these parts recognize as the main (and best) cheesesteak eateries. I am obligated to quote SuperGrover as saying "Yeah, I agree with that I guess, but Geno's still sucks so whatever..." Anyhow, Geno's now requires all orders to be made in English. I suppose too many people were gesturing wildly at the menu and/or barking out things in Spanish.

Some say this has sparked a national debate, but I don't see it as sparking anything. I think it simply highlights an increasing tension people have about whether or not English should be the official language of the United States (de facto or de jure, whichever).

My view on this is that it would be an interesting case for the courts. If it were challenged on the basis of being a discriminatory policy, I'm really not sure how it would go. The fact is that you're denying people service simply because they're immigrants. But on the other hand, you're not being discriminatory the way things were pre-Civil Rights era. Whereas a person can not change the color of their skin, anyone can learn to speak a language, at least in a very rudimentary way.

There's a lot of opinions out there. When my grandmother's family came here from Russia, they didn't speak English either (how could they learn, they were fleeing the communists). But once they got here, they sent my grandmother to school and when she came home, they asked her to help them learn English. Not only that, but she was prohibited from speaking Russian casually. Every time she said anything in Russian, she says that her parents yelled at her, saying "Stop it - we're in America, and in America you speak English."

I found an interesting article about how many immigrants don't have time to sit down and learn English. Not being able to find child care is a big cause of this. I have to say, my great-grandparents were farmers, and it's pretty obvious how much time it takes to grow crops. I don't really want to hear how there's not enough time. And my family certainly didn't have the benefit of ESL programs.

I guess what bothers me most is that only a couple of generations ago, learning English was one of the things you put up with when coming here as an immigrant. Now, everyone else has to learn other languages to get jobs in their own country. I realize the life of an immigrant is hard, I've heard enough stories from all of my older relatives about how hard it was for them to work their way up and send their kids to college. But they respected their new home, and they wanted to make a life here at any cost. So they took the time to learn the language and prosper. Frankly, I think it's disrespectful not to, and I also think it's lazy not to learn English in a country where it is absolutely necessary.

In terms of Geno's, I think it's the owner's decision. If he is willing to accept the loss in business, more power to him. It's not the government's job to tell him how to run his business. There have already been talks of bias lawsuits and such, and I'm genuinely interested to see how they turn out. In the end, as the previous article mentioned, ESL classes are brimming with immigrants wanting to learn English. I think this is great. In fact, in a rare move, I would actually recommend that the government increase spending (!) to ESL programs. People really area upset about having to worry about language barriers, and I think it serves a legitimate state interest. It's hard to conduct commerce and other sorts of transactions without a common language.