That's Racist!

[Hawkmoon]

Oh, boo hoo. Here I am driving a taxi in America and these people expect me to speak English.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/08/08/sacramento-taxi-drivers-say-english-test-requirement-is-setting-them-up-for-failure/

Here we go again. Does anyone think they could drive  cab in Mexico City without being able to speak Spanish? Or in Copenhagen without being able to speak Danish, Munich without speaking German, Rome without speaking Italian, or Beirut without speaking Lebanese? What's the matter with these people? And how did they get licensed to drive cabs in the first place if they can't speak English.

“I want to talk to people who’ve taken the test and get feedback from them on what was difficult, what didn’t make sense and then we can modify the tests,” Wasson said.

After three failures, the city computer kicks the driver out of the system, but Wasson says they’ll likely give the driver another chance.

In other words, "This time we really mean it ... unless we don't."

We should have made English the official language of government in the U.S. decades ago, when we had an outside chance of doing to. I'm sure it's too late now.

[French G.]

In reality an overseas worker in any hospitality business is going to go a lot farther if they know about 6 languages.

[Tallpine]

In reality an overseas worker in any hospitality business is going to go a lot farther if they know about 6 languages.

Tha sin ceart 

[230RN]

Ahhh, but most of "overseas" is a tightly bound geographic unity.  We're only bound by Canada and Mexico.

I speak Canadian pretty well, and have a smattering of Mexican .  Still, it irks me that one has a choice of having telephone menus come at you in English or Mexican:  "Press  1 for English, 2 for Mexican."

Fortunately, none of us have to learn Atlantic or Pacific for the other two borders...

"Press 1 for English, 2 for Mexican, 3 for Canadian, 4 for Atlantic, 5 for Pacific."

Russia and China are both bordered by 14 other countries...

"Press 1 for Russian..."

Terry, 230RN

[wmenorr67]

Plus Sadam when he was still alive and running Iraq made it a requirement for his citizens attending college to learn English.  He hated the West with a passion but was smart enough to know that the only way to get ahead in the world of business was to know English.

[fifth_column]

English is still the lingua franca of the world.  Except in the US . . .

[KD5NRH]

I speak Canadian pretty well, and have a smattering of Mexican .  Still, it irks me that one has a choice of having telephone menus come at you in English or Mexican:  "Press  1 for English, 2 for Mexican."

I'm far more annoyed by the ones that should know, or at least retain the info after the first time; the cell phone payment line that already knows who's calling when I call from the served cell phone, and ATMs.  IIRC, most ATMs anywhere else in the world have the language either encoded on the card or attached to the other account info, specifically so they don't have to have some huge list of languages to pick from.