Adventures in Public Transportation

[pameladean]

I took the bus downtown on Saturday to pick up a prescription. I went home again at around four in the afternoon. A lot of people were going home to South Minneapolis at the same time. The bus was jammed with Hispanic people speaking Spanish and Somali people speaking Somali; there was also a group of young women speaking a nice mix of English and some tonal language. This is completely normal. And there were a couple of young black men dressed like Europeans, speaking French. This is far from unheard-of, but is more likely to happen in the summer.

To them entered a nondescript middle-aged white guy, with a Minnesota accent. "Speak English," he commanded them, rather as if he were speaking to a puppy.

They went on speaking French.

"Speak English!"

"We are French," one of the young men said to him, quite amiably, "and we speak French to one another."

This flummoxed their interlocutor to the point that I thought he was probably drunk. After a pause, he said, quite mildly, "Speak English when you're on the bus."

They laughed and went on speaking French.

"Speak ENGLISH," said the drunken guy, "when you're on the BUS!" He got up and addressed them with a lecture so banal and predictable that I don't recall most of it. He became quite enamored of his new principle, that the least people who "come here" can do is to speak English on the bus, and iterated it loudly.

The person sitting next do me did what I usually do in such situations. She stared straight ahead and got off the bus at the next stop. The other people on the bus were rolling their eyes and laughing at the drunken guy, but didn't attempt to engage him in argument. I did call, "Why?" across the aisle to him, but he was much too wound up in his declamations to notice. Besides, I don't really have a very loud voice.

He decided to get off the bus too. At the door he turned and made a theatrical gesture to include the entire busful of people, the majority of whom almost certainly did not speak English as a native tongue. "The least they can do when they come here," he told us all, now in definitely slurred tones, "is to speak English on the bus." Then he suddenly snarled, "Fuck you!" at the French guys, and made his exit.

One of the French guys, in an uncannily perfect imitation of his voice, snarled, "Fuck you!" back. Everybody laughed. The other French man said something displeased, and another native speaker said, "Well, he was drunk."

A third native speaker, behind me, said in a tone of world-weary amusement, "As long as they're here legally, I don't have a problem with it."

"Gosh," I snarled in my turn, "THAT'S big of you!"

He didn't choose to engage me in argument either, which is no doubt just as well.

The French man who was such a good mimic delivered a brief satirical rant: "America is white! America speaks English! America is all the same!" This was accorded one of those really disconcerting Minnesota silences. I should have applauded.

I decided that I'd wish the two French visitors a pleasant stay when I got off the bus, but they left well before my stop. I'm still boggled, and half-wishing I'd said more. But the silence of a busload of Minnesotans -- and that is exactly what it felt like, regardless of where they came from or what language they were speaking -- was a weight too heavy for me to lift. They were probably more accustomed to drunks on the bus than I am, and possibly knew from experience that having arguments with such people was fruitless. The visitors did not seem noticeably in need of reassurance. But still, I keep pondering it.

P.

Comments

[guppiecat]

America isn't white! It's green, blue, yellow, pink, purple, red, mauve, salmon, green with little dots in it, orange, tan, and lots of other colours I can't easily name because I'm colour-blind and deciphering hex codes is too much trouble for a Sunday. . . see?

More seriously, the guy was out of line, and I don't care what language people speak socially. However, I do tend to lean towards the idea of English as an "official" language, as America is so varied that a common language would both help communication and serve to enhance a shared identity. It's too bad that racists also spout the same words as justification for a very different set of beliefs.

I am well aware that there are some significant practical problems with this view, but that's life, I suppose.

[pameladean]

*snrch* Fuschia, periwinkle, sage green, too.

English is the official language, for all intents and purposes. But people can't learn to speak it in a day, and I don't see any point in letting them get lost, be unable to buy food, or fail to take their medication properly in the meantime. The people on the bus who speak Spanish or Somali are for the most part perfectly capable of making themselves understood to the bus driver, or to me if I'm about to leave my hat behind.

