Friday, December 14, 2007

I'm Official!

Cary and I are OFFICIALLY Florida residents now. A whole year later, we FINALLY have our Florida driver's license. We went to the bureau this morning and took care of that and they printed them while we waited. In Texas, you have to wait a few weeks to get it in the mail. So I was very excited to receive instant gratification! There was just one part of my experience today that just about sent me over the edge. Now, I like people of all races, genders, religions, political parties, blah blah blah. I'm really not a bigot or anything, but I know this statement may cause you to think differently.

The lady handed me a form to fill out...in SPANISH! I was like, ??????? Hello?????? I'm a gringo! Do I scream out SPANISH SPEAKER to anyone? Just checking! Anyways, she then pointed out to me that the English translation to each question was in fine print in parentheses below each Spanish question. Is anyone else bothered by this, or is it just me? Isn't the official language of this country still ENGLISH? I couldn't believe my eyes. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? The form should have been in English, with the Spanish translation in parentheses? And I had to check off "Si" or "No" on each question. Now because I'm no dummy I do know that "Si" means yes. But it's the principle of it all that gets to me. Am I being ridiculous? Because if I am, just tell me to shut up and write about something "blog worthy".

Anyways, so I left kind of puzzled and maybe a tiny bit angered. Not at the lady, but at the idiot that devised this form! So I thought what better way to get out my frustrations than to go eat some Mexican food! So I did. And all is well in the world. Muey Bien!

4 comments:

Stephanie said...

Maybe the lady reads your blog and saw the post about being a Mexican!!! No, I agree with you. It's not about being a bigot or being prejudiced. My dad was an immigrant.....a LEGAL immigrant. He did it the right way and he knew English when he got here. It's twisted English mind you.

Since I am an ESL Specialist, in charge of records for all 135 of our immigrant children, let me tell you, they don't make forms in the other immigrant languages like Korean, Japanese, Chinese. They make TAKS in Spanish but the other kids get left out. Look, you've got me on my soapbox again!Hopefully the next president will see our way (is the right way) :)

AdventurerMom said...

sorry...but no, there is NOT an official language in america...
which is good, because when the founding fathers originally considered German the front runner for our national language...
hmm...let's see.
according to wikipedia, the state of florida has declared english the sole official language...
no such luck for us over here in texas, though...
maybe they were out of the other forms?

Anonymous said...

EVERYTHING is in spanish. Do you think I would get a translator to come and help me if I had to go to Mexico??? I think not! That is terrible the English was under the Spanish. I think that might just be the most degrading thing I have heard in a long time!

mom2iande

Kimmy said...

okay... that is funny...

about the bags... I places bracelets in them from Pr*mi*r... from the line of jewelry I sell... sorry... a little disappointing I know... ha!

the teacher asked me about the tag, too never mentioned the bracelet!