Geno’s Steaks in Philidelphia is under fire for posting a sign that says: “This is America – when ordering, speak English.” If it is determined that the sign violates city rules, it will have to be taken down or Geno’s will have to pay a fine (of only $300).
Joey Vento, the owner of Geno’s, insists that he is in the right. To some extent he is. It could be very frustrating to be dealing with a language barrier while selling food. It is very easy to create an awkward situation with incorrect orders or misconceptions of payments if two people don’t speak the same language.
When I used to work at a community pool, I had to interact with a lot of people that didn’t speak a lick of English. These people were always the ones who would dive while standing on top of no diving signs or walk into the pump room (very dangerous) when looking for the locker room. Furthermore, it was nearly impossible to explain any rules to them. In essence, the language barrier created a safety hazard.
However, there is no law stating that English is the national language. Thus, if people who don’t speak any English want to swim, order cheese steaks, or get haircuts in a place that doesn’t speak their language, they can do it. BUT, that place of business should be just as able to refuse service if that person is a safety hazard, someone whose order they might screw up because they can’t communicate with the person, or someone who doesn’t understand how much money they have to pay for a good or service. As long as the refusal of service is not made on a racial basis (the language one CHOOSES to speak is not a race issue), then it is ok.
The idea behind what Geno’s Steaks did is fine: asking people to be able to communicate their order appropriately. The way they got this idea across – by implying that those who don’t speak English don’t belong in America – is not ok. I’ll agree that it’s annoying when people live in the US and don’t speak any English, but there is no law stating they must – so until then, we’ve all just got to get along.
1 Comment for This is America – when ordering, speak English!
jon h | June 13, 2006 at 4:03 pm
“The idea behind what Geno’s Steaks did is fine: asking people to be able to communicate their order appropriately. The way they got this idea across – by implying that those who don’t speak English don’t belong in America – is not ok. I’ll agree that it’s annoying when people live in the US and don’t speak any English, but there is no law stating they must – so until then, we’ve all just got to get along.”
I don’t think it is a “don’t belong” issue as much as an adaptation issue. Geno’s owner probably believes that he shouldn’t have to go through the effort of learning spanish to accomodate these spanish speaking customers.
If the owner values their business, then maybe he would learn spanish to serve them. However, in many people’s minds the learning of spanish is a concession to new people coming to the US. There is this idea that previous immigrants spoke their original languages in their respective collections in towns here in the US. They learned english and the generations lost their original country’s culture and adopted the US culture.
Its all just a personal preference nowadays…This is the new wave of immigration. These days a lot of people are more likely to concede to new immigrants either legal or illegal. 50-150 years ago there wasn’t any concessions, english was learned by the european immigrants