<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">There's a new post on <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><a href="http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage">the Web of Language</a></span>:<br><br><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; "><p class="blog"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;">English no longer the official language of New York's gas stations</span></font></p><p class="blog">The West Ridge Road Hess service station in Rochester, New York, began firing workers last year because they spoke Spanish to one another, and to Spanish-speaking customers, in violation of the company’s English-only policy.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Station manager José Hernandez had been scheduling Spanish-speaking workers on each shift so they could better serve the Spanish-speaking customers who came into the station’s convenience store.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he was told – in English – by higher-ups in the company that customers were welcome to buy in English, but Spanish was out, as were Hernandez and six of his co-workers.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p><p class="blog">Now according to WHAM, channel 13 in Rochester, <a href="http://www.13wham.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=b4496af3-986c-49e7-86da-2aeb216ce910" mce_href="http://www.13wham.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=b4496af3-986c-49e7-86da-2aeb216ce910">the New York State Attorney General’s office has reached a settlement</a>: Hess will pay its former employees $94,000 and the company will adopt a non-discrimination language policy.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Attorney General’s office hopes that this will send a message to businesses around the country: refrain from language discrimination – it’s the law.</p><p class="blog">...</p><p class="blog"><br></p><p class="blog">“Why should I have to press ‘1’ for English or listen to people insulting me in a language I can’t understand?” asks the English-only crowd, who are only too eager to assume that anyone not speaking English <em>must</em> be bent on mockery.</p><p class="blog">...</p><p class="blog"><p class="blog">Back in Rochester, though, the Hess Corporation's concession has raised the hackles of the locals, who responded on <a href="http://www.13wham.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=b4496af3-986c-49e7-86da-2aeb216ce910&p=Comments" mce_href="http://www.13wham.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=b4496af3-986c-49e7-86da-2aeb216ce910&p=Comments">13WHAM’s web site</a> with a brilliant display of rhetorical and grammatical skill in the language they want to see as the official language of the United States, the State of New York, Monroe County, the city of Rochester, the Ridge Road gas station, and the Beijing Olympics:</p><p class="blog" mce_style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: -.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; "><span mce_style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span mce_style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span mce_style="font: 7.0pt "> </span></span></span>I am offended when I can tell that someone is talking in a foreign language (any language) just to be judgmental of a person so they don't know they are being talked about!<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And these are people that command respect without earning it.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You want my respect, then respect me as a customer and stop jabbering when I am standing in line for any reason.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is just DISRESPECTIFUL no matter what language you are using.</p></p><p class="blog"><span mce_style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" style="color: windowtext; "><span mce_style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span mce_style="font: 7.0pt "> </span></span></span><span mce_style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" style="color: windowtext; ">Maybe all of us English speaking customers should get together and organize a boycott.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is apparent from this settlement that Hess does not respect us or our money. They could have chose to fight this (and probably would have won based on buisness reasons) but they chose to save a few dollars and in the process said screw our English speaking customers (who make up the majority of our consumers) and lets cater to the spanish speaking minority. You can't blame the court system for this one.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is corporate America selling us out so lets sell them out.</span></p><p class="blog"><p class="blog" mce_style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: -.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; "><span mce_style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" style="color: windowtext; "><span mce_style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span mce_style="font: 7.0pt ">3. </span></span></span><span mce_style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" style="color: windowtext; ">I think what most people get annoyed with and upset about is that, when for example i go to the store, i am next in line - i don't speak their language-just English, but while they are helping me and ringing the register, the clerk continues to speak his/her own language tih his/her co-workers behind the counter.</span></p><p class="blog" mce_style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: -.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; "><span mce_style="mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" style="color: windowtext; "><span mce_style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span mce_style="font: 7.0pt "> </span></span></span><span mce_style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-style: normal;" style="color: windowtext; ">My dear spanish speaking friends - English is the business language of the world!<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All computers (no matter what language they display on the screen) are programmed in English.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All airline pilots and air traffic controllers around the world speak English.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spanish is the language of third world countries whose people are oppressed, uneducated and suffer from a low standard of living.<span mce_style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Name one thriving, prosperous Spanish speaking countrie –</span></p><p class="blog" mce_style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: -.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; "><br></p><p class="blog" mce_style="margin-left: .25in; text-indent: -.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; ">... but wait, there's more, and as always, you can read about it on <a href="http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage">the Web of Language</a></p></p></span><p></p><div><br></div><div><br>DB<br><br>____________________<br>Dennis Baron<br>Professor of English and Linguistics<br>Department of English<br>University of Illinois<br>608 S. Wright St.<br>Urbana, IL 61801<br><br>office: 217-244-0568<br>fax: 217-333-4321<br><br><a href="http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron">www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron</a><br><br>read the Web of Language:<br><a href="http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage">www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage</a><br><br><br></div></body></html>