Estoy apesadumbrado que no hablo español (I’m sorry I don’t speak Spanish)
This past weekend, Lucinda of Suburban Turmoil wrote an honest piece about her recent frustrating experience at the DMV. In response to Lucinda’s post, Wendy of Fire on the Poop Deck wrote a piece about the arguments for and against establishing a national language (presumably English).
I read both pieces, as well as an article in the Sunday Denver Post regarding a Colorado congressman’s stance on the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (which was signed into law by President Bush) – specifically that he voted against it because he believes immigrants are unwilling to learn English, and our country enables this supposed refusal by printing ballots in multiple languages.
I don’t intend to take up the question of whether or not to establish a national language, although I’m inclined to agree with Wendy that we should seek to expand our repertoire of languages. However, since so many supposedly educated people in this country can’t speak or write properly in English, I think fluency in other languages might have to be put on the back burner until we can master our FIRST language. But I digress.
What I do intend to address is: 1) the experience of living in an area – be it in the United States or abroad – where different languages are spoken; and 2) the experience of driving in a metropolitan area – again, be it in the United States or abroad – and the impact of language on the ability to navigate.
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Kyle was stationed in Panama for two years. Instead of living on base, he lived in a high-rise apartment building in Panama City, as did many other single military officers. Apart from work, he spent little time on base, choosing instead to explore the country. He shopped at local grocery stores, ate at local restaurants, discovered beaches where he could go boogie-boarding, and became SCUBA certified. On one of my visits to Panama, we flew to a nearby island for a weekend getaway, and he and his parents visited the same island on one of their visits too.
He did all of this without being fluent in Spanish, in a country where many people – most people, especially in the interior – do not speak any English.
He studied French in high school and Russian in college. All the Spanish that he knows, he learned while living in Panama.
Lucinda’s description of the woman at the DMV, flanked by two friends who were there to help her, reminded me instantly of Kyle’s experience at the electrical utility in Panama. He brought along his maid to help translate for him. Should he have waited until he was fluent in Spanish before getting his electricity turned on? Of course not.
He drove from Panama City to Howard Air Force Base and back every weekday, as well as on many weekends. It’s about a forty-five minute drive in traffic. Speaking of traffic…
When I first visited Kyle in Panama, I closed my eyes when we were driving. The only rule that holds any weight is “do not cross a double-yellow line”. Other than that, all’s fair. Drivers routinely turned two lanes into three or four, crowding together so closely that they would knock into each other’s side mirrors. We still joke about the “nose rule” – meaning that if you get the nose of your bumper into between two other cars, you’ve now got the right of way.
The guerrilla-style driving tactics were even more frightening in the interior. We drove across the country one day to visit Colon (on the Atlantic side – Panama City is on the Pacific side), and I was scared out of my wits, even more so than when driving in the city. Many cars do not have working headlights. They routinely pass on blind curves in the mountains, where there’s no guardrail to keep you from plummeting over the edge. Defensive driving takes on a whole new meaning. But language never came into play.
Should Kyle have waited until he was fluent in Spanish before driving in Panama? Of course not.
When we moved out of Manhattan to West New York (which is in New Jersey, perched on the cliff overlooking the Hudson River), we moved into an almost exclusively Spanish-speaking neighborhood. Tacy went to a day care center where her infant room teacher spoke very little English. As I strolled her to school every morning, people would stop to coo over her blonde hair and blue eyes, and I quickly learned how to answer their queries (“seis meses”) and respond to their compliments (“Gracias!”).
I also had my own frustrating experiences at the DMV, especially after my wallet was stolen – fished out of my bag one morning while dropping Tacy off at school. I lost a bit of cash and a $75 Bloomingdales gift card, but what really hurt was that I had to go to the DMV to replace my driver’s license.
Based on Lucinda’s description of her local DMV, I’d say the North Bergen DMV was quite similar. People everywhere. Forms in multiple languages. Snappish, exhausted DMV workers who treated every customer the same – like something they’d scrape off the bottom of their shoe. After THREE TRIPS to the DMV, I finally got my driver’s license replaced.
I understand her frustration. Oh, how I understand.
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I already touched on Kyle’s experiences driving in Panama. He’s driven in other countries as well, without incident – England, Greece, and Turkey. In Greece, navigation WAS tricky because obviously they don’t use the Roman alphabet. Fortunately, I knew my Greek alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase, relatively well and could assist in the navigation. In Turkey, they do use the Roman alphabet, with a few accents here and there, so it was relatively easy there.
