A Bit of Bitching

Okay, I know I haven't posted in about a month and the last thing you want to read is something along the lines of "WAAAH BITCH BITCH BITCH BITCHITY BITCH!" but I'm just going to go ahead and throw it out there:

If you want to live in America, learn to speak English.

It's just something that has been progressively pissing me off for the longest time.  Why is everything printed in both English and Spanish?  Where did the French writing on my box of cereal come from? 

If you're going to move to a country that doesn't speak your native language: at least make an effort to try and learn at least a small yet functional amount of it.  I mean, if I were going to move to Germany, I'd sure as hell try to learn functional bits of German.  I'm not saying that I'd try to make myself fluent in the language, but I'd try to learn just enough to make sure that I don't wind up in the red light district when I'm out shopping for cheese.

But I seriously cannot count the times in my experiences in retail that I've had to call over another employee just because "No speeek inglisch".  For serious?  For fucking serious?  You learned just enough English to let people know that you do not speak English in a really fractured and grammatically incorrect stereotypical statement? 

Mind: Blown

I'm sure this is going to get me a whole lot of hate mail and a whole lot of "How can you be so insensitive?" comments.  No.  Fuck that.  If you are capable of spending whatever wages you have earned (whether through legal labor or not) to purchase a 46" LED TV and give me the "How much cost does this?" and "No speak English" lines, then you are more than perfectly capable of going out and learning a little bit of whatever the native language is.  What gripes me more is that there have seriously been people who get pissy at me because I don't speak whatever language they speak.  Really?  You're going to "No speeek inglisch" at me and then give me attitude when I say "I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish but let me find you someone who does"?  That's what really gets me. 

I get the whole "This country was founded as a melting pot of cultures and this is just the next step of the whole integration into the world process" bullshit whatever blah blah blah: but still.  I'm not saying "Drop your native language and speak English exclusively."  No.  Far from it.  Go ahead and speak with your brethren in whatever language you chose whether that language be Spanish, French, Chinese, Elvish...whatever.  I'm more so fed up with people going out into general society, not knowing a single word of the native language and expecting the world to cater to them. 

And now I've said my piece.