English Nationalism
America, land of the free and home of the brave! Land of so many different cultures established throughout our history and home of a plethora of communities that have origins from around the world. Within these different pockets of communities are a wide range of different languages that differ from the Standard English tongue that many Americans are accustomed to. Even throughout the English verbiage, there are different styles and accents to the language that represents the United States. It can easily be said that English is the dominant language of our country but can it be said with the same easiness that English should be the only language used within our borders? The idea that the United States should be an English …show more content…
Living in the neighborhood I did for a few years in my younger teenage days, I learned a lot of culture and even some of Spanish language from the neighborhood kids, mostly cuss words but it was still Spanish. Once established relationships took hold with some of the kids, I would receive invitations to their houses where the parents spoke very little English and my friends would have to translate between the two of us. I was not required to speak Spanish in their homes and it did not make them uncomfortable that I couldn’t speak it. They accepted the language barrier and didn’t treat me any different because I could not communicate with them, although one friend’s dad would call me “Gringo Lee” because of my lack of Spanish skills. Even though this is still in America, our country, our home these transactions took place within their place of comfort. We can’t, as a nation of diversity, force diverse people to change their culture and way of living to a consensus of what other people to deem the correct …show more content…
Most of your major brands of products offer Spanish options, especially when it comes to customer service calls. We hear it all the time, “press 1 for English, press 2 for Española”, and this is just smart business from these companies. 20 percent Spanish speaking population doesn’t seem like much, compared to 80 percent English, but there is enough of a market in this country to provide a valuable service that most of these companies couldn’t afford to not offer their services in Spanish. How many buttons you have to push to get to live operator after selecting your language preference is more of a concern than which language function I
America, land of the free and home of the brave! Land of so many different cultures established throughout our history and home of a plethora of communities that have origins from around the world. Within these different pockets of communities are a wide range of different languages that differ from the Standard English tongue that many Americans are accustomed to. Even throughout the English verbiage, there are different styles and accents to the language that represents the United States. It can easily be said that English is the dominant language of our country but can it be said with the same easiness that English should be the only language used within our borders? The idea that the United States should be an English …show more content…
Living in the neighborhood I did for a few years in my younger teenage days, I learned a lot of culture and even some of Spanish language from the neighborhood kids, mostly cuss words but it was still Spanish. Once established relationships took hold with some of the kids, I would receive invitations to their houses where the parents spoke very little English and my friends would have to translate between the two of us. I was not required to speak Spanish in their homes and it did not make them uncomfortable that I couldn’t speak it. They accepted the language barrier and didn’t treat me any different because I could not communicate with them, although one friend’s dad would call me “Gringo Lee” because of my lack of Spanish skills. Even though this is still in America, our country, our home these transactions took place within their place of comfort. We can’t, as a nation of diversity, force diverse people to change their culture and way of living to a consensus of what other people to deem the correct …show more content…
Most of your major brands of products offer Spanish options, especially when it comes to customer service calls. We hear it all the time, “press 1 for English, press 2 for Española”, and this is just smart business from these companies. 20 percent Spanish speaking population doesn’t seem like much, compared to 80 percent English, but there is enough of a market in this country to provide a valuable service that most of these companies couldn’t afford to not offer their services in Spanish. How many buttons you have to push to get to live operator after selecting your language preference is more of a concern than which language function I