P.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

How did you learn to recognize Somali? Does Minneapolis have a large Somali population?

The rest of it, I don't have any comment on; I'm in favor of a pluralistic society, because I feel that it makes us all richer.

[pameladean]

Comparatively, yes we do. Refugees from the unfortunately still-ongoing nastiness.

P.

[omaha.livejournal.com]

Does Minneapolis have a large Somali population?

yes. the most solid sources i've seen estimate it as 15 - 40 thousand in the twin cities area.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Large enough so that if an official sign is in three languages, Somali's likely to be the third (after English and Spanish.)

Google has decided the US is at least bilingual; besides the English-language US version of Google News, there's one in Spanish. I think the only other country with English and another language for Google News is India. (The other version is presumably Hindi; the English-language India edition came first.)

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I was perversely relieved when a cranky old Taiwanese lady yelled at me (big white person) and my Taiwanese friend in the Taiwanese subway "SPEAK CHINESE!!!" Relieved in a "oh well, at least it's not just Americans who are linguistic asshats" kind of way. :p

Really, I wonder how many languages Mr. Asshat is fluent in, and whether he speaks them when he goes abroad--oh wait, undoubtedly Mr. Asshat would never go abroad, since he lives in God's Country (TM).

[guppiecat]

I'm sure he'd be a considerate American tourist and speak loudly and slowly, so he could be understood.

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

I ended up having this argument with my mother after Thanksgiving dinner some years ago, while I was heavily pregnant and probably over-emotional. Somehow, it's one thing hearing ignorant drunk asshats spout such ridiculousness in public, and another one hearing your mother spout during a family gathering as she tries to find the English directions for Uno instead of the Spanish ones. At least in my case I was able to spend a fair amount of time telling her exactly why it was unrealistic to expect people to magically be able (and want) to speak English upon reaching American shores, and she was at least half convinced.

Some people just need empathy enhancement surgery.

[pameladean]

Oh, ouch. I'm glad about the half-convinced, anyway.

P.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

I'm white-bread middle-class Midwestern generic American, and stories like this make me wish I spoke more languages fluently (and perhaps a non-English language in common with my boyfriend, with whom I spend the majority of my time in public).

Yes, okay, so partially that would be in order to piss people off, like your bus drunk, but partially because foreign languages are awesome.

Someone connected to my family recently said that she refused to raise her child in the neighborhood she currently lives in, because there are a lot of Hispanic people there. She doesn't want her kid to go to a primarily Hispanic daycare and learn to speak Spanish first. My boyfriend, who is from California, went to a primarily Hispanic day care and learned to speak Spanish before English; he's a white guy of German and Danish descent. He was a bit offended by this person's comment. I'm offended by this person's comment.

Hopefully we're watching a cultural shift.

[pameladean]

I join you in being offended by this person's comment. Sheesh.

I hope we're watching a cultural shift, too, but sometimes it seems more as if people are just wholesale ignoring history. Immigrant populations always adapt -- what else is there to do? Objecting to the transitional phases, or trying to eradicate them so people are helpless, seems to be the new hobby of those who have concerns about immigration, and it drives me nuts.

P.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

"As long as they're here legally, I don't have a problem with it."

While I think we'd all prefer they take cabs home from the bar, sometimes that just doesn't work for people.

[pameladean]

ROFL.

Yes, certainly, people who can't afford taxis should be able to get obnoxiously drunk just like anybody else.

P.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I cringe when my fellow American does asshat things, wherever we are. (I sued to get locked muscles when I heard loud Americanese, when living over in Europe.)

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I sued to get locked muscles when I heard loud Americanese, when living over in Europe.

Is this simple typo for "used", or is this using one or more idioms that I am unfamiliar with? If the latter, please explain?

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

Funny. I was born in a town where it's entirely reasonable to not have English as your first language... because the common language was the same one it'd been since 1700 or so. German. And I guess if the speaker were as ignorant as he sounds, he could make the mistake that French is foreign. Too bad he didn't do it in Little Canada eh?

