Hey You! "Speak English"!

[kent_allard_jr]

Via Crooked Timber comes this story of a Philadelphia cheesesteak joint. The owner put a sign in the window: This is America. WHEN ORDERING "SPEAK ENGLISH." He added a bald eagle to the sign just to, I dunno, remind people what country this is. A few questions:

• Does this guy want us to speak English or "speak English"? I guess the owner's "English" is different from the English I know.
  
• What's the point of putting up an English sign ordering people to speak English? The only people who can read it are those who will speak English anyway. Or is he worried about Americans who order cheesesteaks in Klingon for the fuck of it?
  
• Do we need another reason not to go to Philadelphia?

At Crooked Timber "Brian" notes he never saw signs like this in Paris. My experience was different: In Paris everyone insisted I speak English because my French was awful and they couldn't stand to hear me butcher it. Now that's treating your language with respect.

Comments

[stormsweeper.livejournal.com]

Article nitpic: You order a cheese wiz with onions as a "wiz with."

They also have lots of anti-Mumia stuff plastered all over the place.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Give them some slack, they're from Los Angeles for pete's sake...

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

That place is one of the old guard cheesesteak places in Philly. Its primary rival has apparently made official policy of taking orders in whatever language you want.

And I also hate the use of quotation marks as emphasizers. I have no idea where it came from, but it needs to stop.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, on CT somebody says the rival makes better food anyway. Not that steak and cheez whiz really appeals to me...

A lot of local signs, here in Queens, use "quotes" for "emphasis." One of my favorites said WORK AT "HOME". Ted Miller suggested "HOME" was an office where you worked on couches and old women walked around in bathrobes serving pancakes, telling you to move out and get a real job.

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine putting cheez wiz on anything like a cheesesteak.

Ted Miller suggested "HOME" was an office where you worked on couches and old women walked around in bathrobes serving pancakes, telling you to move out and get a real job.

I want to work somewhere like that!

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Best part? The owner's grandparents were eye-talian immigrants who couldn't speak english.

People have very, very, very short memories.

[greenbaron.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm unique in thinking this, but I'm of the philosophy that the money is the important thing, though I'd gladly accept an equal payment in euros :)

Or is he worried about Americans who order cheesesteaks in Klingon for the fuck of it?
I love how Carlso Mencia made fun of the Klingon speakers where some guy asked a girl to see the donkey show in Klingon on a spring break skit.

I do admit when I spoke in German at a bakery, the owner was impressed as I guess many GIs are not as good about learning the language. Sadly I forgot a lot of it since then. I do know that one can learn a basic knowledge of a language as I read that the average vocabulary oen uses is 260 words or so, which is pretty sad. I imagien playing Duengeons and Dragons and the termniology they use would add an instant thousand to one's vocabulary.

I also need to relearn some Latin and start learning Arabic for my next military assignment over a year away.