But it was most difficult (and frightening as a passenger) by far to drive in England, where the signs are all in English! Driving on the opposite side of the road is thoroughly unnerving, the lanes are very narrow, and navigating the roundabouts made me think of National Lampoon’s European Vacation – “Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament! I CAN’T GET LEFT!”
Aside from driving in other countries where we don’t speak the language, I’ve driven in major metropolitan areas all over the US. Washington DC and Northern Virginia. The New York metro area. Boston. San Francisco. Los Angeles. Denver. Intimidating and difficult no matter how well you speak the language. There’s an area in Northern Virginia I’ve driven through many times. It’s called Seven Corners, and the cluster of road signs – probably a dozen of them on a single post – is ridiculously confusing. Do we want to take Route 29? Or Route 50? Or Route 7? Or Route 244? (All of which have regular street names too.) Or maybe we should just pull over and consult our Northern Virginia map BOOK.
(I’m not joking – the Northern Virginia ADC map books are a must-have.)
Driving home one night from a friend’s house, I was hit less than two blocks from my apartment building. I’d had my car only a couple months. The woman who hit me was from Taiwan and hadn’t been in the US very long. Did any of those factors (female, immigrant, brief residency) have any bearing on the accident? I was pissed that I’d been hit, and it was unquestionably her fault, but to me these factors were incidental.
And speaking of accidents, I’ve posted before about my own inauspicious entry into the world of licensed drivers. My parents were eager for me to learn to drive for much the same reason that Lucinda is eager for her step-daughter to learn to drive – it’s a matter of convenience. As a parent now myself, I understand that. And I’m sure as my girls get older and have a million places to go, I will also look forward to shedding the role of chauffeur.
But in her comments section, Lucinda noted that this was her step-daughter’s second time taking the Learner’s Permit exam. That she’d had to really push her step-daughter to study the manual. That since she’s pregnant (Lucinda, not her step-daughter), she needs her step-daughter to be able to drive legally and safely before the baby comes, and it worries her that her step-daughter will be driving on the same roads as people who are not fluent in English.
I’d be worried too. Looking back on my own beginning driving experiences, I was worried about myself then. But not because of the other drivers – because of myself. I wasn’t sure I was ready, even though my parents were eager for me to be.
As Wendy said in her post, “Frankly I worry more about teenage drivers on the road than I do foreign language speaking drivers”.
Me too, Wendy. Me too.
August 17th, 2006 at 8:19 am
Great post. I appreciate you sharing yours and Kyle’s experiences. Thanks also for the mention.
You always have great stuff here at Mothergoosemouse.
August 17th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Very sensible as always. I’ve also driven or been a passenger in several countries and out of them all, Ireland freaked me right out.
August 17th, 2006 at 10:41 am
I love this: “since so many supposedly educated people in this country can’t speak or write properly in English, I think fluency in other languages might have to be put on the back burner until we can master our FIRST language.” But also, how can we force immigrants to get on board with English, when we are messing it up so badly ourselves? I once suggested to a friend who worked in news that when people are interviewed on TV (witnesses to car accidents, etc), their bad grammar and mis-pronunciations should be Bleeped out like bad words are.
I’ve never experienced driving in another country, except Canada, but having traveled to many different cities in the US, I totally agree with what you described – “intimidating and difficult.”
August 17th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Great post and perspective…just riding in a NYC taxi freaks me out!
And don’t get me started on people who insist on maneuvering through traffic while talking on a cell phone (myself, unfortunately, included…although I try to limit it.)
August 17th, 2006 at 11:23 am
As always, Julie, great post. So well said. Excellent points. And I agree — I worry more about teenage drivers.
August 17th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
Great read as usual. I’m scared not only the teenagers but the old folks out there in their big huge boat of a car that they can’t maneuver.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
The people that say “They don’t want to learn English” don’t know what they are talking about. ESL classes and literacy classes taught in other languages are bursting at the seams. ESL DVDs, videos and CDs are so popular at my library that they have a one-item limit. Watch Spanish-language TV for half an hour or shop where Spanish-speakers shop and you are guaranteed to see an “Ingles Sin Barreras” course ad.
People want to learn English. They may have to put it off for a while as they work 2 jobs, take care of children, etc. But trust me, 99.9% of immigrants are well aware that they need to learn English in order to improve their lives – which is what they were brave enough to leave their homes and everything familiar to them, to do.
I agree that immigration is a problem. There are just too many people everywhere, and we really don’t need a lot more immigrants here. But I will not put down or make light of the people who have come here. I think they are some of the bravest, brightest and most hard-working people.
