Mrs.Nesbit's Diner - Message Board / Forum

My only experience with this is my friend Marco from El Salvador. He came here seeking political asylum, (the only way is to get in illegally, then ask for asylum). It took him 26 days of walking to get in. He is still in the long process to become a citizen. He LOVES this country, and has learned english very well. He owns his own home, works very hard, and is more of an american to me than some of the ungrateful America haters that were born here. IMO....come to America, LEARN ENGLISH!

On a lighter note.....

Since I never answer my home phone anymore (we use cell phones mostly), I had a little fun with my answering machine. Since I work in the telecommunications industry, I had access to a small voicemail system with an automated attendant. It says, "You have reached the L______ residence. Para continuar en espanole, marque el numero nueve. To speak to or leave a message for D____  press 1, for C______ press2, and for N______ press 3." If you press 9, I say in spanish that the residence you have called only speaks english. Please try your call again in english.  Then it dumps you back to the main menu. My wife thinks it's stupid, but I (and many of my peers) think it's hysterical. It also has a side benefit I found accidentally. When telemarketing robo-calls come in, as soon as the speech recognition software hears spanish, it drops the call, when it used to stay on the line and record its crap in the general mailbox.

my answer...yes

I think it's a great idea if we know 2 languages, but I don't think we should HAVE to learn spanish to communicate with anyone who comes to a country where English is the dominant language.