Press 1 for English

[Guy N. Heels]

In this day and time there seems to be no limit to how outrageous people will get and the lenghts they will go to in order to make other people's lives more complicated. Take for example, the telephone. I can remember when all one needed to do to make a phone call was to pick up the handset, wait for a dialtone, and then dial the number. But these days things have gotten so complicated that pretty soon one will need a master's degree just to operate a telephone. Then to be even more aggrevating, many organizations now have a computerized answering service that often begins with the mssg: "Press 1 for English". How assinine can one be? Thanks to the far-flung British Empire, English has been the universal language for well over a century! Even when I found myself stationed in the western Pacific where Japanese was the predominant language, there was usually somebody around who spoke English. Yet here in America, which was founded by English colonists, your friendly business computer will now ask you to "Press 1 for English". How about some comments on this one?

[hoverfly]

GF is going to school for nursing, she is also taking Spanish lessons to make her more marketable. Personally it's pissing me off, English is the standard language and should stay as such. Being dyslexic it's hard enough for me to master the English language why should I learn to speak Spanish?

[Leggman]

I went into the bank and demanded to know why I have to select a language on the ATM. After all, I've been doing business with this bank for years and English has always worked. Now you need to select a language. The same thing happens when I try to use my ATM card at the market, the first thing it asks me to do is select a language. I refuse to select a language. I've been useing English for over fifty years. When I drive my car across the boarder into Quebec, the Canadian Customs Officer enters my registration number into the computer, he knows everything about the registered owner of the vehicle before I open my window, then asks where I'm from in French. I look him in the eye and say, "English, German, or Vietnamise, if you don't mind." Then he'll ask where I'm from in English. To make matters worse, this country of ours won't declare English as our "Official Language" because they can't risk pissing off some wetbacks. Being "Politically correct" is more important to our government than selecting English as our national language. When I go into a store, if the people behind the counter don't speak English as well as I do, I leave. It's still a semi-free country. I was in a store a few years ago looking for something to nibble on and a cold drink. when I saw the woman behind the front counter was from the mid-east, I put my bottle of Sprite back in the cooler and walked out. She said something to her partner who grabbed a baseball bat from behind the counter and followed me out of the store, asking me what was the matter. I replied, "Nothing's the matter, I'm just taking my business down the street to a store that's locally owned and operated." The guy followed me out of the store with the baseball bat while the woman called the police. As I was opening my car the police arrived, and Batman started yelling to the officer that I committed a "Hate Crime." I told the officer that I was carrying and if this guy with the bat chased the wrong person out of the store he would get shot. The officer said, "Hate Crime is the first English these people learn. Why don't you go in and buy something just to keep the peace?" I told the officer, "I wouldn't piss on that man if he were burning!" and I left. English has served me well for over fifty years, I'll be damned if I'm going to select a language.

[Tech]

The officer said, "Hate Crime is the first English these people learn. Why don't you go in and buy something just to keep the peace?"

I told the officer, "I wouldn't piss on that man if he were burning!" and I left.

English has served me well for over fifty years, I'll be damned if I'm going to select a language.

This is absolutely NUTS!!!

While its obviously cool that the officer could see the situation for what it really was, I'm pretty surprised he asked you to go but something to "keep the peace"

Frankly, if anybody followed me out of a store with a baseball bat, I'm not sure they would get the opportunity to use it, although I've never been in that situation so I cant say if I would either be running like hell or I would kick there ass before they could take a swipe! (Depends how big they are)

NOTE: If it was johnieheel, I think I'd go with running as fast as possible!

We dont yet have this "Press 1 for english" or select your language here in the UK "Yet" but I'm sure if it starts to appear then there will be plenty of uproar about it should it ever happen

[Dr. Shoe]

I've never met an American yet who can speak English...

For a start there is no such thing as a sidewalk, it's either a pavement or a footpath. What is a billfold? It's a wallet. A purse is for keeping your money in and then that goes into a handbag. Hands up any American who knows what a fortnight is? Cars do not have hoods and trunks, they have bonnets and boots.

As for pronounciation it's she'diool not skedyool. There are no such thing as 'erbs the "H" is hard like in hotel not soft like in hour.

As for spelling? well! Colour, honour and night are the correct spellings not color, honor or nite! You wouldn't make an armour wearing gentleman a knite would you? Or perhaps you mite!

Quite frankly I'm not surprised your ATMs ask you if you want English, if you scroll down you'll probably find an option for American!