The doofuses are still at home, suffering in squalor and being lazy. Immigrants are people who risk everything to try and make a better life. And those people are our ancestors – the people who made the U.S. such an amazing country (Canada and Australia too).
August 17th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Suebob, that’s exactly the point made in the Denver Post article – that the ESL classes are overflowing and that it takes a long time to master a language.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:30 pm
You make some valid points as do your commenters, but can I offer something? Kyle’s ease in driving through Panama certainly owes a little credit to the fact that he is an educated person and one who could quickly find resources for information when language barriers were obvious.
I think about this language thing the way a teacher would think about it. Go figure…that’s what I used to be. More than a few illegal immigrants who come here from Mexico are not just a little rusty in their grasp of sentence construction in Spanish. Many are illiterate in their own language, too. I’m not judging…I’m just saying. Without a functioning grasp of ANY language (Spanish or otherwise), it would be difficult to understand how to get around. And I’m not just talking about driving. There are kids from Mexico taking Spanish class with my own kids and they don’t always do well. Mainly because they can speak it, but they don’t understand it grammatically. (Same way white kids suck at English grammar) Add to that the fact that any immigrant population (wherever it comes from) brings with it the educational attitudes from the home country. Vietnamese kids come here and they kick ass in the public schools. Same for kids from India. Same for many African kids…like…Nigerians. Bear in mind that I’m not talking about work ethics. I’m talking about educational attitude. Two different things. No argument here that Hispanics are a hardworking bunch of people.
Here in Texas, the Hispanic population doesn’t do all that well in school. Why? Because, in Mexico, 8th grade is about as far as most people go in their home country…if they go that far at all. My kids go to schools with large populations of Hispanics and, I’m not kidding here, the 8th grade promotion ceremony is celebrated and treated by the Hispanic families as though it is a college graduation. Half of those kids, by the time they turn 16, have dropped out. Family? A huge part of the culture of Mexico. Cultural pride? Absolutely. Hard work? No gripe here. Education…not so much. Part of the problem, too, is that these kids are going to schools that function in English, but the kids live with adults who don’t speak it and won’t learn it. When it comes to staying in the loop with regard to school information/policies/protocol/activities, not speaking English is a huge hindrance. The kids are trying hard to finish homework and do projects, but there is no one at home who can help. Either parents don’t speak enough English to understand the homework problem or they haven’t the education to assist their kids in a successful school experience. What results is another generation of kids emerging from the schools without a good educational foundation. The present generation of immigrant kids are screwed.
Didn’t mean to hijack your comments. Really. I just had to plunk down my two cents from a teacher’s point of view.
August 17th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Oh, don’t even get me started…we are such an ethnocentric nation that when I travel internationally, I am embarassed being grouped with other Americans who may be in the same place as I. We expect English everywhere…and since it is an international language, we expect everyone to speak it in all countries AND on top of it, be able to dictate what people have to do in our country.
In fact, I need to blog something for tomorrow…you may have gotten me started on something:)
August 17th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
I probably forgot to mention that I’m all for Americans learning other languages and becoming, at the least, bi-lingual. We suck at that because, as stayathomemotherdom pointed out, we hope to add our sad-ass vanilla version of Western Culture to the entire planet (a McDonalds on every corner) so that everyone will speak English. Why? Who can say? Because we suffer from a false sense of superiority? Probably. All I know is, when I travel abroad, I WANT to hear the language of that land and I expect to find a way to converse that way. In the same vein, if I had to move there, I would expect to become fluent in that language.
August 17th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
Very good points. I felt awful traveling to Eastern Europe and having everyone speak English to me, when I couldn’st speak their languages. I felt like such a one trick pony.
Lisa
August 17th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
The American melting pot that we here so much about takes generations to become a reality. That was true a hundred years ago and it’s true now. My Husband’s Uncle has been in this country for over 20 years now and he doesn’t speak English and he only hangs around other Koreans. His kids? Totally assimilated.
Some immigrants may be unwilling to learn English, but it is almost guaranteed that their children will.
August 17th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Wordgirl, hijack away. Discussion is the point here. You’ve reminded me of something important too – one of Kyle’s Air Force friends married a Panamanian woman…who couldn’t speak Spanish properly! Ostensibly he could have improved his Spanish by conversing with her, but it didn’t work that way.
Also, what you said about wanting to hear and speak the language while traveling internationally also resonated with me. That was one disappointment in Turkey – we tried to speak Turkish to people only to have them reply in English.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Oh, wow, you are very brave for writing this post. I have to say though that I thought it was more thoughtful and precise than provoking which I loved.
