I have noticed a disturbing new trend on local television here in the New York Metropolitan Area, and since I don't know whether this is happening elsewhere, I thought I would talk about it in today’s Rant.
The trend is to show Spanish language commercials on regular, English language channels.
I have seen a couple of these over the past few weeks, and it is just so wrong, on a variety of levels.
First of all, the last time I looked, this was the United States of America.
We allow too much to go on here to dilute the “United” part of that name, and while we have no official language in this country—perhaps we should—English is our language here.
You do not dilute anyone’s heritage by speaking the English language—just ask those who came here from Europe, and generations of people will tell you that their backgrounds were not damaged by learning the language of their new land—
In fact, it was bolstered by learning the new language, and it set the path for their children and their children’s children and succeeding generations to succeed.
And if you do not learn the language of the country that you are living in, working in, and making money in, well, you might be here, but you have one foot out, one foot in, and are you in or out as far as being a true American is concerned?
You reap the benefits of this country, but are you only taking advantage of our leniency in this country, where we turn our heads on such things as if they do not exist?
And stations that have the nerve to show these commercials are simply enablers.
There are already many, many channels in Spanish that are available to viewers who do not speak English.
If they are still a little squeamish about their language skills, they can easily go from one channel to another until they learn to speak English.
By providing Spanish language commercials on English language channels, these stations are simply being enablers, allowing people to live off the benefits of this country without learning the language that we speak here.
And what is wrong with being bilingual?
Nothing at all.
And this sets a very, very bad precedent, because you just know that it is now commercials, and later, it will be TV shows themselves that will be in Spanish, and that does not serve the general public, or the public that these shows and commercials are targeted to, at all.
When you have young people who were born here in this country who do not speak a word of English, you upset the apple cart of our country and make us less “United” and more a “Tower of Babel,” where everyone is speaking different languages and nobody is successfully communicating.
Years ago, when I was teaching English, I remember that I had some middle school-age students in my English class—yes, my English class—who did not speak a word of English.
Some were born here, some were relatively new to the country, but they all shared the fact that they did not understand English at all.
And stations that have the nerve to show these commercials are simply enablers.
There are already many, many channels in Spanish that are available to viewers who do not speak English.
If they are still a little squeamish about their language skills, they can easily go from one channel to another until they learn to speak English.
By providing Spanish language commercials on English language channels, these stations are simply being enablers, allowing people to live off the benefits of this country without learning the language that we speak here.
And what is wrong with being bilingual?
Nothing at all.
And this sets a very, very bad precedent, because you just know that it is now commercials, and later, it will be TV shows themselves that will be in Spanish, and that does not serve the general public, or the public that these shows and commercials are targeted to, at all.
When you have young people who were born here in this country who do not speak a word of English, you upset the apple cart of our country and make us less “United” and more a “Tower of Babel,” where everyone is speaking different languages and nobody is successfully communicating.
Years ago, when I was teaching English, I remember that I had some middle school-age students in my English class—yes, my English class—who did not speak a word of English.
Some were born here, some were relatively new to the country, but they all shared the fact that they did not understand English at all.
How did taking up space in an English class benefit them? I was even told to just keep them in the class without giving them English work to do, as they had their work to do, in Spanish, of course.
Since our current borders are open for anyone to come in here, we have almost treated these I asylum seekers as conquering heroes, as we have an entire generation of people coming in here to supposedly live the American dream who don’t understand a word of English, and probably will never even have a rudimentary understanding of the language.
And while they are being fed "South American cuisine" to eat—yes, New York City proudly boasts this fact—their minds are going to have to be nourished, or at least the younger newcomers’ minds will have to be nourished, by being taught English by an already overloaded education system.
Sure, having Spanish language commercials on English speaking TV outlets might not sound so nefarious, but it could snowball into something worse; it might be the first step in a not so steep ladder where New York City, in particular, becomes primarily Spanish speaking rather than English speaking, and that does not really help anyone.
Yes, things are changing rapidly in this country, but throughout the 50 states, English remains the preferred language.
If you have a generation of people who do not know the language, you are damning them to a life of poverty, because without even a scant knowledge of English, there will be no advancement for them, no education, no college, no higher-paying jobs, etc.
This just can’t be, but this bending of the rules on local television is the first step leading to that end game.
In my career, I worked with people who came here as youngsters from South America, and one of their goals was to become an American citizen. They learned the language, excelled in their new environs as a result, and they became proud citizens of this country, repeating the same path to success that many other generations before them went through when they came here.
Learn the language. It is the path to success in the United States of America, a country where you can revel in your ethnic background while still being a full, red, white and blue American.
And shouldn’t that be the true end game for these people coming here seeking asylum anyway?
Since our current borders are open for anyone to come in here, we have almost treated these I asylum seekers as conquering heroes, as we have an entire generation of people coming in here to supposedly live the American dream who don’t understand a word of English, and probably will never even have a rudimentary understanding of the language.
And while they are being fed "South American cuisine" to eat—yes, New York City proudly boasts this fact—their minds are going to have to be nourished, or at least the younger newcomers’ minds will have to be nourished, by being taught English by an already overloaded education system.
Sure, having Spanish language commercials on English speaking TV outlets might not sound so nefarious, but it could snowball into something worse; it might be the first step in a not so steep ladder where New York City, in particular, becomes primarily Spanish speaking rather than English speaking, and that does not really help anyone.
Yes, things are changing rapidly in this country, but throughout the 50 states, English remains the preferred language.
If you have a generation of people who do not know the language, you are damning them to a life of poverty, because without even a scant knowledge of English, there will be no advancement for them, no education, no college, no higher-paying jobs, etc.
This just can’t be, but this bending of the rules on local television is the first step leading to that end game.
In my career, I worked with people who came here as youngsters from South America, and one of their goals was to become an American citizen. They learned the language, excelled in their new environs as a result, and they became proud citizens of this country, repeating the same path to success that many other generations before them went through when they came here.
Learn the language. It is the path to success in the United States of America, a country where you can revel in your ethnic background while still being a full, red, white and blue American.
And shouldn’t that be the true end game for these people coming here seeking asylum anyway?
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