Please speak English!!!!!

[eeyoresnr]

Baloney. Dunkin' Donuts around here have plenty of workers that don't speak English or speak minimal English.

I think you read it wrong

 

[ConcKahuna]

Places I have never had any trouble ordering McDonalds in:

Paris, France
Innsbruck, Austria
Munich, Germany
Cairo, Egypt


Places where there has been difficulty due to a language barrier:
Phoenix, Arizona

We lived in Phoenix for 3 years, and most every fast food place was impossible.

I've heard good things about the Moscow McDonalds too.

One day I'll go to these countries so I can enjoy the foreign food...and foreign McDonalds..

 

[Briarmom]

I've heard good things about the Moscow McDonalds too.

One day I'll go to these countries so I can enjoy the foreign food...and foreign McDonalds..

I have only eaten at the ones in Cairo (because we were there about once a month or so...so it was a treat to get a McArabia...oh and Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt) and Paris (hungover). The rest of the times it was for the kiddos.

 

[CJBaby]

Stating the obvious:

Fast food workers get orders wrong all the time. And there is no Spanish translation for "Egg McMuffin."

 

[LaraK]

Went to McDonalds tonight (hey, it's Friday...I didn't take it into another restraunt, I brought it home)....Neither the person taking the order or the person filling it spoke english clearly, but they got my order right!

 

[Hixski]

Places I have never had any trouble ordering McDonalds in:

Paris, France
Innsbruck, Austria
Munich, Germany
Cairo, Egypt


Places where there has been difficulty due to a language barrier:
Phoenix, Arizona

We lived in Phoenix for 3 years, and most every fast food place was impossible.

I am in a suburb of St. Louis Missouri. We were on the DCL Western cruise in 2005. One of the stops is Cozumel Mexico. When speaking to the people working there I was impressed that their English (in Mexico) is better than the people here in St. Louis. Now there is something wrong with that picture.

I work in IT and talk to our plants in the following countries. Mexico, China, Phillipines and India. The contact people all speak English. That being said I pray everynight I don't need to talk to someone in India because while they might speak English you can't understand it. It is extremely hard to do YOUR job when you can't understand the other person.

 

[ckret01]

I apologize if I am not allowed to post this....if that is the case please delete or I will delete. But someone just sent this to me and I think it goes with the conversation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEJfS1v-fU0

 

[jacksonsmom]

I don't run into this too much in my area. With that said I live in a small Minnesota town about 60 miles away from the large city of 20,000 people.
Our town has about 13,000 in it so fairly small.

I LOVE my city. I can go to any store or food place and know the workers will understand me and I will understand them

Now when we go into the cities that is a different story and I dread calling a help desk number! I have been known to tell the person on the other line that they need to put me on the phone with someone that speaks CLEAR English. If they can't then I hang up!

They want to work, fine put them in a factory or something. For pete's sakes do not put them answering phones and trying to help people with troubleshooting!!!
Costumer service employees should be REQUIRED to speak CLEAR English!

I am 100% in favor of the US making English are offical language. I don't understand why we don't have an offical language.

 

[Hixski]

These quotes are from Theodore Roosevelt. The 26th president of the United States from 1901-1909.

Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country.
Theodore Roosevelt

We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Wise words......too bad they can't still hold true today. I googled this below about how many immigrants were here the year the above quote was made. If they could learn English then why can't they do it now. Oh, I forgot they don't have too, we make it too easy not to.

The turn of the century was characterized by rapid urbanization and industrialization as well as by a substantial increase in overall population. By 1907, the immigration rate peaked as approximately 1.3 million immigrants entered the United States and in that one year accounted for a 3 percent increase in the U.S. labor force.

 

[bigmerle1966]

Unless you mean the university, she is from Colombia.

Well the OP is in MD and there is a Columbia here.

My pet peeve is why do I need to press 1 for English. Why can't I automatically get English and have to press a button for Spanish???

I do online surveys and they have started to ask if I am Hispanic now before they ask me my ethnicity. Why not just ask that on that page?

OK, but what about the ones born here who can't speak English.

And those that have been here for years and still don't know English.

My big pet peeve with some non english speaking people is that many understand and can speak well enough to get them through a daily conversation but so many,many times they play the "I don't speak English Card" to alleviate their problems.

Years aog I worked at McDonalds and they had a young Asian girl who spoke very little English. One day the manager came around the corner into the kitchen and heard her cursing in perfect English after she dropped something. She had been pretending she couldn't speak English so that they wouldn't put her in the drive-thru or the front counter.

Give these people credit. They are putting themselves out there, working hard and contributing to our economy. Sure, it's frustrating to communicate with them sometimes, but a little patience and kindness go a long way.