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Little Canada hasn't been French-speaking for decades. And the French spoken there was an immigrant language. But Louisiana still has a couple of native French dialects.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Drunks on the bus aren't an exclusively American phenomenon. Some years ago we attended a conference at Magdalen College but stayed at a downscale B&B on the Abingdon Road, south of Oxford, and took the bus to and fro. One evening, there was a large mob of big lads, all squiffy as owls, some genial and some belligerent. A couple of them suggested in no uncertain terms that we really should go back to the States.

Luckily, I was in that pleasantly inebriated state wherein everyone is my new best friend and belligerent drunks are remarkably witty fellows, so after the initial exchange we got along fine.

[pameladean]

Oh, that's funny. I had a similar experience with a group of drunken Scotsmen in London; I was walking back from the theater with a bunch of fellow students, and there was a lot of initial belligerence. But as soon as one of my fellow students remarked that it didn't look much like Edinburgh around here, everything was all hearts and flowers. Staggering hearts and flowers, but still.

P.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

"Speak ENGLISH," said the drunken guy, "when you're on the BUS!" He got up and addressed them with a lecture so banal and predictable that I don't recall most of it. He became quite enamored of his new principle, that the least people who "come here" can do is to speak English on the bus, and iterated it loudly.

//face in hands

....ya know, because I am Pollyanna, a counterbalance to some of the stories: one time when T and I were on the bus (and I was V TIRED), these tourists were speaking German across from us, and a guy joined in, in German -- with a really awful American accent. But he'd been studying German all thru college and was so anxious to practice with native speakers, and so he rattled away at them in his awful German and they were v sweet and polite and didn't correct his pronunciation, and fortunately T discerned they were getting worried about not being able to get off the bus and being trapped in endless Berlitzland so he helped them figure out their stop.

But just, Jesus. That's SO RUDE. And so hateful. Whenever I see that crap, I inevitably cringe and want to apologize. (And JESUS GOD English itself is full of foreign catchphrases and loanwords and outright theft....!)

[thinkum]

Your icon? Spot on. I want that on a t-shirt...

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

You know, I wished someone had asked Mr. Drunken Asshat Guy why he wanted 'em to speak in English--maybe so he could eavesdrop on 'em?

I had a similar experience on the #21 bus about five or six years ago. However, Mr. Drunken Asshat Guy was wearing his Drunken Asshat Black Lady outfit. She had a screaming fit about two folks speaking something other than English, and the bus driver finally kicked her off the bus.

And, of course, I'd wonder if MDAG would'a pitched a fit about people Signing?

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Aside: soundproofing in the cubicles at my office is not good. Sometimes I can hear my manager speaking Chinese, and it is tempting for me to say, "Please speak either softer or louder, so that I can either tune you guys out or eavesdrop! At your current volume level, I cannot make out what you are saying, and it is driving me to distraction!".

[laurel]

I imagine I'd've been one of the silent Minnesotans, but would've felt much as you did.

I read my friend Lisa's post right after this and I figured I'd best comment here with a link so you can check it out. She links to the blog Stuff White People Like which is, as she says, funny.

[pameladean]

I can't imagine why I said a word, really. Not that it made a difference, but ordinarily I wouldn't have.

I did look at "Stuff White People Like," but it affected me rather as the Tough Guide to Fantasyland did. I ought to laugh, but I don't.

P.

[firecat]

I would never think of this if the situation were right in front of me, but sitting safely behind my computer screen I'm thinking it would be funny to say "What are you talking about? They ARE speaking English! Are you too drunk to recognize your own language?"

[thinkum]

The colleague in the office next to mine is the daughter of first-gen immigrants from Hungary. Her English is absolutely generic, everyday-accent American -- she was, after all, born and raised in the US. But when she gets a call from her family, her side of the conversation goes back and forth between English and Hungarian.

