This is the best sign ever made!

impulse! wrote:   I have basically de-railed the thread into a anti hip hop thread, but I really don't care.

Actually, I think you staying right on topic for the thread:  xenophobia.

I do think that this time around is "different" - I suspect it has most to do with the shrinking world, or in this case the shrinking nation.

A hundred years ago people (once they had arrived to where they were going) often didn't leave their little town ever again, or their neighborhood in a city.  As a result, there was much more localization in terms of language.

At the same time, immigrants flocked to their own.  This gave us Chinatown (and similar ethnic neighborhoods) in large cities, and entire ethnic villages in the rural areas.  Within these ethinc enclaves, the original language was the dominant language, and since they didn't interact much with the outside world there was little need to learn any other languages.  This is why there were fourth-generation Norwegian-Americans in Coon Valley, WI, that did not speak English - in the 1950s.

These days, that level of isolationism is pretty hard to maintain, and most people have to work pretty hard at avoiding English.  Immigrants today generally do learn English faster than those a hundred years ago, out of simple necessity.  But it is not that hard to find people who have lived here for decades without seeing the point to learning English, because they don't need to.  It is less common than before, certainly, but not that unusual.

The reason those aren't the immigrants you know, Reb, is because, well, you speak English.  You don't get to meet the auntie that came here at age 60 and has no intention of learning a new language, or the domestic servants brought over specifically because they don't speak English, or the refugees that might like to learn English but are hiding in the safety of their own communities.

The only non-English-speakers most of us see are the gardners and cleaning staff, which clouds our judgement. 

/ramble

Evil Elvis wrote: Ja te voy a robar tu trabajo y tu mujeres!

You have a jerb?

Evil Elvis wrote: Ja te voy a robar tu trabajo y tu mujeres!

I think Akhmed may have nailed it on the head.  Technology and the culture shift of the last 30 have changed this country dramatically and those who don't speak English well or at all are just more visible. 

For those of you who get so upset that the guy at McDonalds can't understand you, or you him/her, what's wrong with politely asking for someone who speaks English?  If you live in an area that has a heavy concentration of non-English speaking people, why not pick up enough of the language to do just that?  Does that somehow offend your delicate sensibilities or your Patriotism?  I've got news for you kids, 'Globalization' has changed things dramatically in the business world, and it's here to stay. 

I work for a company that has manufacturing facilities all over the world.  I routinely work with people from India, China, Brazil, Mexico, France, Germany.... etc.  I always feel like an uncultured American because even though I struggle to understand many of these people, their English is always better than my Mandarin or German, or whatever. 

Whenever I have traveled to these places, I always take the time the week before to learn key phrases in the native language of that country, and as EE said, it's the polite thing to do.  Spend some of your time on the Interwebz to educate yourself a bit.  Inside of an hour you could learn enough disarm that 'hostile' situation where you can't understand someone.  If no one there speaks English, take your business elsewhere, that's your choice.  Let the free market decide whether that establishment stays or goes....