Hmm. Consider what folks would think if someone put up signs in Spanish and English on a US beach, where the Spanish text had scary (and false) warnings and the English text did not.
There isn’t a large influx of Spanish speaking tourists who demand that the locals speak in their language in the US. This is more akin to a shopkeeper blaring speakers with high pitched tones that only teenagers can hear.
You're fucking kidding right? Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US. It is the second largest first language as well. It is the second largest monolingual language.
I'm all for multiculturalism. I'm an immigrant. But let us not live in a pretend world.
What you’ve said is true, but it doesn’t negate my point: the frustration felt by locals dealing with entitled tourists demanding their language be accommodated. The US doesn’t have a similar problem to Spain on that front.
Eh… it’s probably not so much that they are demanding their language be spoken…
More a case of the tourists are probably being dickheads in general and the locals have had enough of their shit. That and the locals would like to be able to enjoy their own beach without having to wade through masses of tourists.
The US has the world's largest spanish speaking country sharing a 2000mile land border from coast to coast with it. Do you think that Mexican's don't travel to the America? What is exactly disqualifies the above sentiment from applying to America, vs applying to Spain?
You're so right but we've also codified that in the US. We intentionally have no official language and provide our legal and government documents in more than one language. This is a unique quality and knowing the official language is a cultural and legal expectation in many other countries.
A little context: There's more than 40 million native Spanish speakers in the US, whose language has the same legal standing as English. That's more people than the entire state of California. More than ten million more than Texas.
Whoever assumes they're all "illegal" or "unwanted" immigrants should take a moment to reflect on why the cities of California have all these strange names like "Los Angeles" and "San Diego". They were there before the English speaking. And we all know who were there before them, making the whole "immigrant" argument kind of moot anyway.