[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That's not right, shouldn't be a legal requirement. If a business wants to go to the trouble and expense as a business decision, fine. Go for it. If I don't want to pay for it I can take my business elsewhere.

The signs are government required and in some cases are produced by the government. "Wash your hands. Lavarse las manos." You'll see this one in any workplace that deals with food. Minimum wage and disability signs are all dual language. It is common sense to provide your taxpayers with information they can understand.

The forcing of private businesses to have signs in a specific language can get tricky. In Gwinnett County, GA, the issue came up some years ago because emergencies at some Asian businesses couldn't be responded to since emergency workers were unable to read the signs along crowded highways populated by international businesses and restaurants. The measure to have all private business signs have readable English as well as the Asian characters was defeated. You might not agree these businesses should be forced to have dual language signs, but there is a public safety factor involved.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But my problem is the people who think it's a yard sale sign and stop in the middle of the road to look around, get out a map, and/or argue about what it says.

Confusing street signs for yard sale signs? Stopping in the middle of the road to argue? This sounds more like bad driving habits than anything language-related.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Two language signs have to be twice as big or reduce the lettering by half.

City/county/state/federal signs all have regulations on lettering size for visibility reasons, so this simply isn't an issue.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That makes it more confusing, so they slow down more and make mistakes that can turn deadly when they realize it and try to recover with an outrageous maneuver.

...so, you want to clear up confusion about what signs mean by making them unreadable by a significant percentage of the population? In many other countries, the signs are in two languages and I've not heard of any traffic issues related to that aspect. Important signs are usually simple, internationally understood symbols. Everything else, not a big deal.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

There is no reason for a kid born in this country not to read, write and speak English. Go ahead, ask about the ones that aren't, go ahead.

We're talking about Spanish speakers, right?

But, alright, I will ask about them. What of the children that grow up surrounded by families that don't speak English? What of the children that grow up in a community that doesn't speak English and interact with businesses that speak only Spanish? Have you ever sat in on an ESOL class and spoken with the kids that come out of it?

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

No comprendi.

"No comprendo."

I understand the need for clear communication between people, but it can't be forced, especially in many communities across the country. Passing a law that makes English the standard language and removes Spanish from documents and signs is simply going to put people in the dark. You might think isolating groups of people like that would force them to learn English, but the effect is exactly the opposite.