My problem is that some immigrants have been in this country five or more years and still can not order a sandwich in english. And then the tax payers of the US have to pay millions of Dollars so that same person can read a legel document. Yes keep your native cultures and language, but learn after time to communicate in the common language of the area you are in. When I was in a foreign nation for 3yrs over 30 years ago I had to learn enough of the language to function dailly

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Being somewhat in the Customer support industry I can tell you for a fact 50 % of all support calls overflow to Bangalore India

I wonder how much the City of Toronto has to pay for the 64 or so languages they use for mailouts, etc.

http://www.toronto.ca/diversity/pos...lcome_large.jpg

Even though my city (and others in Canada) spend tons of money for translation services, my company still gets letters from people complaining their language isn't on mailouts (for some reason, some people think a newswire sevice is like a news agency so they call/email us to complain). What's the cut-off point here? Are we supposed to translate every document into every language in the world?

I've worked in call centres and have been in training groups with trainees who don't speak the language and am often surprised at how long they last. I can understand their need for employment but if they can't speak the language, it's just going to frustrate the customer, as gekkogecko showed.

Our sister company in the States has outsourced their Operations dept. to Bangalore and most calls are hopeless. It takes so long to communicate that I wonder how much money they're saving by outsourcing. The weekend before last, I had to give up on trying to get an answer from them because I just couldn't understand what the guy was saying to me. I got a call later from their Cleveland office asking if my problem was solved. How is that saving money, I ask you? Why couldn't I just talk to an English speaker in the first place?

There was a hilarious Call Centre Movie link but I googled it and it says the service is unavailable. It was awesome so if you're interested, perhaps try googling it again later to see if it appears again.

What is happening to us???????

Subject: We have lost it!!!


Denver County Traffic Court


Hopefully, you have an opportunity to read this e-mail regarding the utter frustration we, English speaking Americans, experience on a daily basis, and

this will go beyond just an e-mail.

This experience happened to my wife April 1, 2007, in Denver County Traffic Court , Denver , Colorado .


She had to appear in traffic court as a result of a speeding ticket. She was speeding, and knew she would have a fine to pay. We have no problem with that. However, the rest of the court experience is something we should all stand up and take exception to and ask what is happening to the United States ?

She was asked to be in court by 4:30 PM, and she complied. When she arrived

it was announced all non English speaking persons, with traffic violations, would be taken care of first. The reason was the interpreter leaves every day at the same time and does not stay late. So a reward for not speaking English is one gets to go the front of the line

Next, the non English speaking individuals do not have insurance and/or driver's licenses. Never was it asked why they did not have licenses, what they were doing to get licenses or insurance. What they were given for driving without a license was a $35 fine. Since many of them did not have $35 they were also given payment terms. So, they are granted another reward for not having the money to pay their fines.

My wife, who was born in Denver , Colorado , raised, and lived here all her life, was given a $249 fine for her speeding ticket. She was not given payment terms, and had to wait until all the non-English speaking aliens were treated first.

If I understand this correctly,



* Let's never require non-English speaking individuals, who live in this country,

to learn English.

* Let's never require they become citizens of this United States of America .

* Let's never require they get driver's licenses and pray they never kill someone on the road with their driving.

* Let's never require they get automobile insurance, so all of us who do will pay higher and higher premiums for non insured driver insurance.

* Let's make sure those of us who are injured by these individuals pay higher and higher health insurance premiums.

* Let's make sure those who pay their fines, pay big ones to subsidize all those

little $35 fines on payment plans

* Let's make sure we never inconvenience them and let's never inconvenience

the interpreters in this country who may have to work late.

Our Country is eroding every day right before our eyes. No country in the world has ever survived having 2 major languages. We are heading down that path. Irish

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Irish---Better to be dead & cool,then alive & uncool!
(Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man)

Just read the new book out,


The Rise and Fall of the United States

writen by congress

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I think I'm reading that book too, SC. I get one page at a time every night on the news.

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As soon as those pesky annoying customers get the idea & quit calling, they can save a bunch by not having any so-called "customer service" at all...who do we think we are, expecting business to care about customer satisfaction?

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Plug me into somethin'

If the theory does not conform to the facts, then the facts must be discarded.

No good deed ever goes unpunished

Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level, & beat you with experience.

Another American antique.

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That anyone dealing with the public should be required to be able to be understood by the majority of that public is just plain commonsense. To be honest, I haven't had many problems understanding accented English from a wide variety of places (very occasionally I will have to ask them to repeat something but that's it), but I can understand that many would. That companies choose to skimp on this is very customer unfriendly and ultimately unproductive.

I would also not object to mandatory English classes for migrants provided the requirements weren't too onerous (eg: costs them more than they can afford, requires them to meet a standard far beyond native spearks in their adopted country, etc).

However, I don't really see the problem with pressing 1 for English. All that means is that there's options and English is the first one. I would certainly rather that incredibly tiny inconvenience than no options at all.

