Is it discriminatory to provide services in Spanish?

Question

Many people do not speak English. Just because the majority of illegals speak Spanish, is the U.S. discriminating against other illegals who do not speak English?

Answer 1

Before I would begin to worry about "discriminatory" points - the point that they are breaking the law by being within the United States is a point that first needs to be addressed and totally enforced.

Your putting the 'cart before the horse' with your approach.

Answer 2

No it is not discriminatory to provide services in Spanish, Italian, Swahili, Russian, Chinese etc. The US usually has most governmental forms in English & Spanish primarily because Puerto Rico remains a territory of the US.

Answer 3

I'm not the type who pulls the race card or acts too "PC", but it is somewhat discriminatory to provide services in Spanish. I know people who have moved here from Sweden, Germany, etc. and do you think they had services provided to them in their language. Heck NO! In fact, they wanted to learn our language and be American. It's not fair that everything is put into Spanish because they're to lazy to speak English. I think "English-only" is the best policy.

Answer 4

I think we should not make it easy for people to be here, they need to learn English if they are going to be here legally, if they are here illegally, then yes print directions back south of the border in Spanish.

Answer 5

Make effort to learn English & home language for business in US.

NO, each nation has a National Language IE France is French, etc.
So NO.
Learn the Rules or Leave.
Be applicable & use those rules & come on IN.
Speak Spanish at Home or with kin at Home, NOT in public.

Answer 6

No, because as you said, Spanish-speaking people are the majority. If the majority were Germans, then they would have German as second language. Same with Hindi, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.

Answer 7

In essence...yes. That's why it's important to establish 1 official language. There are so many different languages it would be almost impossible to cater to every group. One person who is here legally, maybe even illegally ,could essentially sue any business for not having equal access to their language. Whether it's a taco stand, dry cleaner, grocery store, whatever. I can understand new immigrants offering a special service for people in their community with a foreign language while they are learning English and making the transformation to our country. But not in place of learning English.

I am angry that big business has sold out our language for a buck. What bothers me more is seeing specific groups demanding rights yet not extending those same rights to others. While we're "catering" to a specific group....they are not extending the same service to those here.

One example can be food. People who do not speak Spanish like some Mexican, Cuban etc food. But when you go to their stores to try and buy some authenic food......your sunk unless you speak Spanish. It's not translated for our ease and convience. They act like they really don't even want your business. It's like they set up shop to cater to just their people. They need major education in customer service. We have Arabs {I think} running the majority of our cigarette shops here. They speak English. They also have items in there like hukka (or whatever) pipes and various imported tobacco for them. They are not only serving "their" people but also welcoming other people to something they enjoy that's in their culture.

There are just so many ways and traditions that especially the latino population could do better by including others rather than an attitude of just serving their people. I would rather go to K-Mart and buy a pinita for my kids party than be glared at and ignored with everything in Spanish just to try and help a small business grow.

Having a variety of employees also helps since some things are new to us. A jalopina(sp?) pepper isn't nearly as "hot" to a person who has had it their whole life as it is to someone like me. If I manage to communicate my question....do you think I'm going to trust the opinion of someone who doesn't want me in their store, let alone doesn't even want to communicate with me?

I would never have tried a host of different things if the new immigrants didn't also "cater" to me in our language. They atleast knew English was our language and learned it, as well as being able to deal with "their" people.

Answer 8

they provide services in other languages, not just spanish.

Answer 9

no ,it is discrimination to speak another language in public