Speak ENGLISH!!!

I can already feel the backlash from this entry, but I am tired of people living here and not being able to speak English! The other day I went to a drive-thru restaurant for lunch. Since the name of the place is “Mike’s” and the menu was in English, I didn’t think much of it.

Mike’s Employee: “Hola.”

Me: Hi, I’d like a pastrami sandwich, fries, and a Diet Coke.

Mike’s Employee: “¿qué?”

Me: I’d like a pastrami sandwich, fries, and a Diet Coke.

Mike’s Employee: “Burrito?”

Me: No, pastrami.

Mike Employee: (Long Pause)… Uh…

I look up to the window to see a very confused Hispanic woman looking at me from the drive-thru window. She waves for me to drive forward. When I get to the window she calls aver another girl who speaks English to take my order. How can you hire someone to work at the drive-thru window of a restaurant that isn’t at least bilingual?

At my last job, almost no one in the warehouse spoke English, so several of us would need an interpreter anytime we would talk to an employee. There were signs and instructions only posted in Spanish with no English translation. At my job now, although many of the warehouse employees only speak Spanish, I am happy to see that everything is posted in English and all meetings are held in English. The VP of Operations, who is Hispanic and speaks Spanish fluently, will only talk to the employees in English. Even if they speak to him in Spanish, he will reply in English.

When I lived in Germany, I spoke German. I took a couple of years of German in school before I went there, but I picked-up more from living there and having to adapt. Although most of the population speaks English I felt it was my responsibility to learn their language.

This may be a bit extreme, but how about making people who want to become US citizens take a test to show at least a basic understanding of the English language?

Looking back, I wish I had taken Spanish in school as well as German.