Spanish on packaging - Page 3

Re: Spanish on packaging

It varies Eric. In most countries where I have lived, frequented or visited, public places that attract visitors (such as airports and train stations), there is quite a lot of English. This is especially true in places (such as Korea) that do not (primarily) use a Roman alphabet. Most countries have at least some TV in English (usually from a cable or satellite service—though a few have English language stations as well) and also have English language newspapers (although I have seen a bit of a decline in them in the last few years—something I attribute to the Internet).

Most electronics from major companies had some products with English on the outside of the packaging and all (at least as far as I know) had manuals in English. Back in the 90s I bought a Samsung DVD player in Japan that had English on the box (along with other languages that I can no longer recall), an LG radio in Korea and a Sony receiver (back in Japan).

Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil had only limited packing in English (as I recall) except for items from major, international companies. Then again, I was not shopping for products in those places, so my memory is probably not reliable. I will say that grocery shopping in Venezuela would have been very frustrating for those who could not read or speak Spanish.

Costa Rica has a ton of English everywhere.

Most Aussies speak lousy American, but with practice one can understand them.

Many smaller counties like Thailand have most imported products packaged with some English.

Re: Spanish on packaging

I would agree that the "things" comment is too general. It's unreasonable to expect businesses not to respond to market conditions such as people speaking other languages. However, I do not consider it unreasonable to have all U.S. government documents in English (that's what I would say constitutes a definition of English as the "official" language). Why is it ok for other countries to have only their language on official documents, but Americans are somehow intolerant xenophobes for wanting the same thing (by the way, check out Mexican attitudes on immigration into Mexico from Central America if you want to see an example of glaring inconsistency on the issue)?

Customs and Immigration documents are a reasonable exception, since they inherently involve travel from other countries.

Re: Spanish on packaging

I live in Oklahoma where we recently passed one of the toughest illegal immigration packages in the nation. Landlords are required to check immigration status, employers as well and they are also subject to lawsuits and fines if illegals are found to be working for them.

Illegals have left the state in droves. Perhaps this is a first step in fixing the Great American Melting Pot.

I just want our sovereignty to be respected as a nation. Our laws obeyed. The INS steamlined. And I don't want to press 1 for English anymore....is that too much to ask?

Re: Spanish on packaging

That's not really that big of a hardship is it?

Re: Spanish on packaging

I'm really of two minds on this issue.

As I mentionned before I work in electronics sales at a Sears store in Central California where as many as 50% of the customers speak no English and my Spanish is nill. Many employment ads in the local classified say "bilingual preferred". It's an economic disadvantage to me that I do not speak a foreign language--perhaps unfair but a fact of economic life when local businesses are very actively tapping into the Hispanic market.

On the other hand we also have a huge Southeast Asian population in Fresno along with many from India, Pakistan, the Middle East, etc.--many of these speak little English or speak it so badly as to be virtually unintelligible.

Yesterday we had a customer in the store of apparently Asian or Filipino descent. His English was totally unintelligeble, but we had associates on duty that spoke English, Chinese, Hmong, and Spanish--nobody understood a word he was saying. He called a relative on his cell phone and handed it to me, the relative was also unintelligible--tried a different relative who finally got across that the guy was looking for a Karaoke mixer.

Even though I am economically hurt by multiculturalism, I do enjoy the contact with and opportunity to learn about different cultures.

To those who view Hispanics, illegal or no, as drains on society I'd have to strongly disagree. These people work very hard for often low pay, and do indeed contribute to the economy--they buy a lot of stuff at our store and judging by the number of credit cards they carry around are buying a lot of other stuff in the US. They usually shop in family groups often with 3 generations all together--family cohesion is a hallmark of Hispanic culture and they take very good care of their kids. Often a 12 year old does the translating for Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa.

The vast majority of the Hispanics I deal with are hardworking honest people contributing to our society and making every effort to live the American dream. The Fresno area has many very successful businessmen, doctors, lawyers, etc. of Hispanic and more recently Hmong descent. The majority of my co-workers are of Hispanic heritage, and surprisingly enough at least half of them speak no Spanish at all.

I live in an older part of town, not a ticky-tacky gated community of McMansions and enjoy having every ethnicity there is living all on the same block with the kids all playing happily together. I'd hate to live where Taco Bell was considered Mexican or Panda Express was the only Asian cuisine around.

Do I resent having my employment opportunities limited or having to press 1 for English--yes I must admit that at times I do, but the alternative--going back to the lily white ideal portrayed in Coke ads from the 50s would be far worse.

My first stepmom was an immigrant (from Denmark). She spoke excellent English and became a US citizen as quickly as possible. A few years after she and my dad divorced she moved back to Denmark and found easy employent with a US based company because of her bilingualism.

