Immigration, Language and Respect
Something happened to Erin and I today that has me very upset. I’ll get to explaining what it is has soon as I explain what I believe and what I am about so that there can be no mistake as to who I am. If you’re sensitive to politics, subjects on immigration or general bitching about people coming in to your country and foul language, you might not want to read this. I have no problem with individuals immigrating to this wonderful country of ours. That’s what makes this country great. I have no problem with other races or religions. I am not a racist. Yet, I know I will be called that because people use the word “Racist” in place of “Shut the fuck up”. I love my country. I love the fact that we can, within limits of the law, do what we want. We can start a business, criticize the Government without fear of reprisals, create and disseminate opposing views, and many more things. This is what makes the United States of America great. Let also not forget, we have the freedom to make an ass out of ourselves. If you think I’m not an ass for expressing this, great. If you do, well, that’s great too. Now on to what we’re really here for.
Language As A Barrier
I love immigration. It’s great that individuals and their families can move here and become a citizen. However there’s a problem with the immigrants that have been coming here. They’re trying to recreate what they had back where they came from instead of trying to become full fledged fully absorbed Americans. Back in WWII when we had a rush of immigrants we had people coming in who wanted to be Americans. They brought many things from their homeland, traditions, food, music and other things and America was enriched as a result. They realized and respected that America has its own traditions, values and language. They took the time to learn American history, traditions and the English language. Most of the immigrants today apparently just want the freedom without becoming an American or learning the language. So now we have communities based on cultures that self segregate in parts of a city. Take a look at my home town, Los Angeles. We have Little Tokyo, Little China, Little Armenia and many other “sectors”. I’ve run across many individuals who use language as a weapon, or worst an excuse, and here lies my beef. Now, not everyone does this so I’m not saying that every immigrant who can’t speak English doesn’t learn. It’s the people who don’t who give a bad name to everyone else.
I’ve had many instances where people have used their native language as a weapon. I’ve gone in to nail shops (yes, I’ve had manicures) where the workers are predominantly (read all of them) are from Philippines or Vietnam. If you’ve been there too you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Conversations between the workers are in their native language, not English. You know when you’re being talked about as they glance at you and converse. Feels weird doesn’t it? It’s also disrespectful. You get angry that they show you that disrespect. I’ve also had instances where a person fakes that they don’t speak English because they want to get away with something or that they want to make communication very difficult. So you hear in their language that they don’t understand. These people use language as a weapon.
Then there’s people who simply haven’t learned the language. They’ve never tried. Sure they can speak broken English. Picked up over the years. This is where I’m trying to get to. This is where the story begins. We have a garden at the Sepulveda Garden Center. We’ve only had it for about two years. It’s been a source of pride for both Erin and myself. However the center isn’t run very well, but that’s another post, I plan to rake the administrator across the coals. My plot neighbors are a plethora of different individuals. All sorts of different backgrounds. A few even have more than their fair share of plots. One of my neighbors is Russian. We even call him, “The Russian” because we don’t know his name. The Russian has many plots throughout the center. He and his wife have accumulated them before the rule of having a maximum of three plots. “The Russian”, only speaks Russian. His English is broken. It’s nearly impossible to communicate with him. Since we had a problem communicating we had a misunderstanding come up. You see, The Russian had grape stock that is basically all over the center. If he thinks you’re a good gardener, he gives you a vine to plant in your garden. This is a kind and noble gesture even though the vine was going dormant looked like it had Pierce’s disease and it was of shit stock. So to be nice we originally accepted his offer of a vine. I really didn’t want it. Not because it was a crappy stock but that we had found a better place and we were on the verge of deciding if we were staying or going to give the plot up and leave. He had us dig a hole 2 feet deep and two feet wide. The he told us not to plant it till we had all sorts of mulch and amendments, controlling isn’t he? He wanted us to come next weekend so he can plant the vine. We weren’t able to, something had come up and we had no way of contacting him. We didn’t meet again till three weeks later. When he came up to us he was irritated. It was pretty much a tantrum. He threw his hands up and walked away. All these years in the United States and he hasn’t learned English. Either by picking it up or going to classes. He couldn’t communicate to us what he wanted and we couldn’t communicate to him. I felt like he wanted us to cater to him. Where did this sense of entitlement come from? I felt insulted that he didn’t bother to learn English. Am I wrong to feel this way? Some people would say yes. Other people wouldn’t. We ended a friendship with both parties walking away in frustration. Now, things will be tense between us at the garden when we’re both there. All because he couldn’t speak English. Yes, America is a melting pot. However a melting pot means integration. He decided that he didn’t have to, and that’s insulting. There have been many instances where this situation comes up. I’ve been told time and time again stories of people being yelled at by individuals who don’t speak English asking why they don’t speak their language. This holds especially true with our neighbors to the South. Since they’re so close, there’s really no incentive to learn English. A friend of mine was yelled at because they couldn’t speak Spanish while they were at their job as a cashier. This was insulting to hear. If you want to come and live in my country I expect you to learn English, just as I would be expected to learn the native language of a country I immigrate to, if I were to, and I would out of respect for that country. Apparently, since I’m a white American male born in this country, I’m not allowed to expect that.
