porkyandthemob

I learned that there were 2.6 million Mexican immigrants in the U.S. labor force in 1990.  And then in the year 2000 there were 4.9 million.[i]  There are 400 Million Spanish speakers in the world and 40 million live in the US[ii] - that’s 10%!  Now, I know roughly 17 words in Spanish but I’m told that isn’t enough.  I was also told that over 1/3 of all Californian’s speak Spanish[iii]  (California is the most populous state in the union may I remind you) and in my local middle class neighborhood bank (not in
California) there are two signs advertising a new kind of account.  One sign is in English, one sign is in Spanish – the Spanish one is on top.  What should people like me (or even people who don’t know 17 Spanish words) do?  My suggestion: learn Spanish.

[i] Migration_Information.org. 2/23/08. Migration Policy Institute. 2/24/08. http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?id=206

[ii] Wikipedia.org. 2/23/08 Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. 2/24/08. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_in_the_United_States

[iii]Wikipedia.org. 2/23/08 Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. 2/24/08. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_in_the_United_States#Official_status