Americana is based on the English but our language is not actually that. It is also not Mexican Spanish or Latin America Spanish. It is not French, German. It is not “slave descendent” slang like “Ebonics” with “F*#@ YOU n#%g*r ” either. Our actual Americana speak is not minority inserts in actuality, tho daily talk tries to insert other’s words to influence and reflect their increasing purchasing power in this American Culture.
Business PROFITS are based on acceptance of others and their languages to make newcomers, visitors, foreigners PURCHASERS here. It is not that the Americans want to learn ‘new words’ daily. It is that pretend-inclusion makes for better CUSTOMERS for corporations that pretend to be store-front business and government services appear to be equality prone in their advertising.
It is all a POLITICAL & ECONOMIC lure to show at least that , “look, we are all the same and equal, see...we even speak your language now”. An extreme case is the multi-language voting ballots put out by some politically engaged and vote-seeking slanted law makers. They want YOUR vote, in any language, so better to include all who still do not speak the Majority’s speak, the traditional ways, or the basis of this country’s cultural norms that is a psuedo-English version of trading information.
To appear to be “equal” and thus claiming to have “the same” buying power, voting power and citizen basis is fake and a great PRETEND game. It is also called “the preferred correct version of Political framing”. Framing means the way the story is told and with a particular intention framing the conversation and resulting understanding. Those who enter into any country must quickly learn and become familiar with the common words, phrases, intentions and languages of that region, anywhere, and this has always been so.
The USA pretended at some point to be more “open” to all the unfortunates elsewhere [not the original basis of the USA, and never to all types or shades of peoples who ever entered these lands of the browner native tribes]. This was then engraved and later misused as a good business ploy to say: “Now we can SELL OUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES to those who enter these shores as well as we do those who have lived here and established this culture & language already.”
So almost every phone tree recording now includes what is similar to Spanish [not even the actual Spain-version of their original language] with the intention of Proving that everyone is being served and everyone can be a good-customer because “language is no excuse not to buy here or pay your bills here or use Our Services instead of theirs.
How long does it take an average intelligent human to learn the basics of the American language that surrounds them also, if they don’t hide ensconced and encased in their mini-cultural enclave ? How much effort does it take Americans to learn the language of the nations they live within, not as short-term tourists, but as workers or landowners or service-providers ? It should be the same as intelligences are similar tho they may appear varied more for people’s personal vanity and self-aggrandizing illusion reasons.
Groups have these same weaknesses anywhere of assuming that those who don’t yet know or speak as they do must be less smart and can be taken advantage of for a while. In USA we think a bit differently. The businesses of America have figured out that they can take advantage of other nationals better by pretending to speak their language and creating that alliance better to get their money spent at this business, than where they don’t seem to have that connection of language.
A fake and false pretense of “being one of you” when the businesses and corporations hire a few and pretend to be multi-cultural or multi-national for better profit-getting.
The remaining Americans are frustrated and upset at having to perform unnecessary tasks such as “press 1 for English” and “press 2 for...” and so on when they have already learned and used the prevailing language well enough to conduct their business there. To see business signs in scripts unintelligible to American natives or long time citizens is confusing and insulting even, to have the impression that they cannot read or understand what those store signs, billboards or house letters represent. There is a sense of being almost ‘invaded’ by others who refuse to be a part of the culture and land they have chosen within which to now live.
The ‘foreigners’ are using other ways of insisting they are not Americans but their own separate ways without sharing equally in the language and culture of the majority they have also chosen to use for their own benefits. The word “foreigners” indicates that they do not appear to be part of the USA norm or majority or tradition by identifying themselves and their wares/ services in only their ‘home language’ so only their own people’s can recognize what they are and do. Is that inclusion ?
Are those methods integration or separation and alienating ? This is not what America wanted to represent in it’s “many people’s” invitations that have sometimes been used against the predominant population, not graciously accepted as an invitation “into” it, or to join it.
Americana is a basic language with many twangs, clicks, slurs, nasal intonations, drawls, sharp choppy drop offs, and varied dialects still basically well understood as the central language predominates and leads the majority population. Based on the tertiary invasion of these lands [the natives spoke many tribal languages of their groups and areas, then the Spaniards were said to be ‘conquerors’ a little lower on the continent, and then the English sailed over to escape their own bondage and came to these northern territories now called “United States of America” which is not all of the Americas.
The English language was reduced and shifted some and even more over time to still resemble the old original versions but with many changes still. It has continued to be the majority language today, even though it may no longer sound so to anyone living in a big urban city or even some agricultural regions. Other languages attempt and some do predominate over the original English that the USA natives [born and raised by their families in these areas] have been speaking for hundreds of years HERE.
