Do you think that certain languages are discriminated against? Sounds wacky? Suppose you have a very large Spanish community, but all your forms, ads, and shows are in English - is that helpful? Should it be a case of 'You are in ROme so you should speak as the Romans do?'
Advertisers slip into Spanish
Advertisers find they can speak to a Latino market in a way that also
appeals to a full spectrum of consumers. By Noel C. Paul
https://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0602/p16s01-wmcn.html
QUOTE |
Should it be a case of 'You are in ROme so you should speak as the Romans do?' |
there is language descrimination. In Montreal, because of the language laws, everything has to be in French (or at least the french has to be bigger), and the only way your child can go to an English school is if one parent speaks English. That isn't fair to anyone who wants their kid to speak English, when in the rest of Canada, both English and French schools are available to everyone (where numbers permit).
I think if you live in a country with it's own language you should learn it fluently. It's funny, but when I arrived in California as a 3 year old, my first language was Spanish. I started kindergarden 2 years later I didn't speak Engish. The neighborhood I lived were mostly American families & Armenian families. There was no bilingual help in the 1960's. My parents at home spoke to me in Spanish & in school I learned English. I had to choose which language I wanted to be proficient in. I chose English and concentrated where I speak with no spanish accent when I speak English. You can hear my Argentine accent when I speak spanish, unlike my sister which speaks with an American accent in Spanish. When bilingual education is used it is a setback to the person learning. I see it with my girlfriend who arrived to California in the 1970's from El Salvador. She struggled learning all through school & high school. She made it through college but with tutors for all her classes.
I think it really depends on individual country. If a country's economy is closely linked to other countries, then it's beneficial for them to put up signs in english. Having a language used internationally is advantageous. Imagine the trouble for tourists and businessmen if everyone has to learn other languages in order to traverse in those countries! learning english doesn't mean it's a put down on any native languages. Just look at the Japanese, they keep their language well.
But it's also true that the trend is to learn the language of the other country, like westerners learning chinese, which is a good thing as well.
I believe the native language of a country should always be respected. But I guess English is the international language for business, unless of course you are French.
I don't think countries should demote their native tongue to the becnh to accomodate tourists or business. It's a very sad day when this starts happening.