Essay 4462

Alberto J. Ferrer continues the discussion sparked by Spanish language direct mail at AdAge.com’s The Big Tent blog. The latest post is below, including three initial online responses…

------------------------------------

The Language Debate Heats Up
Reader Comments Revisited

By Alberto J. Ferrer

My previous post generated quite a lot of passionate reaction from many readers. Thanks to all who took the time to offer an opinion (or two).

There was strong presence of those who called themselves bigots as well as participation from those who would strive to set them straight. It was all very interesting and enlightening, as well as sobering.

They wrote about the history of this country, about colonization, about the new and old worlds, and about immigration. They wrote about culture and identity. All very interesting to me, but I want to re-focus on the core topic: language.

Why does a direct mail piece that had Spanish-language copy cause such a violent reaction?

Would any other language have caused the same passionate response?

No one really offered an opinion on that specific question. Is there something particularly offensive about Spanish?

I’d like to address some of the views posted by the readers. I’ll start with the first comment, by Jim McGinn from Bonita Springs, Fla. He feels that people who live in the U.S. should speak and read English.

From a marketing standpoint, they still may respond better to communications in their mother tongue. They may have an easier time with the language they’ve spoken for most of their lives. Smart marketers know that taking into account consumer preferences when marketing to them makes sense. That includes language preference.

Apart from this, I would respond that Hispanics by and large do want to be fluent in English. They want to take part in the U.S. culture. The flip side, however, is that they don't want to do that instead of Spanish but rather they seek to have both.

Another point of view is from prolific comment-poster Mary Jessel of San Francisco. She writes that Spanish is a threat to this country’s cultural heritage and warns marketers who “chase a Spanish-speaking dollar” that they will lose an “English-speaking dollar.” I felt this was particularly ignorant as what Mary calls the cultural heritage of the U.S. is in fact the collection of many different cultures. It is our diversity that makes our culture unique. Further, I hope that Mary changes her mind about the dollar-chasing. As more and more marketers wake up to the reality of multicultural marketing, Mary will find more and more dollars being invested by smart marketers in consumers who are more comfortable in a language other than English.

Peter Verkooijen from Brooklyn writes that he had to learn English to live in the U.S. and he doesn’t expect brands here to speak Dutch to him. He further asks why Hispanics would be exempted from learning English. Peter, the point is not that Hispanics are exempted from learning English. It is that speaking Spanish (or not speaking English) should not exempt them from being able to live and function in this country.

Mary from San Francisco later asserts that English is “our historical common language” going back 231 years. I find it convenient that she considers the country born in 1776 and ignores the fact that there were people here well before that and English wasn’t what they were speaking then. There is also the irony that we speak “English” as opposed to “American.”

All this got me thinking about my own life. I live in a multilingual household. My children will grow up speaking more than English. What will happen when I speak Spanish to my kids while in an elevator with other people? Will those around us think less of us? Will my kids be made to feel somehow different (lesser) because they speak more than one language?

There was enough opposition to the Spanish/bilingual point in my previous post that I can’t help but wonder what those folks would do if they were the ones in that elevator with me and my kids. Would they say something to us? And how does that apply to people who are bilingual or to people who speak English and another language other than Spanish?

That leads me to think that it’s not the language that bothers these people. It must be the culture. It must be that they look around and see the advances of other cultures in the U.S. (for example, the Hispanic culture) and they see that as an affront to their personal way of life. And what about non-Hispanics? What about blacks? Depending on their ethnic background, they may speak English (or not) as well as other languages. Asian Americans also may speak one or several different languages which may or may not include English.

What will it take for these people to realize that what makes this country great is the rich cultural fabric that is woven by the intersection of different ethnicities, cultures, languages, and points of view? What will it take to convince them to stop wallowing in their fear?

-------------------------------

I’m not afraid of Hispanics “taking over,” I’m annoyed with people who sneak into the country, take jobs that pay cash thus avoiding taxes and then use resources paid for by the tax system to which they do not contribute.

