And what if, one day, there's an incident between a couple of Quebecois? Will the cops be issued French tapes? Just wondering...
(Source: Schenectady Gazette)
What next? Mexican Officials to Patrol Staten Island Following Latest Bias Attack - maybe they can follow the Hudson River upstate a little bit?
Hmmm... maybe the officers should be sent to Skidmore College to learn Spanish (at taxpayers expense, of course!)
At a Saturday meeting in Middlebury,VT Mexican nationals came from a wide geographical area. “They come from far and wide... we even have some from Saratoga, N.Y.”
Seriously: New Yorkers, especially upstate, SHOULD have a working knowledge or at least a smattering of Spanish and French, considering our proximity to NYC and Canada. And a little Chinese in the mix isn't a bad idea. Certainly in a day trip to Montreal or the City and the Chinatowns there, one could avail onself of a bit of "field experience" in trying to interact with non-English speakers and bi-linguals.
On a recent trip to Montreal I was in a department store where there were two girls in their early 20s cashiering at one of the checkouts. I made a remark to one of the girls who just stared back at me blankly: her colleague began laughing and said "she doesn't know what you're talking about! She just learned English!" So I said back to the other girl "Oh, new to English," to which she responded IN PERFECT ENGLISH "Yes, I just finished an 18-month crash course so I could have better chances of finding work." So, if you have the right teacher you could master the basics of a language without picking up any discernible accent!
Tags: Saratoga Police Spanish, Saratoga Spanish
