If an immigrant can't or won't speak English, how does that hurt YOU personally?

acablue

As long as he is happy to remain an immigrant forever, there is no problem. He is equivalent to a tourist and, last I heard, English was not one of the requirements for that. And, as long as he is working legally, there is no problem legally, and as long as he is happy with a subsistence income everyone is happy. There may be problems for him, but not for anyone else.

As soon as he wants to become a participating member of society, there is a huge difference. Without English he (or maybe she) will be ill-informed (or uninformed) about issues --- making intelligent voting impossible --- he will be unable to assimilate or understand the core values of this country which are essential to anyone who aspires to citizenship and to the rest of us who have worked to establish it. He will be a permanent member of an "underclass" which does not contribute to the welfare of the country and of which we have too many already --- do we need to import more? And, you have to ask yourself why someone would refuse to speak, or not expend the time necessary to learn English if he wanted to become a citizen. What does citizenship mean to such a person if they will not expend any effort to support it? Best stay a "tourist". For him and for the rest of us.

Citizenship is not only working --- it is helping to preserve a system --- and to sacrifice for it from time to time. If you don't understand the system, or care about it, how can you preserve or even change it? And why do we need or want someone like that in the first place? Better give the spot to someone who cares.

StarrGirl

If you speak it privately in your home? That's no problem at all. Telling someone they have to speak English in the privacy of their own home is insane! It doesn't mean that we are not unified!! The government can't tell me what to eat and what not to eat, how to dress and how not to in the privacy of my own home...what's the difference with how I speak? Where I come from is part of who I am and America is a melting pot of people from all over the world. I am proud that my country is a mix of cultures. It doesn't bother me one bit what people speak at home. I'm sure the people who it bothers have never been out of their own country...so typical ethonocentric Americans.

Pablo E

Dj Chickenboy has a point! Just cause you dont understand someone does not mean they are plotting super extreme death against you and your neighbors.

Mikey MIKE

I think it helps our culture as a whole because there is more to America than just English. Every city and every state has different cultures and if all we spoke was english, then everything would be the same. Exactly the same. DJ C has a point I am siding with him.

George Bush

Kids who learn in their native tounge do not develop self esteem issues. The ones who learn in english only develop self esteem issues because they dont get it while everyone is moving along. Imagine going to school where noone spoke english and how that would feel. Now imagine going to school where you were learning in a different language but someone was there to help you when you didnt get it. Thats how those kids are. They get the help they need and they succeed and if they dont they fail. Do you really think that if someone tells you something in korean 100 times and you memorize it you will be able to understand what it means? Of course not! Thats why the kids need the language support. DJ C has a point!

BOYS IN THE HOOD

I'm tired of pressing #1 for friggin English. This is the USA,speak Swahili to your friends and family,but if someone wants to communicate with me,they need to speak ENGLISH.

CutziezGirlY

America is spoiled. I dont think any other country has this problem. China speaks Chinese, mandarin and countless other languages. They have just surpassed the US on trade. They didnt get there by speaking on chinese, yes they speak english but like I said they speak a lot of other languages as well. thats why they are on their way to becoming a superpower and all we are gonnabe known for is a country who has no illegal immigrants cause we are not very popular with the world. It shouldnt affect us but it does for some reason and we need to stop focusing our money and attention on something as dumb as building a wall that people will find a way around. We need to start helping the people here find jobs and affordable housing and good health care. Look at Norway, free childcare til the age of 7 and paid time off for husband and wife to take care of families. Canada has lots of languages and no one is complaining. Get in the game because the US is falling out of it. Oh and I agree with DJ C as well!

Laquisha Jones

You are tired of pressing a button??? WOW americans are getting lazy! I dont understand anything but taco or burrito but come on! Why do we have to fight over something so stupid??? Like everyone else is, I also agree with DJ C. You should not have to feel bad to speak another language. Id like to speak another language. I think it would help me move up in my career. I think thats why americans get frustrated, because they go as high as they can and when someone who knows 2 languages comes along they knock them out of the running of a promotion. Oh well people should have never tried to build the tower of babel.

ROSEY

okay.... Who cares what language people speak at home or in public... It doesn't affect Canada in the negative and it shouldn't affect Americans either......(Toronto is probably the most multicultural society on the planet)... and no negativity as a result of the gazzilion languages spoken here... Why is it the only Americans seem to have a problem with (spanish speaking people) hmmm...

