You know what? I bet there are tons of Latin Americans willing to follow the guys rules and get a job at the hotel. I bet those people that got canned worked there for a while and don't like change.

 

That guy was British, not French (if that's a point you're trying to make with that?). Here's one about American tourists though (I think we can agree that regardless of nationality, however, tourists can act like pricks).

USATODAY.com - Ugly sentiments sting American tourists

Tourists have to try to combat the 'ugly American' - CNN.com

Oooh, and here's like a prototype for the popular Canadian show "Talking to Americans"

American tourists in Toronto - CBC Archives


But I digress.

I think the main difference between your Chinese example and this one is that English is the most predominant language in the US, whereas spanish is not (except in some areas), and neither is chinese. I think what's happening here is the owner trying to force what he feels to be the "normal" cultural identity of the land on his business, which I imagine most people find more palatable than someone trying to force one from a different country on those native to the area.

Like I keep saying though, I think both sides in this story are pretty ridiculous.

 

I find it absolutely wrong that the hotel owner is making Hispanics, it doesn't matter if they're living in the States legally or illegally, change their names.

Since it's been projected that by the year 2025 or so a 1/4 of the U.S. population would be Hispanic, you might as well just get used to it.

 

He's not making them change their names.

 

Yeah, he just said he would only refer to them by their anglicized names. There's no, like, legal name-change documentation stuff going on here.

 

Larry's kind of hard to understand on the phone...just start referring him as Sally lol

 

Yeah. But if my Chinese example was produced to make a case against the business owner's right to set a language standard in his presence argument.

 

I don't even know where to start on this. Lets see...um.....well there's......
I got nothin.





Oh wait.





Still, I got nothin.





You just can't argue reason to a statement that lacks any

 

And again, the difference is that the language the business owner is trying to set as the standard is the one that is actually standard in the area, so he may have reasonable motivations to do so, from a business (and arguably, social) standpoint.

Here's another analogy. What if you or a group of other english people began working at a casino or school in China. Would it be considered illegal and/or unethical for your supervisor to ask you to talk to the customers/students, as well as him, in chinese? Do you think that it would be considered unreasonable to other people in the area of the casino/school?

If these people started calling their supervisor some manner of slur towards asians, do you think their termination would be unreasonable? If the supervisor mandated that english was not permitted to be spoken, even between the workers and not the supervisor/customers, would that be unreasonable? Because those are the main points I see, not whether or not someone should be expected to speak the same language as their supervisor/customers, which I hope would be a given.

 

anyway, I thought the Irish were insulted by the word "pikey", rather than "mick".

 

Pikeys are gypsies, I thought. "Mick" is definitely a slur against the Irish.

 

Asking the employees to speak English while at work is perfectly reasonable (though I find his reason for wanting them to do so to be pretty amusing). Asking them to alter their names while at work is perfectly ridiculous.

I don't know anything about "Spanish culture" (though I know enough to realize that it's probably distinct from Mexican culture), but if someone answers a phone and says "hello, my name is Mart-een", then I can probably figure out that his name is... Mart-een. How is forcing someone named Markos to refer to themselves as Mark in any way beneficial to the company? How does it contribute to the satisfaction of guests?

 

I'm willing to give the owner the benefit of the doubt that he's not a racist, and he's simply doing what he thinks will help his hotel the most. He's certainly within his rights to command his staff as he sees fit.

I have to say, as someone who works with people from every continent (minus Antarctica, of course), it saddens me to see his refusal to at least try to accept his worker's proper names. Surely it shouldn't take that much of an effort.

I suppose what's even more sad is that his hotel could lose patronage because of it, because guests may be even less willing to learn some new names.

 

The 'funny' thing is, I could see this story causing him to lose far more patronage than he ever would've lost from people who are somehow offended or confused by Hispanic variations of common first names.


And while he makes the argument that the changes are to benefit guests who are unfamiliar with Spanish... are the people specifically travelling to a small, liberal, predominantly Latino town really all that likely to be the same type of people who would be somehow perturbed by a guy named Markos? I'm not sure what he thinks his target demographic is here, but I can't imagine that it would have much overlap with those who would seek a vacation in a heavily-Hispanic, mini-mecca of arts and alternative lifestyles.

 

I've got an English friend who told me the Irish are offended by "pikey".

 

Then its probably both.

 

Yikes. Their names are their names. If his name is Marcus, then no....it is absolutely not Mark and you shouldn't pronounce it that way. Learn to say it and show some respect towards your employees. If people are saying the workers need to learn English in order to work (agreed), surely a boss needs to learn his employee's freaking names. Yes he's allowed to make his own rules, doesn't mean they're right and that we are wrong to call him out on his bs.


I don't think this is blatantly racist, not enough evidence, but I do think it shows signs that the owner might not exactly like Hispanics for anything but their cheap labor. It's a little disheartening that this thread also shows the same thing. America hasn't really learned much from its past concerning immigrant workers and prejudices.