Did you know that if you own a business in the United States, you could get into trouble for requiring your employees to speak English? According to the EEOC, businesses are "allowed" to enact an English-only policy if it is "needed to promote the safe or efficient operation of their business." A group of nursing homes in California and Texas learned it the hard way -- they are required to pay up to $450,000 to employees who said they suffered discrimination for speaking Spanish at work. And a casino in Colorado is out $1.5 million for requiring its housekeepers to speak English.
The latest is a bookstore/cafe near Yale University. The owner of the store enacted an English only policy for employees who interact with customers. Tim Stewart-Winter, a bleeding heart professor from Yale, says he is appalled! "I think diversity is a strength of this country." Well how great is diversity when you don't know what in the heck your waiter is saying, and he doesn't know what in the heck you're saying? Another case where the little sound bites make you look good, but when you analyze them, they translate to stupidity in any language!
"Lost in translation." The Dallas Morning News; January 23, 2010; p. 6A.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment