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February 2, 2008

Reader disturbed by Spanish-language ad 

I read Spanish, so I’m not going to get bent out of shape by a Spanish language ad in my local paper. But this subscriber to the Pocono Record in northeast Pennsylvania writes: 

I was reading the classified ads today looking for a job. I came across a help wanted ad that was written in Spanish. On the West Coast, where more than half the population speaks Spanish, I would expect to see something like this. I did not expect to see it in our local paper. 

Visit Japan or Germany, and you’ll come across a lot of materials written in English. Visit China, and you’ll find various materials written in Japanese, Korean, Russian and English. Only Frenchmen and Americans get truly riled up over the mere presence of “foreign writing” in their midst. 

 

As I stated in Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One, the problem is not Spanish---but our government’s failure to control our national borders. (Notice that the controversy is always over Spanish-language ads. When was the last time you saw a sign or a help wanted ad written in Thai or Serbian?) 

The reader of the Pocono Record was also incensed because her local employers seemed to be targeting immigrant (i.e., low-wage) labor. I agree with her there. While the politicians are also to blame, corporate greed is perhaps the biggest single factor driving the illegal immigration problem.