Sep
26
All the RAve - the RAnts of RA: English Please - ReliableAnswers.com
As it turns out, Grandma had been shopping at Mervyns, when a sales clerk made an announcement over the loud speaker – in Spanish. Grandma, being Grandma of course, marched directly to the managers office … (where) she informed the manager that she would no longer be shopping at Mervyns and for over thirty-years she has kept her word. To this day she refuses to shop there.
Here is my comment on this awful story… I don’t know quite why the author is so against using other languages. Learning and using only one language really limits our world view so much.
This is another comment that I made on her blog: I doubt anyone will ever post it, so I’m posting it here…
Kenneth said…
Quite frankly your grandmother sounds like a frightful bigot.
I appreciate comments and announcements in stores here that are bi- or multi- lingual… It is convenient, helpful and good PR to cater to minority groups, tourists and other groups of customers in languages that they are comfortable using.
Where I am right now, announcements on our subway are in four languages, generally. I have learned at least two of the languages used, but I do still appreciate the odd announcement in my own first language. It draws attention to things I might otherwise have missed.
This is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-racial world, country, state, city, town, and village. And I, for one, like it.
Kenneth
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Wow! I got a reply. I posted a reply to her reply.
Here’s mine. EOC.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I actually wonder what my grandmother would have said. But then that would have been her opinion, not mine. It represents a generational gap, as much as a culture gap.
I’m afraid that it would be difficult to prove that the message was ONLY said in Spanish. Perhaps, like here, the message had already been announced in English previously, and there was a pause between announcements. That was when your GM came into earshot of the speaker system. Her perception looks like it was based on one off incident, but it’s a shame she never went back to find out if her perception was actually correct, or if it is one of those ‘blind’ moments we all have from to time.
Kenneth