http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=6551048&page=1
I found out that they filmed a piece on racism at a bagel place a few blocks from me and showed it on last night's "What would you do?" ABC Primetime special. I actually know a few people who wound up on camera. It was an interesting piece, but a bit skewed, and IMO it mixed two different, although not separate issues. Basically they had an actor portray a sales clerk who was refusing service to a couple of Mexicans who couldn't speak English, going so far as to accuse them of being illegal aliens and threatening to call the police on them. The whole point of it was to gauge the other customers' reactions, and see what they would do, if anything.
I don't know, I'm kind of torn on this. The racist clerk was pretty over the top, and it's hard to condone his actions of refusing service based on race and taking it further to accuse them of illegally entering the country because of it. On the other hand, I think it completely glosses over the fact that there is a real problem with people coming to the US and, for whatever reason, refusing to learn the language. I'm not talking about the people who've just immigrated to the country and need to get acclimated, but rather the ones who've lived here for YEARS and still can't communicate. I went to grammar school with someone who, from 1st to 8th grade, never was able to communicate in English. I'm assuming that at home all they ever spoke was Spanish, so he was always somewhat of an outsider. I have no idea what happened to him after that, but it's hard to imagine him amounting to much. The counter-argument to this always seems to be that people are asking them to give up their culture, but I don't think that's the case. Realistically, I don't see how a person can expect to live in a country over an extended period of time and feel that everyone should learn their language instead of them even making an attempt to be able to communicate with the masses.
Of course, the fact that so many native speakers have absolutely no grasp of the English language is a problem all in itself. For the love of God, I can't understand half of the posts I read on this site, and they're all supposedly written in English...
Comments
I think there's a lot of blame to go around with the current dumbing down of society. I think we've just lowered our standards to accommodate the mediocre, and it's sending everything downhill. I know in my state the average student couldn't meet the basic educational requirements for things like reading and writing and math, so what did we do? Did we take this as a sign that our education system needs reform and we need to do something, and fast, if we're going to catch up with the rest of the world? No, we just lowered the standards so we wouldn't look quite as pathetic.
Hurricane: I don't know if I agree with you about people not having the resources to learn English. There are plenty of books and audio programs out there, as well as people who volunteer their time to teach English to those for whom it would be a second language. If a person wants to make the effort, there is the means to learn. I'm not saying it's an easy task, but it can be done. It's funny how some people who've learned English as a second language, like you, wind up speaking it far better than those who've supposedly been speaking it all their lives. On Facebook I talk to someone from Argentina who speaks perfect English, and every so often she'll apologize for getting something wrong since this isn't her primary language. Meanwhile you've got people posting on the WWE forums like...well, I won't say, but who apparently don't even know the basics of grammar or punctuation or spelling. Are they stupid, or just lazy? Does it even matter at this point?
But all in all there are some people like that worker who think everyone that is of Hispanic descent is illegal which just makes you wonder about how and where they grew up (even if it is acting),
About the English language, you're right it is hard for some foreigners to learn it (not my family since we speak a form of English) but others and ESL does not help at all.
They should make a Rosetta Stone to learn just English.
There actually is a Rosetta Stone for learning English. I also know there are a lot of audio CD programs for learning English which are designed for natural speakers of a certain language. I really do think that people could learn the language if they'd be willing to put forth the effort. People living in the US for a decade who still can't communicate in English is ridiculous.
RTTV: Well, the guy was an actor, but it was almost comical how over-the-top he was. It's really got to be tough to not be able to speak English like you're describing.
Gamerboy: There really doesn't seem to be much incentive to be smart anymore, which is ridiculous. If I believed in conspiracies (which I do) I'd say that there's actually a purposeful dumbing down of society, since stupid people are far less likely to ask questions, or even know that questions need to be asked. Crulex: I don't think it's racist to feel that people should be able to speak the dominant language of the country they're living in. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line it became politically incorrect to feel that way, which is ridiculous. Political correctness has created a society in which we're all afraid to say ANYTHING to ANYONE, because it seems like everything is considered offensive. If I were planning to permanently relocate to someplace like Japan, I think it would be incredibly arrogant for me to refuse to learn the language and just expect everyone to accommodate me.
I find it truly sad that the person I referred to (although he's certainly not the only one on this site, or in this country for that matter) apparently can't write in complete sentences or spell and doesn't seem to have the foggiest idea of how to use punctuation. I'm sure I sound elitist saying this, but people like that should probably spend less time on the Internet and a bit more time reading.
Dabest: I think if they really want to, they'll make the effort to learn. As long as everyone keeps accommodating them for refusing to make that effort, they'll never bother learning. Why should they? Really, if you found out you were getting transferred and needed to spend the next five years in Japan, wouldn't you make some effort to learn the language? I'm not saying it would be easy, but it's just something that needs to be done.
sylent_asassin