:-)

[Ozzard]

I don't speak English anyway, i speak Computerese. And my favourite there is still: "Keyboard error or no keyboard present. Press F1 to continue." Anyway, I'm English. I live in Manchester. I reasonably regularly go to gigs in North Wales, where all the signs are bilingual. I also work on e-learning software that has English, Welsh, Gaelic (Scottish) and Weegie* localisations. So it even bites us over here. * Glaswegian, which even most Scots can't follow at full speed.

[Guy N. Heels]

I've never met an American yet who can speak English...

For a start there is no such thing as a sidewalk, it's either a pavement or a footpath. What is a billfold? It's a wallet. A purse is for keeping your money in and then that goes into a handbag. Hands up any American who knows what a fortnight is? Cars do not have hoods and trunks, they have bonnets and boots.

As for pronounciation it's she'diool not skedyool. There are no such thing as 'erbs the "H" is hard like in hotel not soft like in hour.

As for spelling? well! Colour, honour and night are the correct spellings not color, honor or nite! You wouldn't make an armour wearing gentleman a knite would you? Or perhaps you mite!

Quite frankly I'm not surprised your ATMs ask you if you want English, if you scroll down you'll probably find an option for American!

:-)

Somebody, please help. After I finally pick myself up off the floor and wipe away the tears from laughing so hard, I'm pretty sure my back is gonna need medical attention.

Did I mention that Americans and the British are a kindred people that are separated by a common language?

Actually, I really wasn't discussing the difference in dialects between the Americans and the Britts. I was really trying to address the insulting implications that the other posters have thus far addressed. In many cases, it's inane. In some cases, it's insane! And in the majority of cases, it's insulting and assinine.

Now, is there a chiropractor in the house?

[Dawn HH]

HA! HA! HA! TEE! HEE! Mumuph! SNicker! Sorry---just couldn't help myself. I think I hurt myself laughing. Cheers--- Dawn HH

[Dr. Shoe]

The question is is if you can't read English how would you know it says that?

[JL]

Kind of like Braille on a touch-screen ATM.

[Firefox]

Well, thanks to the global march of McDonalds et al and in the last 10 years, the net, English is much more prevalent than it might have been otherwise, so be thankful for small mercies.

[kneehighs]

I remember the night I was standing at a bus stop going to La Guardia. There was an elderly spanish man standing next to me. Soon, I found myself in a short conversation with him. In Spanish. I asked him how long he had been living in the States and when his response was 12 years, I was disappointed. Later I met another very likable man from Honduras. Turns out he couldn't speak english either and he had been in the states for 11 years. And some people look at me funny when they speak to me in Spanish and I answer ,"no hablo espanol." Arghhh.

[WhyNotMenToo]

For more information check out this yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SouthernAmericanPatriots/

It's not a hate group and see why you must "Press 1 for English"

[jmc]

Kind of like Braille on a touch-screen ATM.

You mean one of those drive-up ATM's?

Scary.

Yes, this multi-lingual business gets my goat too. Here in America we use (admittedly, a rather strained version of) the English language, as we have for a good 200 years. I'm sorry but if you go to a foreign country you have to expect things to be a little bit . . . foreign. Expecting that country to conform to your customs and language is not reasonable.

[Fog]

It seems there's a lot of intollerance on all sides of this debate. Firstly, refusing to buy something from a shop owned or staffed by someone of a different ethnic origin is very bigotted. It is very sad that someone can live in a country for years and not learn the language, and criminal that someone should threaten with a baseball bat. However, ethnic minorities running retail businesses do need to be very careful. There are poeple who are motivated by jealousy when they see imigrants setting up businesses and doing well. Twenty yards from my house there's a shop owned by a lovely Indian couple. I support them - I wrote to the council supporting their application for an alcohol licence and I shop there. The reason is that they are independent. All the independent shops are going out of business, forced out by the Tescos of this world.

[kneehighs]

^ I find it inspiring when I meet an immigrant who is "Making It"--I love when others succeed as there is always something in someone else's success to admire and possibly learn from. There is a Columbian man who owns an independent bike shop where I take my Mongoose when it needs work. This guy came to the States with nothing. No wife, no daughter, no English. But he made an effort to learn the language and now speaks great English and is living the American dream by being his own boss. Another guy I met is from Lebanon. He also came to the States and lived like a sardine for years saving money for his own business. Literally, he would eat bread to save money for his own business. Now, he lives in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in his town, owns and operates a chain of small retail restaurants, but again, he speaks English. I am from Guatemala and it saddens me to see that a majority of the people here in NYC who don't speak English are from Latin America. It gets even sadder when I encourage them to assimilate and learn the language of the country they came to improve their lives in. Often, I wind up making an "enemy." sigh....can't please everyone.