Yes, I am more offended by those who speak Spanish, not because of the culture or the language itself, but because the majority of people who don’t/won’t speak English, speak Spanish. I find it offensive that people work so hard to leave their country, but then bring it with them. I don’t care how many immigrants come to this country as long as they’re willing to follow the same rules the rest of us are asked to follow, and make an effort to speak English. As your Dutch reader pointed out, he had to learn to speak English, why shouldn't the Mexicans (and other Hispanics)? —L Lee, Louisville, KY

This debate seems to be fueled by ignorance and hate. Our country is great because of the fact we are diverse, not because we speak English. I believe most Spanish speaking individuals that come to the U.S. do learn to speak English, but let’s be honest, English is not the easiest language to pick up. Some need more time than others. I don’t believe there is a large population of Spanish speaking individuals that are actively refusing to learn English either. Everyone has the right to seek happiness and well being for themselves and their family, regardless of what language they speak. The fathers of our country made it a point to not have an official language. This country was founded in the spirit of freedom for all people. Most of the people who are offended by Spanish are simply racist. Nobody seems to be concerned with people actually from Spain—they’re too white. It’s the Mexicans (and other Hispanics) as L Lee puts it, that seem to be the problem. What scares me is that there is nothing stopping people like Mary and Mr. Lee from having children and spreading their hate and intolerance to future generations. —Adam Lenfest, Clearwater, FL

This is a rather weak and emotional response to the many good points that were made in the original thread. Alberto continues to ask why it is that English-speaking Americans resent Spanish out of all the other immigrant languages. Yet, actually several people already answered that question quite well: Alberto just doesn’t seem to want to accept what they wrote.

She writes that Spanish is a threat to this country’s cultural heritage and warns marketers who “chase a Spanish-speaking dollar” that they will lose an “English-speaking dollar.” I felt this was particularly ignorant as what Mary calls the cultural heritage of the U.S. is in fact the collection of many different cultures. It is our diversity that makes our culture unique. Further, I hope that Mary changes her mind about the dollar-chasing…

Mary from San Francisco later asserts that English is “our historical common language” going back 231 years. I find it convenient that she considers the country born in 1776 and ignores the fact that there were people here well before that and English wasn’t what they were speaking then. There is also the irony that we speak “English” as opposed to “American.”

Pt. #1 -- If you are telling your clients that Spanish signage in stores and the greatly despised “press one for English” isn’t losing them English-speaking dollars, you are simply not being honest with your clients. We ARE offended, and we DO avoid companies that are aggressive about pushing Spanish bilingualism on us, and we ARE a growing trend in the marketplace. It’s absurd to lecture about “accepting” something we don’t want just because it might interrupt your company’s revenue streams from “multi-cultural marketing.”

Pt. #2 -- English IS the common historical language of the nation now known as the United States of America. This is simply a fact; denying it is rather childish and insulting. (Somehow I suspect that Alberto wouldn’t like it much if English-speakers went to his country of origin and started rewriting ITS history to downgrade the role of Spanish in his own culture.) What Alberto wrote is tantamount to arguing that Microsoft isn’t a software company because there was once an apple farm on the land where Bill Gates decided to put the Microsoft headquarters -- untrue and insulting.

What will it take for these people to realize that what makes this country great is the rich cultural fabric that is woven by the intersection of different ethnicities, cultures, languages, and points of view? What will it take to convince them to stop wallowing in their fear?

Actually I am old enough to remember when assimilation, not “diversity,” was considered America’s greatest strength: we were actually taught this as children in our schools. (In the ‘70s there was a “Schoolhouse Rocks” TV cartoon commercial which illustrates this point quite nicely: The cartoon showed immigrants coming into the US from all over the world and jumping into a giant melting pot to be “melted” into Americans -- in other words, coming together to build a common NEW culture, not demanding to “keep” their old one.)

It’s just been in the last 20 years or so that assimilation has been de-emphasized in favor of the divisive and separatist “diversity” nonsense. For most of our nation’s history, assimilation was considered extremely important, and that included, above all, language assimilation. In the 1920s for example, Henry Ford used to sponsor English classes for his immigrant workers and when they graduated from the course, the workers would attend a little ceremony in which they changed out of their “Old World” clothes into new “American” clothes, to symbolize the completion of their assimilation into their new culture.

Americans simply do not want to live in a bilingual society; we don’t want the headaches, the expense, the conflicts and the separatism it has caused in countries like India, Belgium and Canada. 80 percent of us want English declared our official language (the other 20 percent are probably Hispanics -- no other ethnic group seems to be distressed by the fact that the US is an English-speaking country).

It’s naive to think that when something is forced on people that they don’t want, there won’t be a backlash. Spanish itself isn’t intrinsically a problem -- if it were German immigrants who were determined to change our country into a bilingual one, the anger and resistance would be directed at German instead of Spanish. —Mary Jessel, San Francisco, CA