I think it is his business and America is a free country with freedom of speech so he should be able to put up whatever sign he wants without be full on beligerent racist. What restuarant is that you are talking about Smurf....curious cause I am from Pensacola and when I visit again?

I think it matters what the spirit of the rule is. Is it something with race as as the main influence, or is it for the sake of not having to try to understand someone? Either way, I don't agree with it. I don't think anyone has a right to descriminate against race, especially at a public place. It really is like blacks having to sit at the back of the bus. America is supposed to be a free land where people can start lives. Remember... the american dream? It didn't come from immigrants not being able to go to a store because they can't speak english. :?

The thing is, idolfan, they're not saying Hispanics can't eat at this restaurant. They just have to order in English. I don't see where that's discriminating against a race. It would be different if they said they wouldn't serve Hispanics no matter what language they spoke.

I don't think it is discriminating a specific ethnic background. There are lots of different non-English speaking immigrants. Depending on what city or state you are in can vary which is more prevalent. And since it is America, land of the free, freedom of speech and expression is a right. I believe the article did say that so far they haven't turned anyone away and that the people working there have even helped the non-English speaking customers to order. So other than the sign, what has this person really done other than saying they have a right to refuse service? I see signs all over the place that maybe I don't agree with but a person is placing up to show their belief in something. To say it is like making someone sit at the back of the bus IMO opinion is a bit of a stretch. And unless they have specific rules about what a business is allowed to refuse service for, I don't think there is anything wrong with it. What about stores like 7-11 that post signs saying No shoes, No shirt, No service. Isn't that telling surfers or someone stopping in from the beach on a hot day that they can be refused service. I don't see anyone complaining about that. Ask Brinna how hard it is to be an ESL teacher who is trying to help (in her case hispanics) learn English so that they can have a better future. One that doesn't involved having to work in a factory, which is where most of her students parents work and where they will probably end up. One of the main problems she has is not their ability to learn English but their inclination. And with most of the student's parents not backing up the teacher and trying to get their children to take learning English more seriously, Brinna has a hard time getting them to learn. IMO she has a very difficult job with few benefits. But she keeps trying and I applaud her for it. Being Bilingual is a plus, I just don't get why people think it is so wrong that we try to impress learning English here. Our grandparents on both sides came over from Sweden. English wasn't their first language but to the best of my knowledge they all learned it and so did our parents and us. The only thing that I regret about that is that they didn't teach their kids how to speak Swedish, so for us it was lost unless we choose to learn it on our own. I think it would have been great to grow up knowing 2 languages. Beacho - the steakhouse is called Mesquite Charlie. You should go there some time, great steaks. O.K. I am off my soapbox now.

Good, move over so I can step up! Just kidding Superslim. But I do love the soapbox. Coming from a bilingual country, if I saw a sign like that in a storefront, I would bypass the store and go elsewhere. Just because of where I'm from maybe. I can understand the owners' frustration though if he lives in an area where more non-speaking English than speaking English come into his store, but maybe he could be the bigger and accepting person here and learn how to say sandwich in other languages. Can't be that difficult and would probably improve his business.

Once again, I think it's a personal decision and not something that should be against the law. As Rufus said, it will only hurt the guy's business if he wants to establish such a rule so why not go ahead and let him do it? It's not like he's the only sandwich maker in the city. There are nightclubs that only let certain people in and it's usually based on their looks, celebrity or wealth. Where is all the outrage about discrimination there? I think that's much worse than what the guy at the sandwich place is doing.

Okay, I should have said a "supposedly" bilingual country!!!! And it's interesting that when I go to Vancouver to visit my family that many of their signs are in Chinese as well as English, and far more so than when I lived their 20 plus years ago. Back then it was only in the Chinatown area, but now it's far more widespread with the Chinese population having grown so much.

Personally I dont have a problem with it and say more power to him. I doubt its hurting his business at all. I see the guy on the channel 17 news (a Philly station) and he said he cant serve you if he dont know what you want, its as simple as that. I give him my business. The ACLU needs to butt out of things like this. There are bigger issues they should be dealing with.

In my neighborhood..... most everybody speaks Armenian, Spanish and other Languages. English is located between those other languages.lol. If any restaurant insisted on English only... they would go broke. Have you ever noticed how some chain restaurants like Dennys and Sizzlers have large photos of their food items? All you have to do is point to the picture. My Mom and Dad who speak English love to point to the photos to order their meals. I like to read all the details of what the meal includes and what ingredients they put in their food. If they bring me a food item that includes something like "honey" on chicken then I return it. One time the waiter said the chef was going to get angry if I returned the food. So I said, "I don't have to eat here and I left". They say that restaurants are losing a lot of business anyway due to the high prices of gasoline. I am finding that Take-out places have raised their prices but the quality of food has gone downhill. Getting back to English..... I will not eat at a racist restaurant that demands English language. I live in a multi-cultural community and I love it.

I do think that it is very clear to me that the owner is being a racist if a person doesn't speak English. I know racism when I see it. What about tourists? They don't all speak English. What about if we go to a restaurant in France and we don't speak French? We have a tourist area in Santa Monica Mall and 3rd street where many tourist buses stop to buy food at the food court and go visit the pier and look around the mall. I have seen people from all the world order food and the workers are not multilingual. Here in Los Angeles area almost every take-out and restaurants have Spanish speaking workers. If the waiter doesn't understand my English I say it in Spanish. IT happened to me today at McDonalds when the order guy didn't understand the word "beef" SO I said it in Spanish. Then he spoke Spanish to me.

My first language is English but I also speak Spanish, Japanese, French, Italian and Portuguese. But I don't speak Armenian or Farsi which is a major language that is being used in my community. The middle-eastern people when they first arrived faced a lot of racism in my community. I even witnessed a racist event . There is a beautiful Armenian bakery with lots of sweets that I like. I went into the store to buy some goodies but the Armenian sales people kept ignoring me. They never waited on me.... they just kept taking other customers first who would come into the bakery after I was there. I realized I wasn't wanted so I left and never went back. I felt the discrimination because I didn't speak Armenian. I call that pay-back to Americans who only speak English. If I spoke Armenian I would have gotten waited on. The hope for our American future is in the young sales people who also speak English and other languages. I found another great Armenian bakery that has a young Armenian girl who speaks English and waits on me when I walk in to buy some goodies. Have you ever had the experience of a Chinese person become seriously ill in public and you didn't know how to communicate with that person? He was taken to a hospital where someone spoke Chinese to him and found out what his medical problem was. I don't ever see hospitals in California putting up a sign saying you have to speak English to get treatment. It is against the law in California. Universities and colleges are not able to put up signs that the studenst have to speak English. A lot of foreign students are not able to speak English well but they know how to write it.

I LOVE IT! I wish more businesses put up "English Only" signs!!! I do have to wonder, though, if I were to visit or, God forbid, move to another country how would I feel if the sign said "Slovenian Only". Guess it wouldn't matter because I couldn't read the sign anyway. What really gripes my ass is when you read directions on a product you bought. First, the print requires a fucking telescope to read. Then you have to skip around 4 languages to find the english language. I usually throw the directions away and wing it. :mad: :evil: