Bienvenido a The Angels

At a Mexican restaurant today, I saw something interesting. The man behind the cash register was reading "The Gift Of The Magi" and looking up words he didn't know in an English dictionary. (I tried to come up with a new version of the story where some guy ends up with the OED after he's deported, but couldn't work it out.)

Learning English to better yourself has a long tradition in this country. My grandparents came here (okay, to Canada, but same deal) from Europe not speaking a word of English. For that matter, my parents didn't speak it at home and had to learn it in school. They learned through immersion--still the best way to teach kids. Some years ago I volunteered for a program to teach English to Latinos where the students were mostly middle-aged, and I saw close-up how hard it can be to make the transition when you start late.

In many local businesses, transactions are done in Espanol. Until I walk up to the counter and suddenly they're speaking English. Am I that obviously Anglo? Anyway, I salute the man behind the cash register, since there's enough of a Latino population around here that you can actually get by knowing only Spanish.

I'm reminded of the Paul Rodriguez joke. He's in an elevator with several Asian men and they start speaking Japanese. He says "You're in America now, speak Spanish!"