In Canada we have ESL classes for those students whom don't speak english, and btw... they catch up pretty darn quick.. and on the contrary to what someone has posted... they don't bring down the rest of the class....

and I can't believe that people are worried about paying taxes for a few translators when your governments spends trillions on a stupid, unwanted war... this amazes me..

Daisy Robinson

Im american and what I notice is that a lot of people talk bad about people who speak a different language. Like DJ C said, he says that people think he is illegal because he is speaking spanish at the mall. Why should he have to feel that way being an american citizen? Dont we all have freedom of speech? It is a personal problem and like people in america sadly say if you dont like it then leave. (You dont like it when its said to you huh?)

Byron Myers

DJ C has a point. We should all be able to come together. Love has no language. Ignorance does.

Ray Eston Smith Jr

When I hear people speaking a foreign language, sometimes I get paranoid & think they're talking about me. However, I realize this is just paranoia, and I usually manage to suppress that feeling.

I'm trying to learn Spanish by watching Mexican soap operas on TV. Learning a foreign language is really, really hard! On Mexican TV, there are a lot of commercials for English lessons. These people work hard to earn their money, then spend their hard-earned money & their scarce spare time trying to learn English. Most only partly succeed & then people make fun of them because their English is imperfect.
But their kids will speak perfect English and, sadly, most of their grandkids will speak no Spanish.

weechi

ok, for the person who commented on education....in any particular district...all teachers are paid the same amount of money. so...if there are 100 kids, you need roughly 4 teachers. it doesn't matter if 2 of the teachers teach english as a second language, and 2 teach regular english...or whatever. you still have to hire 4 teachers because you have 100 kids.

privately, i don't think it effects ANYTHING. it may get on people's nerves, but that sounds like a personal problem to me.

delujuis

makes it harder to tell them what i want them to do for the 50 cents a day i pay them.

i'm joking of course but that's how some people think. makes you wonder.

javier c

I agree with Djchickenboy as well, and english was not the first language spoken here it was whatever native americans spoke. Also when they voted on it it was between german and english and english won by 2 votes back in the day. There was always multilanguages so live with it. Its not going away!

Starshine

It isn't only in their private life...it is also in public. Many government agencies have people to translate because these people can't or won't speak English...they often have to pay bonus incentives for translators/bi-lingual employees. This adds to your tax burden. It also makes things less efficient as you will often need to stop to find a translator. I have seen people in lines at windows in government buildings repeatedly asking "no speak Spanish?"...these people are often (in my personal experience) in groups and will hold up the line for a very long time...once the person at the window tells them no for the 10th time or so and begins to get irritated someone in the group will "magical" begin to speak English very fluently and clearly, then translate to the group...this holds up everyone involved simply because they CHOOSE not to speak English.

samiam

Doesnt hurt me personally.

Ricky R

Yea DJ C is correct people can still communicate even though they dont speak that language, for the person who wanted to warn someone about the beam falling Even in english you would probably not react fast enough and for the person who made all those scenarios about the people dying or getting hurt, I think someone on that ride would have spoken english and said something and there would be screams of panic coming and they wouldnt hire a bartender if he didnt know how to read. You are making all of that up. Great Question!!! Best answer DJ C!

Anne

I live in Miami and more often than not I am unable to be waited on in stores and such, because I do not speak Spanish. I fear this is the future of this country
P>S> please do not tell me I should learn Spanish if I want to live in my own country this brings us back to how this hurts me personally.
A word to Bear: I think that in the early days of this country there was a vote in either the house or senate and English won by a few votes

Driller Killer

If not understanding the language hinders your freedoms, ie: the inability to properly use a phone, the inability to read a road sign, time to learn the language. Otherwise, speak whatever language you choose in the privacy of your home.

We currently have road signs in both English and Spanish along the American-Mexican border. We also have signs in both English and French along the American-Canadian border. Both of which are acceptable since not all visitors to the United States speak English. The key word is 'visitor'. Outside of these areas, such signs don't seem acceptable or cost effective.

Mimi81

At my job it slows down a lot of our processes as we have to wait for the bilingual employees (like myself) to translate or finish what we were doing and complete the transaction myself. Then we here complaints on how we seem to help the English speakers faster than the Spanish only speakers.