The problem, IMO, is those that are here to make money to send home to their families. It seems that things are changing and more people are starting to come here not because they want to be American's, but for what they can get from this country.

 

[Tinkerbell424]

ARGH!
I got a call a week ago from comcast or some place like that and the whole message was in spanish!

There wasn't even a part 2 to translate in English.
&& they called twice.

 

[Hound 109]

This is happening up here in the White Mountains, too. We have many Eastern Europeans working in all the fast food restaurants here in the valley. By the end of the summer I might get the correct order at a drive-up window. These are legal workers, too. Know why they are so popular? If they are working in this country for less than 6 months neither they nor the company have to pay FICA taxes! That's a big chunk of cash.

Ther was an article in the paper about a young man who had worked at a local camp for several years. He was told that he wouldn't have his job this the following year (I think this was last summer) because the camp owners were hiring foreign help instead.

If that's accurate then the law should be changed. Everyone should pay FICA taxes. (But it's not their fault)

 

[Hound 109]

Ah! There is this McDonalds near us and there is this one woman at the counter that hardly speaks any english at all! We talk slowly.
Our order goes like this:
~Hi, can I have a soda, medium fries
~So-what?
~Soda
~Oh, ok. What soda?
~Coke
~Choke who?
~ Coke!
~Oh, ok. And fries? Medium? *pause* Wait, what you want fried?
~No no, I want French fries, medium.
~Oh. Ok. Thank for coming, have nice day.

No, I am serious. It gets annoying and it takes a long time to put our order out.

You ordered a "soda"?

She thanked you for coming & wished you a nice day?

 

[Hound 109]

OK, but what about the ones born here who can't speak English.

I live in a county that is 12% Asian & 27% Hispanic. In 12 years I have never encountered a child (or adult) who was born in the US & couldn't speak English. In fact their English is (was) better than my daughter's & her friend's was when they were teens.

hound

 

[aprilgail2]

If that's accurate then the law should be changed. Everyone should pay FICA taxes. (But it's not their fault)

Is FICA social security?? I have been working for 23 years and have never paid into social security. Railroad workers do not pay into social security-we also do not collect it.

 

[BMNABrinx]

I began having a problem with this when we lived in TX and I was going to apply for a job. I realized I couldn't because it said "Must speak fluent Spanish". It wasn't a great job. It was at Wal-Mart! But just weeks earlier DH and I were at a convience mart/laundrymat and when DH asked the worker a very simple question in plain english the worker said she didn't speak english! Now, where is the equal opportunity in that? My DH was serving in the USAF and I couldn't apply for a job because I didn't speak fluent spanish. There is a definite problem here.

 

[Hound 109]

My mom was born here in 1932. Her parents spoke french. She went to a french catholic school in an area with alot a French Canadians. Spoke french at home & church. Then at 13 yrs old, she had to go to the next town over to go to a public high school. Guess what? She HAD to learn English. No free pass. No getting translators or french speaking teachers for them. Learn English or don't pass your classes & don't graduate. She learned it. And that's what she's spoken ever since.

So, why do they get free passes today & not have to learn English even when they are born here like my mom?

Why did it take 13-15 years for your mother to learn the English language?

Why did her parents rely on the the "public education" system to teach her English instead of teaching her themselves?

You ask why do "they" get free passes? Who is "they"?

What "free passes" are "they" getting?

 

[Hound 109]

That is the truth!!! Again, I wonder if they feel they're going to lose their heritage by speaking English.

 

[Hound 109]

Ive given up on a number of businesses because their employees do not speak or at least understand enough english to fill an order. And I have let the companies know it but they don't seem to care. Accents I can handle but when someone doesn't have a clue of what I want even when I point to the menue I have a problem with that. And around here if you dont speak spanish or polish they wont hire you in many cases, my cousin is having that problem. There is no solution unless we just wont put up with it and not shop at stores like these. Yep may not eat another McBurger but then my waistline might need that.

It's admirable that you can handle accents.

 

[Hound 109]

I love melting pot communities. I live in one with tons of first generation immigrants and their American-born children (as well as a ton of non-American born, non-English speaking children). I watch people grow and change. I watch them assimilate. I see them work hard and not collect welfare. I watch their children thrive with many of them going to college. It's all good because it's what America stands for.

Not too long ago, all of you had immigrant ancestors who didn't speak the language and who had to learn. Yeah, they learned the hard way and some never learned at all. Many of the wives stayed home and never assimilated, never learned the language. Many did.

Give these people credit. They are putting themselves out there, working hard and contributing to our economy. Sure, it's frustrating to communicate with them sometimes, but a little patience and kindness go a long way.

Thank you, Gina