It's difficult to be tolerant when you are 70 years old, on you hands and knees on the floor, behind the desk, trying to unplug some cable, counting to thirty or what was it that guy said? I can't understand him.:a20:

Rest my case

Plug your computer modem into a power strip so you can just flip the main power strip switch instead of crawling behind a desk. Bad for your knees but good for orthopedic surgeons.

I don't have those problems. I have Comcast and call 800-COMCAST if I have any problem. I always get a very good English speaker located in the USA who solves the issue.

For credit card issues, I call the customer service number on the card and always get someone in USA who speaks English and fixes the issue right away.

It does not bother me to press 1.

You have been really lucky. Comcast is perhaps, if not the worst, one of the worst with offshore customer service. Just hope you do not have difficulty on an off time :) FOR THEM I mean !!

WHY ? And make that case but tell me why those who do not speak english but live and work in an english speaking country should not learn english !!!!

Both of these.

Could it be explained to me why I MUST learn spanish ? Have we been invaded ? Those who speak only spanish have no obligation at all ?

Wonder if on the message boards in Mexico, they are saying how they MUST learn english so we do not feel uncomfortable when we visit !

Just explain to me WHY it is all one sided...thats all !!!

PS...I am slow....here is how I understand what you folks are saying. As an american, if I own a company and hire someone who speaks only spanish or WANT to do that, I cannot according to the EOC insist they learn english to do their job in America for an American compnay, BUT......as an american consumer, I am or should learn spanish to get help when I call an american company. Got it !

Sorry but hell would have to freeze before I speak anything but English in the United States.

Ah, the tolerance level of Villagers is ramping back up. :rant-rave:

Most of these calls centers are being moved to India, The Phillipines, and Indonesia, not Spanish speaking countries. BTW: Tarpon Springs is adopting Greek as it's second language, so another language to learn if planning a trip there.

It has nothing to do with tolerance or lack thereof. It simply has to do with common sense. We are an English speaking country officially or not. English has been the native language of this country for almost 250 years and it was the language of the colonists who inhabited this land for over 100 years before that.

You can hang your hats on silly technicalities if you want, but I prefer to live in reality and the reality is that this is an English speaking country.

When my grandparents and most every one on this boards grand parents or great grand parents or great great grand parents came here from another country, they learned to speak English. It had been that way for over 200 years and now within the past thirty years are so a group of people in this country have decided to deny reality.

Like I said, just common sense.

Yep, America for Americans - and they better speak American, too. :a20:

I don't know about EOC. We bring people up here from Spanish speaking countries to perform services we can't get our own people to do. Migrant workers come to mind. They bring their families and put their children in our schools. At our invitation. I just don't see the problem with trying to learn another language to accommodate these people so we can, say, have fruit on our table.

We lived in France for a while. Tried to speak their language. They would hear us and break into their English, which was way better than our French. Nobody EVER refused to communicate with us because we were not fluent in French. Most of what we had to do online--buying train tickets, renting cars, ordering dog food, etc.--was available to us in English, provided by the French web sites. Only in tiny rural towns did we encounter people who only spoke French. Why can we not do this for the 35 million Hispanics that live and work in our country?

It is a known fact that a foreign language is very difficult for an adult to master. Yet these workers' children are learning fluent English in their schools. We can't wait a bit?

It is the 21st century. It is a global community. Spanish is the second most used language in international communication. The Hispanic population in the United States has grown by 60% in just one decade. At present there are 35,5 million Hispanics, representing 12,5% of the total population. Hispanics are now the first minority.

I cannot see the justification for isolationism in this day and age.

I know I am about to get slammed.:throwtomatoes:

Why only Spanish? How about French and Italian and Chinese and Swahili? Hell why not every language in the world? We speak English here and the new folks need to learn it just like all of our ancestors.

The call of racism and intolerance are ramping up.

QUESTION.....so you believe truely that we should learn spanish to communicate with folks who do not, and in most cases, will not even try to learn english in our country. That in order for us to get customer service from an American company, we need to be tolerant with the fact we cannot understand the folks on the other end of the phone ? Let me clarify.....folks who sub contract with an American company to provide service to Americans, yet cannot speak english.

You really and truely believe this ?

All of this while spanish speaking people who want a job will jump to the head of the line because of our own laws, then if asked to learn english to perform that job, will refuse and have our own EOC defend them.

I must have crossed over somewhere if this makes any sense whatsoever...and then to have folks call me and others intolerant is just beyond any comprehension and those who make all these name calling posts do not realize that they are undercutting those who want desperately to be as tolerant as possible.