And why can't the immigrant be bilingual? There is an old stereotype that Americans go everywhere in the world expecting the people to speak English but not in our own country?

ms.knowitall

I have a great example of how it could affect many people. I am a traveling nurse. I have worked at some facilities where none of the employee spoke english. During the night shift in an alzhiemer's unit, none of the residents had arm bandages to tell who they were. Since they were in bed I thought the nurse aids could help me identify who these people were. At around 3 am I got up to check my patients, and the aids had started waking the residents up for the day. 3 hours too early. These people were almost all up. They were scattered everywhere. i asked them why they were getting up so early. She smiled at me then shrugged, shaking her head, as if to say i don't know what you are asking. I asked the other one who was ms.jones, She just looked at me shaking her head no and spoke something in her language. No one recieved the care they needed. The diabetics didn't get the blood sugar checked or the insulin needed. None got their medication. All because they could not communicate. I don't mind people speaking their native tounge, but they must speak english in order to work.

nena_en_austin

Personally? I say is the money that the Gov spend in translate paper and do the translator etc. The money finally it comes out of our own pockets.

Chicken B

I agree with Dj Chickenboy

Yoda's Duck

Depends on whether the adults in the home are bi-lingual, and whether English is also used in the home.

If they're exclusively speaking their native (non-English) language in the home, this affects our ability to provide good customer service when they enter the English-speaking world. If I have a customer come in to my store, and their English skills are so poor I can't understand what this person wants, I can't help him/her, and I may loose a customer... and the money they may have brought into my store.

Are the children learning English? If they're not, then they are much less equipped to learn in school, which goes back to the extra tax dollars spent to try to integrate these kids.

Ultimately, if there is no linguistic integration (immigrants not learning the dominant language), a separate and distinct sub-community develops. This separation isn't good for any community.... on the neighborhood, city or even national level.

Yes, America is a melting pot; a lot of different cultures come here, but that doesn't negate the required melting... and that melting is accomplished by... that's right- LEARNING THE LOCAL LANGUAGE!!!

sister_godzilla

Your question was about private lives. I personally don't care what people speak in their homes or standing around having a conversation with each other.
Even at work if people want to chat in Spanish, that's fine as long as it's not work related. If it's work related, then everyone should be speaking English.
And even though I am attempting to learn Spanish, it's not my JOB to learn it. It's the responsibility of people moving to and living in the U.S. to learn English because that is our common language.
If someone desires to live in the USA, why would it be a bad thing to learn English?

Homeless in Phoenix

It actually weakens the society as a whole. If there is not a common language among countrymen many things are lost in translation. If we were a country where every family spoke there own language there would be no continuity. Civilization would just break down.

DAR

I pretty much felt the same way you do until I started coming to this board and reading the posts. We have our own less educated people, with a high school diploma or maybe a year of college, or less. For illegal immigrants educated in our system with the same level of education, they come out of our schools bilingual. Our schools don't offer that to our less educated English speakers.

Now move to what happens out of school. The less skilled jobs are now filled in large part by non-English speaking people. If an English only high school graduate goes to a meat packing plant or Wal-Mart or McDonald's to work, they may get a job. However, when it comes to picking a supervisor or manager, the meat packing plant and Wal-Mart and McDonald want a bilingual person to have the job, to speak with Spanish speaking workers being managed.

That means that because our people only speak the only language they know, they have little upwards mobility, whereas illegals educated for the same number of years do have that mobility.

I have read of this happening over and over. I don't know how common it is, but I can see where it could cause resentment.

My biggest problem personally is that when they don't teach their children to speak English before they get to school, it dramatically slows the class and limits what can be accomplished by the class in a school year. In addition, addressing that problem means a disproportionate percentage of funds is spent on ESL students, at the expense of programs cut for our own children. When the ESL students wouldn't even be here if their parent's hadn't come illegally, it is absolutely unacceptable, particularly since most are too poor to pay their share of education costs in taxes, so we are paying for their children's education, as well.

Lisa T

I don't think it hurts anyone personally!

dumbuster

You definitely are clueless.You contradict yourself with your question.No one gives a sh*t what they do at home,however if they cannot speak English then it is a public issue.How does one participate meaningfully in any society without mastering the language.They become a burden.

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