I love hearing the Hungarian (of which I understand not a word) -- it's such an interesting contrast to the languages heard more frequently in northern New England. It does, however, drive me bonkers when she shifts (effortlessly, to her credit) back and forth between the two languages in the midst of the conversation. In the middle of a lovely, musical passage of unintelligible Hungarian, she swaps back to English, and I have to really work hard to tune out her voice, so as not to eavesdrop on a discussion I might actually understand. Then she swaps over to Hungarian again, and I get mental whiplash because, even though I'm trying not to hear the conversation, my brain is still subconsiously processing it from a language standpoint, and suddenly the words have become gibberish. Sort of like pulling the emergency brake when you're going 50mph... ;-)

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I remember a Belgian-American saying on the phone "J'ai besoin de snow tires."

The technical term is "code switching." People do it not just between different languages but between dialects or between formal and informal versions of the same dialect.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

B and his Korean-American and Korean-Australian friends got yelled at more than once in Korea for speaking English (usually on the subway). So it isn't just Americans who have this prejudice.

For my part, I love hearing various languages when I'm out and about. (So does J.)

[ckd]

Hey (not "Dear", you don't rate it) Drunk Bozo:

Speak ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᒧᐎᓐ (Anishinaabe)! They were here first!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

The silly part of that is that the drunk guy would have been rude to listen to their conversation even if it was in English, so what's it to him that they speak another language?

[sdn.livejournal.com]

unbelievable.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*laughs at your icon* I want a doormat that says that. :)

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

"Someone who speaks three languages is tri-lingual
"Someone who speaks two languages is bi-lingual.
"Someone who speaks one language is American."
In fairness, I'd have to travel a thousand or fifteen hundred miles to be somewhere English wasn't ordinary.


By an odd coincidence, though, I had a confrontation on the (Chicago) L yesterday which I haven't had for a while.
There's a variant of the shell game with three plastic bottle-caps which has occasional surges on the L. I hadn't seen it for a long time, but I looked up, and some guy was working it in the middle of the car I was on. (There's a team of three, with two shills who might not be immediately obvious.)
So I went over to the guy and said, "Not in this car. Take it somewhere else." To my mild surprise, he didn't immediately call me a faggot, maybe because he was older than the usual. I still don't understand why that's the immediately worst fighting word available, but in the (insert euphemism for black slum) culture, it is. (It's standard enough that I have accumulated a roster of snappy come-backs, starting with, "In your dreams!")
He blustered and complained for a stop or two, and then they got off (and presumably went to the next car).

Especially since I may have something of a reputation for socially risky behavior, I must explain that this wasn't really at all brave or risky. He's flagrantly breaking the law, and will not voluntarily come any closer to the cops.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Amazing what one learns when one travels by bus. That fellow probably thought he was doing his bit to defend America from the evil furriners. Me, the one thing I want to find out is what language people are speaking when I don't recognise it.

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

Yes, I like hearing people talk in other languages. It's fascinating, like different kinds of music.

[joannemerriam.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to get rid of those sorts of attitudes. The people who hold them are so entrenched and defensive about them.

I'm Canadian and live in New Hampshire, and formerly Tennessee. I'm white, and English is my first language. It's kind of interesting revealing that I'm an immigrant when people are going off about immigrants (when they really mean Mexicans, but aren't willing to come right out and say so) - there's generally a moment of silence and then a bunch of rushed and slightly confused retractions. I get this comment a lot, in various iterations: "but you look American." Oh really? And what does an American look like?

[thinkum]

"Canadians are neighbors. Mexicans are foreigners."

That's more or less the message we get from the mainstream media (N.B. not an opinion I share). I wonder how much of that message is caused by flat-out racism, how much by financial greed, and how much of it is just old-fashioned fear of The Other.

I was raised (and currently live) in New Hampshire, but I also lived for several years in southern Arizona. The contrast in viewpoints on immigration issues is quite striking, and I can't attribute it to language alone (given that NH borders on Quebecois territory, rather than an English-speaking province).