I, for one, have no. problem. at. all. with people speaking Spanish in America. In fact, I am very sad that we only really have to speak English. Practically every other country in the world speaks more than one language and here we are walking around in the dark ages with just our one language.
I do have a problem with the fact that we have done nothing to help the kids going to school that can’t speak English at all. In LA, we are having this issue with more than half our school age children. They are being raised in an all Spanish speaking households where no one speaks English and then sent to school where everyone speaks English. So, more time is spent on these children to make sure they understand what is going on in class while other children sit to fend for themselves. The teacher’s and the asst teacher’s attention is then spread too thin. The teachers here complain of never feeling like they are really helping any of their students. Of course, then the results of the state exams come out and it’s found again that CA schools have one of the lowest scores in the country. Blame then goes back and forth between the teachers and the parents. I have to say with friends as teachers I am more on their side because I do feel it is the parents responsibility to make sure they speak at least some English before they head into a school setting.
Sorry, that comment was LONG.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
a) “our country enables this supposed refusal by printing ballots in multiple languages.” Good thing I don’t live in Colorodo or I’d be kicking some Congressman a** for taking the stance that we shouldn’t be printing ballots in several languages.
b) I also agree that we should seek to expand our repertoire of languages. Totally.
c) “I think fluency in other languages might have to be put on the back burner until we can master our FIRST language.” LMAO.
August 17th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I wish I were joking about mastering our own language. When I finished my grad school program, I was asked to participate on a panel of recent graduates who provided feedback on the program. After the group portion of the panel, I approached the dean to suggest that perhaps some sort of English proficiency analysis might be in order, since it WAS a graduate program. He disagreed and said that he didn’t want the program to be viewed as “elitist”.
Elitist. To require graduate school students to have a certain level of proficiency in the language in which the program was taught. I was speechless. Still am.
August 17th, 2006 at 8:08 pm
Interesting post, per usual. I always feel better informed after being here.
And I’d rather drive on the same road as a blind/deaf person than a teenager. I was a teenager. My memory is long.
August 17th, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Ditto on what Wendy said.
(and? you know the Greek alphabet? kewl. we could send each other greek code. like in high school. greek goth code.)
August 17th, 2006 at 11:13 pm
Your comment about the DMV in Jersey reminded me of one of my own experiences at that same DMV, almost a year ago: http://rootheday.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/08/my_wallet_was_s.html
And driving scares the crap out of me. I remember how I drove as a teen, and wonder how I made it to my thirties alive.
August 18th, 2006 at 7:23 am
It’s a tough call because I know it’s possible to be a good driver if you don’t speak the language of the country, but on the other hand, if you were living in said country why wouldn’t you eventually want to learn the language?
I try not to be hard on non native speaking people here (and they are almost the majority in south Florida now) because the way I see it, English is their second language and how many do I speak and how many am I currently learning? But when it comes to my safety on the road, I can only hope that people are as conscientious as possible and then I drive as defensively as I can.
August 18th, 2006 at 9:41 am
One thing we need to keep in mind before promoting an “official” second language in this country is that we need to accomodate people from all over the world. If we decide that our nation needs to learn Spanish in order to help one group of immigrants, then people from Korea, Vietnam, France, Pakistan, India, etc will be required to learn two new languages. If we are open as a melting pot to the world, then we need to do our best to show all immigrants that we are willing to embrace them.
I’d rather take steps to help all immigrants learn a unifying language to be able to communicate with eachother than to encourage additional language barriers. I look at countries like Belgium who successfully carry three national languages and sometimes wonder if we could accomplish that, but then I look up to Canada and see the divisions created just by having two national languages. Many Canadians speak one language or the other, not both. I kind of wonder if geography comes into play. If children in Vermont were required to learn Spanish, then would they retain it as well as children in Southern California? Belgium is small, Canada and the US are not.
With that being said, I do feel that kids should not only be strongly encouraged to master their original language, but also to learn a new one. I have already bought my kids some books with Spanish and Hebrew, and I’m always happy to put on kid’s programming that delves into another language. I don’t personally have the skills to make them fluent in another language, but I can still encourage them to want to take that step.
Stacey
August 18th, 2006 at 9:50 am
It’s not that we EXPECT people to speak English. It’s that as Americans we are incredibly selfish and self-important by nature. We’re frustrated that we (Americans!) are required to accomodate other (less important! With smaller missiles!) countries. Therefore, our ego starts making judgements. (Hmmm, sounds like our President.)
Ethnocentricism at its finest.
August 18th, 2006 at 9:50 am
Houston is a VERY diverse melting pot of a town. I work in what’s referred to as “Little Veitnam”. You’re driving along and suddenly all the stores signs are in another language…even the street signs are translated to the vietnamese language. It’s very cool but also a little intimidating.
