Spanish-English language barrier is a problem

Fabienne Fleurantin/ Staff Writer

He insulted her because she didn’t speak his language.

I witnessed this when I went to get some supplies at the Dollar Store. As I walked in, a furious man yelled at a cashier, saying: “How can you work here and not know how to speak English?”

“Have a good day s-,” she began to say as he interrupted her.

“Shut your d—– up, you stupid b—-,” he said, shoving the door open while muttering under his breath.

I stood there in shock. I couldn’t believe that I saw something so vile, another person treating someone else like that based on their frustration with a language barrier. I have seen people struggle to communicate with Spanish speakers, but not to this hateful extent.

This has been a growing issue in America, especially in Miami where the Hispanic population is overwhelmingly dominant. 67.7 percent of the country is Hispanic, according to the United States of America census and the debate seems to be: who should learn the language?

“I do think it’s a joint effort. A lot of Hispanics that come over here, they may not have all the resources other people have. They may not have the money to take a class to learn the language,” psychology major Jeralyn Mateo said. “It’s not a matter of whether they should learn English or we should learn Spanish. It’s a matter of let people be people and do things at their own rate, and not forcing judgement on other people, because you don’t know their life story.”

Anthropology sophomore Deja Rodriguez echoed the same sentiments, but added that potential goals play a factor in whether a language should be learned.

“It depends on what you want to do when you come here. If it’s going at your own pace, that’s okay. If you want to grow, progress, move along the ranks, maybe learning [English] may be for you,” she said. “They should make these resources more accessible to people and provide them so they can be utilized.”

America doesn’t have an official designated language and it makes sense. There is so much diversity here with people of every creed and color. However, the growing frustration of this language barrier is changing that narrative.

I conducted a Facebook survey to see what people thought about the issue, and found that 73.9 percent of people thought that Spanish speakers should learn English; 13 percent thought that they shouldn’t learn English; 13 percent thought that Americans should learn English.

This is a complicated problem. If a Spanish speaker comes into this country, it would be preferable for them to know English because it’s the dominant language of the country. Since the population is becoming more Hispanic, however, we may need to adjust our mannerisms as well.

It is frustration trying to communicate with someone who does not know the dominant language of this state, let alone the country. However, I do believe that in order to adequately maneuver in Miami, it is important to know English being that it is the dominant language spoken here.

FIU is just as diverse as Miami, with 61 percent of Hispanic students, 15 percent White Non-Hispanic, 13 percent Black, 4 percent Asian or Pacific Islander and 7 percent other minority groups, according to fiu.edu.

We want all students to feel welcome and at ease without feeling alienated by the school they chose to represent. But with those foreign students making an effort to learn English and the school making the right adjustment to accommodate the students, it could make their experience here more fun.

 

 

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

 

Picture taken from Flickr.