[Dr. Shoe]

Not learning the langauge of your adopted country severely limits your life in that country. As a kid we went to live in Israel and within 18 months I was speaking Hebrew so well that the locals thought that I'd been born there. I recall conversations I had quite clearly and I could not tell you in which lnguage they were conducted until I realise that it couldn't possibly have been English. I would even think in Hebrew to say time and effort.

[Arctic]

A thing worth considering is that nowadays most people out of the English speaking countries, and especially those from the smaller language groups typically speak 3 or 4 languages fairly well. That then almost always includes English and German or French. As a person, knowing several languages is an invaluable asset, both in business and culture. In the same way, for companies is providing services in several languages a good thing for business. Studying a foreign language is a major investment in time, in the order of magnitude of years, that nevertheless pays itself back many times over during a lifetime. I find it amusing that there are people who complain about having to punch 1 every now and then. How many seconds could there be wasted in a year? a thousand? All together less than a day if you're fortunate enough to live a long life. You don't learn many languages in that time span. And if you have to deal with a telephone system offering you a choice of languages you also speak, it becomes kind of entertaining to make a choice. Choice is a good thing, no?

[JNR]

it's not the waste of time, the difficulty or even the fact that business desire to conduct business with people that don't speak engilish. It is the principle of the idea that in the language in the USA is english and if someone speaks another language, they should be the one to "push 1."

[Dr. Shoe]

I don't think it's a matter of "desire" I think it's a matter of economic imperative. I do agree though that the default language should be English. I wonder if there should be a campaign...?

[hoverfly]

A thing worth considering is that nowadays most people out of the English speaking countries, and especially those from the smaller language groups typically speak 3 or 4 languages fairly well. That then almost always includes English and German or French.

As a person, knowing several languages is an invaluable asset, both in business and culture. In the same way, for companies is providing services in several languages a good thing for business.

Studying a foreign language is a major investment in time, in the order of magnitude of years, that nevertheless pays itself back many times over during a lifetime.

I find it amusing that there are people who complain about having to punch 1 every now and then. How many seconds could there be wasted in a year? a thousand? All together less than a day if you're fortunate enough to live a long life. You don't learn many languages in that time span.

And if you have to deal with a telephone system offering you a choice of languages you also speak, it becomes kind of entertaining to make a choice.

Choice is a good thing, no?

Yeah right a French/Spanish speaking airline pilot declaring a emergency landing at JFK has to press one to speak English cuse the control tower only speaks English!! Crash a burn Baby do to a language barrier!!!

[admirer5577]

Yeah right a French/Spanish speaking airline pilot declaring a emergency landing at JFK has to press one to speak English cuse the control tower only speaks English!! Crash a burn Baby do to a language barrier!!!

Just for your information; in commercial aviation the only language allowed is English, also for domestic flights in whatsoever country. I fly privately in Sweden and mostly speaks swedish then (sometimes I speak english with control tower etc just to maintain my english skills in aviation language). But flying to Denmark, which is 10 minutes away, and I HAVE to speak english even if we wouldn't have problems to understand each others small difference in the language.

So don't worry about the pilots having to press "1 for english"

And my comment to this thread have to be that in your "own" country you shouldn't have to choose language but when I am a tourist somewhere I do appreciate the choices of language. Why not have the machines in domestic language for domestic cards and choices for the foreign cards?

Being from a small country I have to be able to speak difference languages if I want to widen my perspective in the world. So apart from Swedish I understand both Norweigan and Danish as they are very similar but I also speak English, German and some French. Plus the standard courtesy phrases in Spanish, Italian and Russian (!). All this together have made my trips around the globe so much more fascinating and interesting and I have made friends in all sorts of places.

With a lot of refugees and immigrants coming to Sweden these days we will soon have multiple choices at the ATM too I'm afraid. Already now we have government info in probably 15 languages and to become a swedish citizen you don't have to speak swedish. This is VERY wrong if you ask me.

Myself I take pride into speaking the language of the country I go to, even if I only know the courtesy phrases. It opens up people much more than if you start by asking "Excuse me, do you speak english?" But of course, I have to ask that myself when going to places I don't have the language knowledge about.

I don't want to stir up the pot too much here but I have a question aimed to you from the US: Someone said that why should you have to press 1 for english as the US have been speaking english for over 200 years and that people coming to the US should learn/speak english. I can agree to this but the people who have lived around in the states for thousand of years when us europeans came some hundreds years ago, should they also speak english? Isn't it "we" that should have been speaking the language of the indians when we emigrated to the US? Instead we forced the native people to change their language.

