Sunday I was in a McDonalds near where I live. There was a dispute between a couple of employees and the Spanish was flying hot and heavy. The Asst. Manager, who was obviously new to the position, was trying to figure out what was going one, but didn’t speak any Spanish. So he asked the employees to slow down and speak English. They just gave him a dirty look and went right back to arguing in Spanish.
I found out today that the poor fellow (the Asst. Manager) was taken aside by the Manager and “talked to” about his insensitivity and how it would be in his best interest to learn to speak Spanish. What the Hell?? Does this seem ass backwards to anyone else but me? Why are we bending so far over backwards to accomodate these people? I remember a time when people came to this country because they wanted to be Americans and be just like us. Now, it seems,that they are coming to this country to make us just like them. Why are we making it so easy for them to choose not to assimilate? I understand that some immigants are coming here becuase of the conditions in their homelands that make it impossible to stay there and they miss their homelands. But that is no excuse for refusing to adapt.
The Irish that came here to escape starvation during the great potato famine assimilated and thrived. They have to accept that this is not the country they came from and we don’t do things that way here. Other countries have already tried this experiment and it failed. Now they are requiring immigrants to be familiar with the language and customs in order to stay in the country. I feel that is what we need to do. There was a time when it was in THEIR best interest to assimilate into our culture and life was harder if they didn’t. This is how it should be.
We would not be cut so much slack in other countries. Why are we giving them so much? We need to go back to the old melting pot theory of dealing with immigrants where everyone’s uniqueness is blended into the whole and makes it stronger. This salad bowl approach with every part being seperate but equal simply does not work and it creates confusion and conflict.
TLDR version: MCD employee chastised by manager for not being able to speak Spanish to Spanish-speaking customer. In the paragraph that follows, points are undermined by xenophobic undertones.
Per OP, it was two Spanish-speaking employees who were asked by their direct superior to speak English so he could help resolve their dispute, not a Spanish-speaking customer.
I know many of you see my jive talk on AF, but in real life I speak and write with near impeccable diction. Today I got ‘talked to’ regarding a comment that some outsourced help couldn’t clearly communicate in English through email. My comment was seen as that of an ignorant westerner who had never met foreigner.
For those of you who read my tale above thinking it couldn’t happen to them, think again. Me tink’s Imma hafta dum down my biznass language to effeictively work wit my associatez and team-mates.
I left America for a bunch of reasons, here they are:
The girls are fat.
You need to treat everyone with kid gloves - everyone is obsessed with their feelings rather than rational thought. You can’t treat anyone like an adult and thus no one treats you like one.
Political Correctness has replaced Christianity/Judaism/Islam as a religion in Blue States (where I’m from) and this means that if you are not “Up with Jesus” so to say in the Political Correctness Religion you might as well be Hester Prynne wearing a Letter B for “Bigot” on your big fat caucasian privledged preppy wang.
This story is funny CFAvsMBA, because in every other country I go to (India, Russia, China, Indo, Thailand, UAE whatever), when someone at the office doesn’t speak English it is they who are fucking ashamed and embarassed about it. Not me, for speaking English in THEIR country. It is THEY who go to night school to learn better English to talk to ME in THEIR country.
Give me my Asians any day and their inability to proununce the letter L over the worthlessness of a) sensitive liberal millenials b) entitled minorities c) and “zoftig” ghetto booty white chicks who aspire to be the next Kim Kardashian prancing around as if they were actually not oily skinned bitches with approximately T-Minus 5 years left on their biological clocks and perhaps around ten years away from Type 2 Diabetes.
Every day I prey to God, who Ironically I do not believe exists, that America will be saved? How will it be saved? Real adversity has to actually come and properly kick all Americans right in the teeth. We need to be taught to be mean again. To compete. To exploit our advantages over the weak. We need to play the game to win, not to make the other side feel good. Not to have everyone get a trophy. We need to not let people from shitty places come and take advantage of our weakness or benefit because we’re not mean enough to exploit the weak ourselves. We need to get pissed.
Oh, and the chicks need to stop eating and walk to work more.
I think the USA needs to be run like the CFA. A small proportion are successful compared to the mass. This “no child left behind” nonsense is bringing the mean IQ even further below room temperature.
More need to embrace our Darwinian view of survival of the fittest. Currently the US is run by minority rule…
Coming from someone whose parents who were Spanish speaking immigrants,…yah they need to learn English to thrive in this country or stay in a predominantly Spanish-speaking community.
Not sure about the “should” part though. I mean, the United States has no official language; Heck, from what I understand, the official language could have been German at the end of the Revolutionary War, since there was so many Germans.
In the end, the more immigrants that come in, Spanish, Ethiopian, Greek, etc. will change the cultural landscape of this country. They always have and always will. Get used to it. Stuff changes and you gotta roll with it.
OR, you can close your eyes, stick your head in the sand, and pretend like stuff will always stay the same forever.
I think the issue is the double standard. In the original article, the guy who doesn’t speak Spanish is chastised because he asked the other people to speak English. Yet, it is ok for the Spanish speakers to not accomodate the English speaker.
True dat. Double standard is pretty crappy. Especially if the Assistant Manager was trying to figure out what was going on.
However, going over to the employees and saying something like “Ok…slow down and speak English. What’s going on?” is a bit tactless compared to “Ok, what is going on?”
It’s obvious he wants them to speak English by asking them a question in English. He doesn’t need to outright tell them.
I will say that the manager’s suggestion that the guy learn Spanish is probably a good one for his relationship with employees, but should by no means be a requirement.
I have never seen a white person work at a fast food place within five miles (at a minimum) of NYC. That would make a good reality tv show. Win a milllion dollars if you find the one white guy workin’ at McDs in NYC.
floyd says “50 is my best friend. we talk about things we can’t talk about with nobody else” - sounds like something i would say about a hot classy babe…