I am a manager at a local food restaurant. And today I was blessed with this joyful phone call
I answered the phone "Hi this is phil thank you for calling will this be for dine in or carryout"
she said (in broken english) "oh, um, any spanish speakers there?"
I replied "No, we all speak english"
She replied "Why no spanish speakers"
I replied "because this is america and our language is english"
She then replied "uioghweuiogbwgh" (idk what she was saying screaming something in spanish)
to which I replied "click"
I smiled and went merrily on my way helping other customers
Seriously, every other denomination makes some sort of effort to learn english, and us having to cater to learning spanish and changing all of our books/instructions/signs to spanish and everything else makes me just so pissed off
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Way to go phil with the good ole' hangup!!!!!
wonderful wonderful move.
love it! yes im racist too!!!
the way i feel is that if you are in my country you speak my damn language. i could see it differently if we were a tourist nation and had a lot of people coming and going, but more and more spanish people are just coming. there is no going. now what you should have said phil was "only illegals ask us to speak spanish. Are you illegal ma'am?" then click
good for you. i say just try to not be rude about it because there is no reason to be...you can get your point across without being an ass about it (not saying that you were). hopefully you don't get any flak from upper management or owners about it.
awesome. I like that you said its america and our language is english. kudos!
I'm sure he would be shot down here in the south
i have mixed feelings about this because she at least made the effort to speak english to you to begin with, and is more than likely more comfortable speaking spanish, as i know for a fact that sometimes they know how to say things in spanish but are not sure how to say them in english, and to not know how to speak is embarrassing. However, to expect there to be a spanish speaking employee is another thing
True, she did try to speak english but it was extremely broken and poor.
tabs - no, I was not rude about it I just said it calmly, and there was not any complaints filed
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man if i was near you i would give you a high five. oh well.
::e-hi fave::
I love having to press which language on the ATM, that pisses me off each time.
Joe Schulte wrote:I love having to press which language on the ATM, that pisses me off each time.
lol
I'm still trying to figure out what denomination she is. Catholic? Mormon?
I mean, we're on a speak-english-right topic. I'm assuming QBE is using the word properly.
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ignorance is the breeding ground of intolerance
Joe Schulte wrote:I love having to press which language on the ATM, that pisses me off each time.
I hate the fact that I have to wait to press 2 for english on some phone calls, that irritates the @!#$ out of me.
and sorry I used the wrong word agustin, this not a speak english right thread this is purely a speak english thread.
woo woo grammar police
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Wow.. "My country"? Ya right, your country and nobody elses.
"english is the language of my country".. Ummm, no, the United States has no official language.
You handled it correctly for the wrong reason. You should have hung up, not because she wanted a Spanish speaker but because she was screaming at you. Hanging up was the correct action but I'm a little concerned that you did so because she wanted a Spanish speaker.
Again, the US has no official language so you need to ease up on the retoric.
Language is no indication of denomination and Catholicism is not a denomination at all (most Spanish speakers are Catholic).
She should not expect/demand that there be Spanish available but you should not be offended that she asked.
Seriously, there are thousands of languages in the world, does it hurt to accomodate some of the bigger ones?
A little understanding could go a long way in this.. Umm, conflict.
PAX
PS: This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated
- Mitch Hedberg (RIP)
I like the fact that criticize a person for not speaking English in "your" country, but you can't use it yourself.
Irony FTW.
You don't have to go out and learn Spanish, but this just makes you look really ignorant. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard similar conversations that go like this
Somebody starts speaking Spanish, French, German, etc.
Hick: This is 'Merica, we speak English. Go back where you come from and learn some English.
And you can but, but, but... all you want. It's slippery slope from here on out.
You're making it sound like he said "Spanish? SPANISH!?! @!#$ YOU!!!" Then hung up on her. She started yelling because nobody spoke Spanish, good for him I say. If she had instead said something along the lines of "Okay, thank you." Or even "Ok goodbye" and then hung up, that's a different story. Don't tell me you'd go to France and be pissed that nobody at a specific business spoke English, I know I wouldn't.
I know some spanish, doesnt bother me too much...
What bothers me is her actually having the warewithall (spelling) to ask, "why not?" -- what the @!#$ do you care why not?
Hahahaha wrote:Wow.. "My country"? Ya right, your country and nobody elses.
"english is the language of my country".. Ummm, no, the United States has no official language.
You handled it correctly for the wrong reason. You should have hung up, not because she wanted a Spanish speaker but because she was screaming at you. Hanging up was the correct action but I'm a little concerned that you did so because she wanted a Spanish speaker.
Again, the US has no official language so you need to ease up on the retoric.
Language is no indication of denomination and Catholicism is not a denomination at all (most Spanish speakers are Catholic).
She should not expect/demand that there be Spanish available but you should not be offended that she asked.
Seriously, there are thousands of languages in the world, does it hurt to accomodate some of the bigger ones?
A little understanding could go a long way in this.. Umm, conflict.
PAX
False
America Declared English it's native language in 1996, there is a big discussion on it in OT
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QBE (Aka Phil No More Boost) wrote:
False
America Declared English it's native language in 1996, there is a big discussion on it in OT
No we didn't.
Prove it. A quick search of language law from 1996 turned up a failed resolution that was only passed by the House, not the Senate, and Clinton opposed it.
I mean, seriously, Clinton was in power in 1996. You think he signed an English-only law?? LOL
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Wednesday, November 14, 2007 7:43 PM
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AGuSTiN wrote:
I'm still trying to figure out what denomination she is. Catholic? Mormon?
I mean, we're on a speak-english-right topic. I'm assuming QBE is using the word properly.
Emor8t wrote:I like the fact that criticize a person for not speaking English in "your" country, but you can't use it yourself.
Irony FTW.
the dictionary wrote:denomination
Main Entry:
de·nom·i·na·tion Listen to the pronunciation of denomination
Pronunciation:
\di-ˌnä-mə-ˈnā-shən\
Function:
noun
Date:
15th century
1: an act of denominating
2: a value or size of a series of values or sizes (as of money)
3: name, designation; especially : a general name for a category
4: a religious organization whose congregations are united in their adherence to its beliefs and practices[
it looks like QBE did use the word correctly, even if unintentionally.
and there is a difference between using proper diction and grammar and not using the language at all (or only knowing a few phrases) much less being pissed if someone in podunk pennsylvania doesnt have a spanish speaking employee on the staff. had the woman been cordial or at the very least neutral upon finding no spanish speakers, then this would be a completely different story. however, if someone were to start yelling at me over the phone, they will get hung up on and rightly so.
again, i chastised phil for possibly sounding like an ass, to which he denied. therefore the woman should not have acted the way she did, at least from what we know of the situation. due to this i believe QBE was justified in his response.
and while no, america does not have an official language, is there even a question that english is the UNofficial language, bar none? and you also need to realize that many states have made english the official language, although i am not sure if PA is one of those and, quite frankly, i dont care enough to look it up.