She died in 1982 and left me a small bequest in her will. I had to contact her Danish lawyer about it and got no luck sending letters. Taking a chance I decided to try phoning him--to my surprise both his receptionist and he spoke very good English.

Re: Spanish on packaging

Dealing specifically with illegals... I don't think anyone thinks Hispanic professionals are drains on society, but they aren't in the country illegally. The people coming over here from Mexico are the poorest of the poor and uneducated. Why anyone would want 12 million of a country's least educated people moving here is beyond me.

I could go off but I'll keep it short. Here are two examples on the drain on society:

Here is an article that states illegal immigration costs Californians $10.5 BILLION a year. I could think of a lot of things a state could do with $10b.

And here is a recent article from the LA Times about the problems at a certain high school. I'll quote the relevant part:


Can you imagine sending your (natural born) kids to a school where nearly HALF the students speak a foreign language? Do you think your kids will get a decent education there? Would you keep your kids there if you could afford to send them somewhere else? This is exactly the type of situation I didn't want my kids to grow up into so we left CA.

And a 40% turnover rate?! Unbelievable. That's not a school, that's a daycare for teenagers.

Finally, someone suggested checking out Mexico's policies on immigration. I recommend this as well and it's clearly hypocritical of what they demand from us (try going to mexico and asking for a driver's license). Here is an article which sums it up pretty well.

-paul

Re: Spanish on packaging

Folks, this is a thread about multiple languages on packaging (and elsewhere).

It is not a thread about immigration policy, and those of you trying to turn it into one are only going to get it closed.

M.

Re: Spanish on packaging

There is a subset of illegal immigrants whose attitude I find even more disturbing. Unlike the Danish immigrant stepmom Steve spoke so fondly of, some of these people don't think of themselves as Americans and don't EVER want to think of themselves as Americans. They proudly display the Mexican flag in this country, and if the U.S. soccer team is playing the Mexican soccer team, they will cheer the Mexican team and shout "fuck the U.S.!". They do not consider the southwestern part of the country to legitimately belong to the U.S. They consider it part of Mexico. When did previous generations of "poor huddled masses" from other countries have such attitudes?

Oops, posted while Michael's post was made. Sorry.

Re: Spanish on packaging

It isn't so much a hardship as it is an indicator that people are refusing to assimilate into the American culture.

Yes I see that as a problem, the same with multiple languages on packaging. It is the same to me.
1 for English, Spanish on the outside of packages.

Re: Spanish on packaging

The major problem I have with that type of packaging is that multiple languages force the print to be to small, and the words from various languages tend to run together.

For something like an owner's manual where each language has its own section, it's not really a problem, but I hate the ones where each paragraph on a page is in different language.

I guess my point is it's more of a layout problem than anything.

Re: Spanish on packaging

The layout artist doesn't determine the page count.

Re: Spanish on packaging

I'm talking about the layout of a package- no pages involved.

Re: Spanish on packaging

Has nobody mentioned NAFTA? Or the EU?

Products made for sale in North America these days are often labelled in English & Spanish, or English & French, or even French & Spanish or all 3, because the manufacturers/distributors do not want to go to the expense of having 3 or 4 different packaging versions (remembering that some Canadian products are legally required to be labelled bilingually). If your package of cupcakes has English & Spanish labels on it, it's probably because Mrs. Baird's bakery (now a subsidiary of Bimbo S.A.) is selling the same package in Juarez as in El Paso.

Packaging for electronics & the like often has seven or eight languages on it, including Russian, Greek, & Chinese or Japanese, as well as French, German, English, & Italian, because it's mandatory in the European Union to have a broad selection of languages, & after going to all that trouble one might as well add a couple more and have a product which can be sold anywhere in the world. This is especially true of instruction booklets.

In other words, this is not some kind of United States phenomenon. And it's worth pointing out that even if it were, that would not be so surprising. Many 19th century immigrants spoke no English, especially older ones, & all over the country there were newspapers, businesses, & even (yes) government offices which served these people, up until at least the First World War.
In most places it was German, or Italian, or Czech, or Norwegian (40% of the Norwegian population emigrated to the US between 1800 & 1900), or occasionally Yiddish or Chinese, rather than Spanish — although in far south Texas the alternate language has always been Spanish — but what difference does that make? Henry Ford hired English teachers for his assembly-line workers because most of them spoke little or none, & I would bet that at least half of Americans over age 60 had at least one grandparent who spoke no English when he or she married.

Re: Spanish on packaging

In my experience, non English speaking Hispanics are especially avid buyers of camcorders, digital cameras, and MP3 players, but a very large percentage of these are returned as defective simply because the buyers can't read the English/French instruction manuals and can't figure out how to operate them.

Very few people in the US speak/read only French, but a huge percentage do speak/read only Spanish, yet most consumer electronics have only English/French manuals.

Re: Spanish on packaging

I always press one when I pick up a bilingual package.