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Hmm…I guess I’m wondering whether you speak a second language yourself. I agree with you to an extent, but I know a lot of Americans who’ve never managed to learn a second language themselves (any second language at all) and get annoyed that not everyone speaks English. I do think if you live in certain areas, you need to be bilingual. I am a white Irish-American woman from New England who realized I should learn Spanish when I moved to Los Angeles, because it’s one of the two main languages spoken in the area. Constitutionally we do NOT have an “official” language in this country, and the Spanish speakers were here first, after all. That doesn’t mean they can get by just speaking Spanish but it’s also a reality for us English-speakers that we should be bilingual too. It’s a matter of practicality and courtesy. Also, please recognize that a lot of people who immigrated to this country did so without the resources we have access to. Some would like to learn English (a MUCH more difficult language to learn than Spanish, incidentally) but did not have access to English classes in school and are struggling just to survive here with multiple jobs — and learning English is time-consuming. Many keep planning to “get to it” but can’t find time, or they hope they’ll just pick it up somehow. I have found that many immigrants are also just lacking the confidence to speak English, even if they’ve put a lot of effort into learning the basics. It’s intimidating to speak a foreign language, especially a very difficult one — they’re afraid of being laughed at or accidentally saying something offensive. Unfortunately a lot of American English speakers are very arrogant and act superior to people from other countries, which just causes immigrants to isolate themselves even more. It helps when we try to meet them halfway.
Sorry I didn’t answer right away. You know I will try to learn Spanish. Not because I have to but because I want to. I’ve lived in Los Angeles all my life and I’ve seen a change and it’s not for the better. before the 80′s immigrants made a distinct effort to integrate. After the first amnesty immigrants stopped trying to integrate, they didn’t have to and to require them to integrate in to our society became politically incorrect. America became afraid to be politically incorrect for fear of being called one word “racist” or one of its closer siblings “bigot“. America was forced to accommodate new immigrants despite the requirement for citizenship is to learn English. On a side note, the test is a complete and utter joke. Back to the subject. The Constitution has become an unwilling participant in this whole boondoggle. Non citizens now use it against the country. It irks me when someone uses the Constitution to make the point that they don’t have to and it really irks me when someone says they were here first. Yes, California was at one point a part of Mexico, but as you conveniently left out the Treaty of Guadalupe the land that is this State was sold and turned over to the United States. The Mexicans have no one to blame but the Dons and themselves. So the fact that they were here first is of no consequence to this argument. My grandparents immigrated to the United States before the Axis took over Europe. They didn’t speak a lick of English. They learned it just fine and they had even less. So the argument that English is hard to learn is a poor one. The difference between my grandparents and the people of today? They worked hard to learn English and integrate because they wanted to become Americans. Today’s immigrants pool in neighborhoods that are predominately their kind and they work hard to segregate themselves. This country was founded in English, the de facto and unifying language of the U.S. is English. It’s been proven that those who don’t learn English don’t do well here. If I immigrated to Spain, Germany, France or any other country whose primary language is not English I would be expected to learn that language and out of respect I would learn it. Today’s immigrant comes here with a chip on their shoulder expecting entitlements and for the citizens to accommodate them. Especially the ones who come here illegally. So I think I have a right to express insult to those who expect me to bend over backwards for them when they came here. We have our own culture and traditions here and to try and change this country to meet their needs is downright wrong. Since when did it become ok to come in to a country and expect the locals accommodate you? Integration is the right thing to do.