Foreign Speakers

There’s a sign on the door as you walk in. It advertises hiring new people and would the applicants please speak Spanish too. It would seem that this is to help Spanish speakers communicate. What’s bad is the assumption present. It says that you folks who don’t speak English are on the low end of the ability to speak English so we, the more able native English speakers will come to you. It’s easier for us to learn your language because we are learners and we know it’s hard for you to learn English because that would mean you’d have to work at concentrating. In a nutshell the assumption underlying the crafting of signs announcing that we speak Spanish too is that no foreign speaker has the brains to communicate in English so we’ll do the stretching. We can do this and we’ll handily learn your language seeing that you’re so unable. In fact we’ll set up our offices so you won’t have to broaden yourselves. It’s interesting to note that LDS missionaries learn languages in six months plus the actual truth that foreign speakers are not dumb. It’s terrifically funny. Signs touting that English speakers will learn your language pretty well always seem to suggest to the world that native Spanish speakers are short of verbal intelligence. Signs in a foreign language instead of common English say to foreign people you think you’re helping that they are not so smart and that you’re doing them a great big favor.