I've been meaning to blog about an issue in the illegal immigration debate, and about where I believe the arguments against cease to be about the issue... After reading a recent post, I'm going to extend it to two issues...

The first is a story about a pizza place excepting pesos in the US, and hate mail being extended. The thing is, when an argument against this is made, this ceases to be a specifically 'illegal' type issue. I'm firmly against illegal immigration (as anybody who's read my blog semi-regularly probably knows). But the key here is that stop at 'illegal'. I've been to Mexico a few times in my life, and each time I spent American dollars in Mexico. I was not an illegal visitor to Mexico when I did that, and I did not see any Mexicans being uptight about the fact that I did. In reverse, if someone comes into America from Mexico legally, and happens to have Pesos (possibly even an American who may have been staying there for a while), what's so wrong about an establishment excepting them? Just because illegals may have or probably have pesos in their pocket does not mean that inherently everybody who has pesos in their pocket is an illegal...

Unfortunately too many people are blurring the line in the argument, and when they do they give fuel to those who argue that those who are against illegal immigration are racist...

This extends further and the second point hits a little closer to home. I was in a store and two employees were speaking to each other in Spanish. A guy waiting in line then proceeded to go berserk screaming they should be speaking English. One of the two employees proceeded to inform the man that Spanish was in fact their second language. The fact is there is nothing inherently wrong about speaking in a foreign language. The problem comes when people elect to refuse to learn English and expect others to cater to always cater to that choice.

In fact legal immigrants who come here may not know how to speak English when they arrive. My wife came here on a student visa expecting to attend school starting by learning English. That never occurred, unfortunately, due to the simple fact that the sponsor who brought her here never intended to allow her to attend school. She's learned English from English speakers, and has made a solid effort to do so...

When I stated above that this issue hits a little closer to home, it was in reference to an event that occurred while my wife was answering the phone for her 'adoptive' sponsor... That is, the place my wife went to after managing to get away from the sponsor who originally brought her here...

The story is fairly short. My wife, who is of Chinese descent and is originally from Indonesia... Whom I'm able to comfortably converse with few if any problems (not knowing even a single word of her native language)... At any rate she answered the phone and had someone asking to speak with her boss. She asked "what this regard?" improperly phrasing the statement but making logical sense to anybody who natively speaks English. The person on the phone then rudely responded "what this regard? That doesn't make any sense, what are you speaking Spanish?" then proceeded to hang up.

Being that he could properly repeat the words meant he fully knew what she was asking... Anybody with a basic ability to speak English could insert the missing "s" and the missing "ing" with no real though on their part. The fact is she is making an effort to properly learn English to the best of her abilities with the resources she has on hand (which consists primarily of me).

But this guy was somehow offended because she isn't 100% fluent in English. And the simple fact is there isn't a single person on this planet who is 100% fluent in English. I'd be willing to bet there are a few English words I could use that would have him asking "ummm, what does that word mean?"... In fact I would venture to guess his complete fluentness in English is verisimilitude at best... You get the point...

The mere fact that someone doesn't speak English completely fluently is not something inherent to illegals. In fact even the inability to speak English doesn't necessarily denote an illegal. Going to a Chinese church, I'm in contact with countless legal immigrants and naturalized citizens. Many of them, when possible, prefer to speak in their native language.

The problem we should be having as those who are against illegal immigration, or even those who arrived legally but believe they should never have to learn English is when they choose to not even try. Keep in mind, English is not the easiest language to learn. In fact, to those learning it as a second language, it can be extremely difficult. An episode of I Love Lucy comes to mind where Rickey was trying to read a children's book in English. Containing words like Through, Cough, Bough & Though (each having a distinctly different pronunciation at the end) he was having a bit of a hard time... As native English speakers, we never usually think about it, but English has more exceptions than it does rules...

For the record, my wife does now know how to properly pronounce "what's this regarding?" Though for the record it wasn't that she didn't know about the "s" sound, but that it's extremely difficult for her to tack an "s" at the end of a word...

Another example of this is my Manager at my work. He is fluent in Japanese (born in America & totally white) and he used the word "oo-poo-soo" at one point. He then proceeded to explain that this is how those who's native language is Japanese, who later proceed to learn English, pronounce the word "oops". Case being that they generally are incapable of making the "s" sound immediately following a consonant and at the end of a word (both of which are obviously present in 'oops')...

But what this all boils down to is a desperate need for people on the anti-illegal immigration side of the argument to stop focusing on the specific issue of illegal, and those who want to live here but refuse to adapt to our culture what-so-ever. There's nothing inherently wrong about excepting foreign currency. There is nothing wrong with having Spanish speaking employees in grocery stores. The problem isn't with people who at the present time still aren't completely fluent in English, and it isn't even with those who at present don't know English.

The problem comes in when someone comes here illegally to spend foreign money. The problem comes in when someone illegal comes in to the country and then expects to get a free ride, while also choosing not to speak English. Heck, if you're an illegal, but are capable of teaching English, that shouldn't earn you a pass. If you've got 10,000 in American money, but are illegal, that shouldn't earn you a pass either... The national language is English and should remain English. The dollar should remain the one currency excepted everywhere in the US. That does not mean completely banning those who currently don't speak English, or those who have a few pesos in their pocket wanting some pizza from ever entering the country...