:dunno:I'm curious. This morning when i was out playing in the snow i helped another person out of the ditch that couldn't speak one word of english. This is the second time this winter I've encountered people like this. Crappy driving skills and worse language comprehension. Just wondering, how does someone get a license if they can't speak english? if they can't speak english can they read it??? What about traffic signs?
Well............. my mom and a lot of my older relatives can read traffic signs. Its not that hard. Stop sign, red light, yellow light, green light. 94, 694, etc. The older folks get taught by us younger generation. The only thing they have a hard time on is street signs. Oh and when they give directions, its always by a big church, big tree, or school. LOL I love old asian people.
I take it maybe you don't live in the city?---I don't mean that in a bad way either. I see this each and everyday...and it is just part of the diverse city culture. A trip down lake street will give you all of the exposure you need. The only thing that scares me is the language barrier if there were an accident or something. Hard to communicate about needing insurance information and such. :eek3: at my t-mobile store---60 to 70% of the customer base fits this description.
He no riv heh. You go home now. Most traffic controls and signage are optical and common sense (other than on-ramp meters, which suck, hard).
diversity is one thing... plain ignorance to the country YOU CHOSE to live in is another... If I go to Japan do I expect them to change all their literature into english?!?! NO
I drive in Japan every day... think about that actually most of the informational signs are in Kana and Romanji (english) this is on the Wangun heading out of Chiba/Narita towards Tokyo
How do you know what Nat Scuba is talking about, here in the EP hood we have two large groups of people who hardly speek english. Neither (I bet) are the nationality that you are thinking. I still remember seeing a Somoli SP? woman in front of a fire truck with it's lights and sirens going on Anderson lakes Parkway. Poor chick had no idea what to do she jsut slowed way down! HEF
haha Nuke I know he wouldn't diss my mamma! Heck we won't let her drive anyways! And frogy totally understand and know what you are saying. Nuke means no harm.
In most states there are tests in alternate languages. You just have to ask. I'm not sure if MN does it but I know Hawaii and CA do.
yeah, then they complain about the illegals not being able to pass their citizenship tests. either make them learn ESL or .. I donno ... gtfo? It doesn't bother me much really - only wish that the people who don't speak english would just try a bit harder to be understood by all of us that do. We're NOT out to get you! sheesh.
That's good to know. My wife is part of the Korean mafia and I'll clue her in so she can pass on the good word. Diversity in driving. I'm not sure this is a good thing.
No crap! When i came to this country i had to learn english as a first language. I dont know whats up with these people. I work at an auto parts store and they get mad when you dont speak their language. That just gets me T.O'd. They still try to talk to me in spanish or whatever. Dude!
you know what really grinds my gears? when a person calls that is typing something out on a computer and having someone translate to me, wondering about ordering 700 spark-plugs. GTFO
I have no beefs with anyone, race, color, etc.....it's america...that's what we're all about. And frogy is correct, EP is full of people that don't speak english. my question/concern is more towards the dmv actually. If you can't read/speak the language how do you get through the tests and get a license? I don't know about other countries....If I went to China as an example and didn't know how to read or communicate would they still let me get a license? I was just puzzled
I work in a restaurant, and the truth is that the entire kitchen is undocumented workers. i.e. They have falsified social security cards and drivers licenses. They all own cars however. I suppose they're just playing the odds and hoping to not get pulled over. This scenario is not unique to my restaurant, or food service in general. I give these people props for finding ways to slip through the cracks and find a way to make a better life, or at least earn more money. Most of them work 2 full-time jobs, send money back to their families in Central/South America, and eventually return to their country with a huge nest egg of cash. They are honest, hard working, and have earned my respect.
I don't think it's "racist" to wish for people of other nationalities to learn to speak better when they come here. I think that if you SAY things like "man, I wish they'd just learn English" it comes off as a racist term - but really, it isn't. Just like if you went to, say, Norway - you'd get a fair amount of things in your own language, but in order to get around - you will HAVE to learn to speak Norwegian. I was born and raised here, and I don't think that *I* should have to learn a second language to compete with other people who were born and raised here, but I will if I have to. Some of my favorite people when I worked at my last job were the illegals. Sure, they were janitors, and people usually didn't notice them - but when I'd come say hello, their faces would light up and they'd get all happy, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In each country there is this battle - America is not alone, there are people emigrating all over the world. And I am sure that in some forum in say, China, there are people sitting here typing this exact thing out in their native language. So yeah, there isn't much we can do except for deal with it. I think that we're actually being very civil. We could just boot out everyone who doesn't speak english as a native language, but then THAT is racist. So it's a fine line and it's hard to come up with a solution that benefits everyone involved. And we deal with it, and a lot of "illegals" will teach us things that we'd never have known before, and that is all we can really ask for these days.