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I want to know everything
I want to be everywhere
I want to fuck everyone in the world
I want to do something that matters

Some of you may find this link interesting...

http://www.diversityalliance.org/docs/Chang-aztlan.html

and then google Nation of Aztlan

If you have a moment read this and watch the video...
http://www.fulldisclosure.net/Programs/468-469.php

Most of what I have researched and read have to deal will illegal immigration and not legal immigration. Most, if not all, who follow the process and go thru the correct channels to immigrate to the US legally make an honest effort to assimilate themselves into our melting pot and that includes learning the language. The desire to achieve the American dream that they read about with our Ellis Island immigrants who assimilated into the US is their goal. While the people of the US are more accepting of their culture now rather than they were then, and are wanting them to retain their heritage and want to embrace & learn about it, we (collectively) have expressed our (representing) outrage of having (we) to assimilate to the new wave of illegals entering our country. We know that there are all types of nations representing illegal entry, but since the majority of what we experience are from Mexico and further south, that is what we concentrate on. That, I believe, is why there is such outrage and concentration on our Mexican citizens and nationals rather than Canadians... or any other immigrants (illegal or legal).

(ME) - when I have to read a sign to locate the restroom in small town Iowa that is printed in Spanish first and then English second (we) have a problem. We have hispanic students in our school who wear Azlan colors and T-shirts. As of this year, we have a total of 769 students (small school) and 34% of them are hispanic and 22% of them are 7th grade or higher who cannot speak or read English to the point where they can function in a regular classroom. Special teachers and classrooms have to be scheduled and are slowly taking away space from the regular classroom/teachers. We have 3 teachers who are teaching Social Studies, Math and Health off a cart as they don't have a classroom.

One student, who has been in the district for 5 years, set fire to a locker last year and nothing could be done as he and his parents couldn't communicate with school officials without an interpretor so due process was out the window, and since we are "required" to furnish him an education as he was under the age of 16 and considered special ed, he was able to come back after a 3 day out of school suspension.

I believe congress is fooling themselves on this issue as well in relation to illegal immigration and terrorism. I believe congress is turning a blind eye toward how illegal immigration effects the US economy and the services provided to its citizens as well as wage/insurance/health care issues in relation to illegal immigration.

*Steps down from soapbox and gives it a mighty kick.*

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A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.

__________________
I want to know everything
I want to be everywhere
I want to fuck everyone in the world
I want to do something that matters

The one thing that bothers me most with this bilingual thing is this...

Our ancestors came to America and with great pride dived into the difficult task of learning the language. English, in it's purest, is a hard language to learn what with same meaning/different spelling and vice-versa..etc. But then Americanized...well, it's trying even for "native borns" today! But, our ancestors did all they could to "become American".

I feel like we have made immigrants lazy today by making it so easy to never have to learn the language with the bilingual signs and phone options...etc.

If I were transplanted to a country that didn't speak my language I would go out of my way to learn what I needed to know to at least get by till I could fully master speaking to the natives in their language! I couldn't stand not being able to communicate. And I've a feeling I'd be avoided till I could state my case in word instead of trying to make them understand me.

When in Rome...yada, yada, yada!

So yes...I do feel put out for all the time it takes to get through a phone call these days. Yes...I do feel like more trees are being destroyed to list all the directions in a booklet instead of just 1-2 pages. <--- OK...that isn't the most reasonable example but it's crossed my mind. Yes...I do think outsourcing is in default if the employees can't speak clear English...etc., etc., etc.

I would love to be multi-lingual...but I'm not. And even that English was never proclaimed official, it's still the language of the land. I spose I'll adapt in time. But really...why should I adapt and those who don't speak the language not have to?

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

I believe that is one of the points in question. Shouldn't the first 'option' be to accommodate what is not the 'standard'? "press 1 for (anything besides English)......."




As for Cheyanne's references, I'm going to be chewing on them for a while.

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Belial, I love those "demotivational" posters from Despair.com ...& I when I made that post, I was thinking of them, & Dilbert comics as well...

The "press 1 for English" issue can be divided into 2 parts...one is the ever increasing illegal immigrant aspect, which is clearly the hot-button issue of the day, & has been flogged thoughly to death on the talkshow circuit...the second part is that it's just 1 step in the way businesses today try to deflect customers away from bothering them...any call I have to make to Comcast when my cable or internet service goes down starts with the "POFE" message, followed by the "press 2 for Espanol" (in Espanol, of course...maybe the one thing that makes any sense at all), followed by entire sets of other options, until I start to feel like a circus animal jumping thru pointless hoop after hoop...

I can see how business feels that it must make some concessions to reality, that to ignore such a large potential customer base is like throwing money out the window, but...it seems to prove to old saying that to try to make everybody happy you end making nobody happy...

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Plug me into somethin'

If the theory does not conform to the facts, then the facts must be discarded.

No good deed ever goes unpunished

Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level, & beat you with experience.