Would like to see some comments from you in this matter.

[Guy N. Heels]

...I don't want to stir up the pot too much here but I have a question aimed to you from the US: Someone said that why should you have to press 1 for english as the US have been speaking english for over 200 years and that people coming to the US should learn/speak english. I can agree to this but the people who have lived around in the states for thousand of years when us europeans came some hundreds years ago, should they also speak english? Isn't it "we" that should have been speaking the language of the indians when we emigrated to the US? Instead we forced the native people to change their language.

Would like to see some comments from you in this matter.

Your point is both noted and well taken. However to understand the complexity of the point you raise, you need to first appreciate the fact that there were literally HUNDREDS of native "Indian" tribes and about an equal number of languages that they employed. Perhaps the predominant lanuage exercised on the American East Coast was the Algonquin language, which was employed by most of the major tribes. But even then, there were literally dozens of tribes that didn't speak Algonquin. Then, after America expanded west of the Mississippi (also an "Indian term), the problem compounded geometrically. That doesn't even address the fact that none of the native American languages were written languages and that it was only after the white men arrived that any attempt was made to develop a written language for a sundry few tribes. The plain and simple fact is that there is no one native American language to refer to.

P.S. I married an American Indian. My late father-in-law was 1/4 "Indian", which gave him full rights under several treaties that were signed. (Does that mean that now I'm an Indian too?)

[Fog]

Just thinking about this: they're putting English at the top of the list. If you were asked to press 1 for Spanish or whatever, you'd have more to complain about. That's not to disagree with the views expressed that you should learn the language of the country you move to.

[muddypaws]

Somebody, please help. After I finally pick myself up off the floor and wipe away the tears from laughing so hard, I'm pretty sure my back is gonna need medical attention.

Did I mention that Americans and the British are a kindred people that are separated by a common language?

Actually, I really wasn't discussing the difference in dialects between the Americans and the Britts. I was really trying to address the insulting implications that the other posters have thus far addressed. In many cases, it's inane. In some cases, it's insane! And in the majority of cases, it's insulting and assinine.

Now, is there a chiropractor in the house?

Please note that the English is not as good as "WE" think it is, you have only to read the postings to see that.

Muddypaws

[Pumps]

Just thinking about this: they're putting English at the top of the list. If you were asked to press 1 for Spanish or whatever, you'd have more to complain about.

That's not to disagree with the views expressed that you should learn the language of the country you move to.

Yep, but then in the case of the US, one can argue whether english is the right language to learn

[Guy N. Heels]

Please note that the English is not as good as "WE" think it is, you have only to read the postings to see that.

Muddypaws

That is a major part of using a living language; it is ever evolving, ever changing. While my 1611 King James Bible is written in English, from a practical point of view it is a foreign language or obscure dialect these days. If you want a language that isn't changing we could dust-off Latin wherein everything that is said has an exactitude that English can never equal.

[Skirted-UK]

Another thing that I hate is my bank's or BT's Indian call centre ringing me up to try and sell me something. Their English is so bad I usually can't understand what they are saying, I tell them they have got the wrong number and hang up. If they don't have their call centres in England I don't talk to them.

[HeelD]

Having to choose a language at the ATM or on the phone is hardly a problem IMO. I have to choose a language everytime I use an ATM in Wales but it only makes the transaction 2 seconds longer. I thought these "Hablo Espanol" phone numbers (in addition to the original English phone numbers) were pretty normal in the US now, considering Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US (looking at Wikipedia - 32,200,000, but I'll get that confirmed elsewhere). Having a large Hispanic immigrant population (with a certain proportion illegal) is likely to change the language demographics of the adoptive nation. Hence the reason Spanish is so widely spoken in the US. You can't ignore it. But I do agree it's important to learn your adoptive country's language - I guess it makes it harder if you move to Belgium or even Switzerland! Being bilingual is very advantageous. I know basic German so could probably get by very easily living in Germany and Austria - after learning more of the language of course. I wouldn't expect to get by on English alone there.

[Dr. Shoe]

And my comment to this thread have to be that in your "own" country you shouldn't have to choose language but when I am a tourist somewhere I do appreciate the choices of language. Why not have the machines in domestic language for domestic cards and choices for the foreign cards?

This does actually happen. If you put an ATM card in a machine for a non-UK bank it will then give you a choice of languages...