Last year my sister and I went to the Indian section of town to buy sari’s because we thought they were so beautiful. None of the clerks spoke English but they were so sweet and helpful even they all gave each other a look like “Who’re the white girls?” The other people in the store, however, looked ticked off that we were there. We decided that next time we’d have to bring one of our Indian friends as a chaperone since it seemed that we’d crossed over an invisible line.
I hope for Hailey’s sake that one day it’ll be easier to cross those lines.
August 18th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
I do not worry about teenage drivers… and old age drivers…
my father in law hit a bus a two years ago… head on… it was entirely his fault… they needed the jaws of life to pull him out…
and then… then… he tries to sue the bus driver to show that he has fight in him…
he has since had black outs (On the road) and the rest… and they still give him his license…
it just boggles my mind how driving has become a ‘right’…
He has no conscience… and it just makes me sick… I keep on thinking he will take out a family… that he will seriously hurt someone…
August 18th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Excellent post. I have seen and experienced all sides of the immigrant issue and the truth is there is nothing new under the sun. It’s the pecking order. The last one’s in get criticized. My housekeeper is from Brazil and has worked for our family for a year now. Let’s just say that I know more Brazilian Portugese than she knows English. It is extremely frustrating. I wish she would take the intiative, but by speaking her language I’ve made it where she doesn’t have to learn my. I would at least like a give and take. The problem is she has no drive or future aspirations just like many native born English speaking Americans. I asked a friend who is a Mexican immigrant how she felt about the language issue. She said if they want to better themselves and go to college they will have to learn English. She now works at her children’s elementary school translating for parents and helping them understand the importance of education and the expectations in our schools.
All that to say immigrants are like our citizens some are hardworking good people and some are not.
Our government is guilty of sending mixed messages to illegals as well. Many illegals pay taxes through a government issued tax id # yet green card or citizenship status is held up in bureaucracy.
Most people don’t think about the reality of moving to a new country and quite frankly don’t care. They don’t appreciate that by accident of birth they were born to a thriving nation.
Empathy is all you need.
August 18th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
We have a LOT of non-English speakers here in Vancouver. Most speak Chinese, so reading may well be a problem — but I would think it would be more so for them, than for me. If they get lost, they can’t ask for directions. However, they seem to be a pretty tight-knit community, and chances are they get good directions from their friends before setting out.
I mean, where is this going to cause trouble for other drivers? If they can’t read a “One Way” sign? Can you really pass your driver’s test, if you can’t read a sign like that (or at least recognize it from the shape and color)?
I’ll tell you the one thing it DOES seem to affect, and that’s the general driving culture. You can often tell the native Canadian drivers from the immigrant drivers. The Canadian drivers stop for pedestrians at crosswalks, scrupulously obey the speed limit, and generally drive like old ladies. The immigrants (and please remember — I AM an immigrant) tend to drive more aggressively. I love watching Indian TV, and I have more than once seen ads (in Hindi) exhorting people to stop at crosswalks, which makes me smile. We used to run over pedestrians in Philly, too.
I’ve had to make adjustments. The driving culture in Philly definitely had its quirks, and I absorbed them. I used to honk all the time. I still flip the bird, but down in my lap where no one can see. I never did this (ha ha) but in Philly people sometimes turn left before the light turns green. I kid you not.
Here, I generally tone it down and drive more politely. But in the immigrant-heavy parts of town, where the driving is a little more what I’m used to, I stretch my legs a bit. When in Rome, after all.
August 18th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
OK, I will say that I believe one must be able to read the road signs before being allowed to get a license. If they can do that, OK. I went to Italy twice and we drove the countryside both times. I took great pains to take a course and earn some Italian. I did not expect that everywhere in Italy, English would be spoken. I would expect that our country should embrace multiple languages…learning other languages is a gift we give ourselves. However, those that do immigrate to the US should make some effort to learn some English. And those of us who live here should be more tolorant.
August 21st, 2006 at 12:59 am
We know, Dad. Big Ben.
When I lived in Brasil (as a Rotary Int’l exchange student), I was transformed by my experiences with driving. Sure, I was only a passenger, but DAMN if I still got a heady education. And I learned how to get my ass across a street in a hurry, too. (They drive similarly to Panamanians, I’m guessing, from your description.)
I love driving. According to my husband, my love for it has not aided my skill. But I like to think I drive defensively. Well, and fast. Maybe a *leetle* too fast.
The DMV. Oy. *digs around in brain, finds no words to suit feelings on subject of DMV*