Comments on: ‘Hat of the Day – Joseph “Speak English Or I Won’t Let You Give Me Money” Vento

By: Philly Girl

Philly Girl — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 23:49:58 +0000

As long as he requires the same of his fellow Italians then it is not racism. But then again, you do you think that he would refuse an Italian that doesn’t speak English? We have many of those here in Philly.

By: rightwingprof

rightwingprof — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:54:36 +0000

It’s his business. He can be as much of a dick as he wants — and the publicity is getting him a whole lot of business he didn’t have before.

By: nk

nk — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:30:42 +0000

So maybe this guy should think that you have to eat while you learn English and wonder whether his parents would have learned Ebglish first or starved to death first if all the food sellers back then were the kind of jerks he is.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:09:00 +0000

BR, I got his point, and I agree wholeheartedly with his point. What I take issue with is his being a dick about it.

By: BR

BR — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:58:40 +0000

I think you missed a major point this guy made… His ancestors had to learn to speak English (presumably outside some Italian neighborhoods) to do business in this country. He is applying that same principle to other immigrant groups.

On a personal note, my Grandmother was darn proud of having learned English to get her citizenship. Somewhere in the past 75 years, that’s been lost.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:30:59 +0000

And since when did you start worrying about what people around the world think of us?

Since people started giving them good reasons to think lowly of us. I’ll go to the mat for The Arrogant American who withdraws from Kyoto, seeks democracy in Iraq, tells the UN to take a flying leap, or does anything else meaningful enough to be worth pissing people off over. This guy is just a needless embarassment.

By: steve sturm

steve sturm — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 02:31:03 +0000

Ah, X, with “his kind you only find here”, you blundered off safe ground. One of my really enjoyable experiences in Paris was having the locals all but refuse to serve me because I didn’t speak French well enough for them. Thank god for McDonalds.

And since when did you start worrying about what people around the world think of us?

By: James B. Shearer

James B. Shearer — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 02:16:39 +0000

Well, I think it is kind of arrogant to visit a foreign land without speaking a word of the local language and still expect all the natives to cheerfully serve you. And in fact I doubt they all actually will.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 01:51:08 +0000

I don't really see your point.

My point is simple: don't be a dick, especially if you've got a business to run.

Many American businesses only serve English speaking customers just as many only serve customers that can pay with US dollars.

With all due respect, that's a totally crappy analogy. Dollars are legal tender in Philadelphia; Rubles are not. I don't fault the Philly Cheese-Dick for insisting on being paid in U.S. currency, as accepting anything else would be a significant accommodation on his part. I also don't fault him for not going out of his way to hire cashiers fluent in Hmong, Tagalog or Swahili to accommodate every potential customer. I do, however, fault him for going out of his way not to accommodate non-English speakers with whom he is able but unwilling to communicate. I don't speak a word of Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Slovenian, Dutch or Italian yet somehow have managed to get what I wanted, when I wanted, in all of their respective countries, and have never encountered anybody with this prick's attitude. Nope, his kind you only find here; as if there weren't enough people around the world who already think we're a nation of arrogant jerks.

By: James B. Shearer

James B. Shearer — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 00:38:54 +0000

I don’t really see your point. Many American businesses only serve English speaking customers just as many only serve customers that can pay with US dollars. So you are really just objecting to the sign, just as other people might object to a prominent photo of the proprietor together with some politician that they dislike. Myself, I don’t pay much attention to the politics of the businesses I patronize.