Many countries learn English because both the USA and UK and some other nations do their business and political transactions in this language. When these speakers arrive in the USA they use their language skills appropriately. Those who enter and don’t attempt to LEARN AND USE the cultural language and ways of the country they are visiting or emigrating into are being arrogantly self-serving and discourteous as well. The prior identification of cultural alliance is brought into another’s preferred arena and then the demand to place a symbolic ‘flag’ of their prior place as equally validly placed here.
Like a stand that says, “I am not you or like you...and I may not even like you...but I want to live where you have developed conditions preferable to where I come from...and I want to have everything you have without becoming or being like any of you either !” A bit of a put-down in attitude and reference and the dual-citizenship stance seems like one that want to usurp, take advantage while not giving up anything else in return. A rather arrogant demand to remain a native of another place, culture, language and yet have all the benefits that was not earned or worked for here in this place, culture, language-group.
Language groups are a significant identifier of who someone IS or allies with or has family together, to join in their community/ land. Aboriginals of Australia do not identify so much as any tribe but as “language groups” to say they have conflicts but it is not based on physiological or easily identifiable distinctions, so language differences are the way to tell each other apart to know who is “us” and who are “them”. They are not the only ones who use words, sounds, languages, badges, tools, art and dress to tell each other which group is friendly and which may not be so.
Americana is not yet labeled as a language, but UK English do not see what is spoken here as the same as those who emanate from Great Britain with their English traditions and European heritages.
Wikipedia says “ Americana refers to culture, history and heritage of the United States. Americana is anything that captures the essence of America's values, experiences and collective identity. Symbols of Americana are readily and easily associated with the United States...” [snip] “.. oft-mentioned idea of the "American Experience." Symbols of Americana or the American Experience include ...” certain foods, soft drinks, movies, movie stars, sports, music, cartoons, and structures that are part of the daily used language as well.
Wikipedia further writes: “English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England. [It was an indo-European language ] As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and of the United States since the mid 20th century.” [snip] “A working knowledge of English has become a requirement in a number of fields, occupations and professions such as medicine and computing; as a consequence over a billion people speak English to at least a basic level.”
However, those peoples who want to live within the USA boundaries and are not learning or willing to speak the majority-language continue to insist they ‘don’t have to’ and are enabled to refrain from joining those whom they have come to share resources here by those “press 2 for....” any other language but the majority one. That printing of dual or multi-languages by our utility companies are paid for by higher prices for all users, and does not come out of the profits of those corporations.
The advertising done to other-language-groups in the USA is also an added element to determining produce/ service price, and not a cost to the selling businesses who insist on their monetary returns. None of this multi-language servicing those who cant, wont, don’t speak the majority-English-language speakers is for FREE, tho that information is never openly shared.
The real question is why there is such reluctance to “do as the Romans do” that is the courtesy demanded of Americans elsewhere as well ? Many newly-entered people may learn some basic ways to get around, to use the resources well, to get basic approval and acceptance, but then continue to retain their prior language and customs as predominant, not even equally shared in changing any of their speaking ways. It is bringing a square of the “old country” into this “new land” and expecting everyone else to understand their reluctance to adapt to where they want to permanently reside.
It is basically asking the already established USA people to learn their languages if they want their business and earnings and to demand that the people who have lived here long before [regardless of who won which war when, that being a done signed agreement at the end of that event] should shift in the newcomers’ direction instead.
Where is this ever written or accepted ? Whose home is being re-arranged for the convenience of the visitors ? Whose language is being diminished as no longer primary, but one of many languages spoken in the USA ? Why are those who have invested diligently into their culture, their holdings in USA terms, and obeyed the customs and laws here being asked to be so accepting of those who arrive and make demands for change from what was working well before that influx of non-English-speakers ?
Who appears to enable the newer-arrived cultures to BUY and BUY and BUY their stuff and services at the expense of their own peoples in these USA ?
Or are global multi-national corporations only acting in their own behalf insisting on getting their profits in any language and from any language-group, as they no longer are American at all anyhow ?
We may have to change our name from United States of America to “United Corporations of Multi-National Origins living in what was “America”, as it has been called. This may be already a fact not yet admitted by most of those who think they are still “Americans” in these lands.
And those who insist on what they-want-to-insist is the Only Correct Political View, as if one person or group can claim that authority for themselves alone, that the above opinion is "hate speech" or "xenophobic" or "unusual" and "wrong !" can knock on another door to claim rights they do not own. FREE SPEECH and freedom to think and state those thoughts are integral to not only USA traditions and laws but many other cultures claim this 'right' even when the governing politicos do not actually allow these exposed.
This is a carefully deliberated, a commonly observed, and a boldly stated opinion and observation of how businesses, advertising, cultural morays, and people's languages are used, and manipulated for other purposes than for the benefit of the majority of that land region too. Oh well, what's new ?
(c) 2009
