As his initiation into the Club of People Who Take Things Too Far, one storeowner in Milwaukee has decided to prohibit his employees from speaking any language other than English while dealing with customers.
According to FOX40, Ron Schneider, the owner of Leon's Frozen Custard, has come under some fire for his policy prohibiting Spanish-speaking employees from interacting with Spanish-speaking customers, claiming it would be “disruptive” if customers and employees start speaking multiple languages in the store.
From the local report:
Leon's Frozen Custard is a Milwaukee institution -- but the custard isn't good enough for everyone to overlook the controversial policy.
"Most people that live here are Latino," Jorge Maya said. "I don't think I'm going to be back anytime soon."
This all started on Tuesday, when Joey Sanchez overheard one of Leon's employees interacting with a Spanish-speaking customer.
"She whispered to him in Spanish 'I'm not allowed to speak Spanish to you,'" Sanchez said.
Sanchez was next in line. He also placed his order in Spanish. The employee gave him the same response.
"I'm trying to understand or find the why. I need to hear from him, to hear why he has this policy," Sanchez said.
Schneider defended his policy by claiming that speaking other languages in his store is a “problem.”
"Hey, c'mon! It is America. We've spoken English for a long, long time," Schneider said.
Schneider says the policy has been in place for a decade, and it has never been an issue.
"Any foreign language is going to be a problem. What I'm trying to avoid is when people come up here, get waited on in a different language because there happens to be an employee who speaks that language," Schneider said.
Now, as the owner of a private business, Schneider has the right to enact whatever policy he wants in his store (although we wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a call in the next couple weeks from the federal government’s Anti-Discrimination Brigade).
And we get it, at least to a point. It makes perfect sense to expect that those who immigrate to America learn – or at least try to learn – English as best they can to get around and assimilate into the culture they chose to join. Language is a foundational pillar of a nation, and in America, English is king. This is an reasonable request to make of those who come to the United States, and it isn't always observed.
But as a person who lived in a foreign country for an extensive amount of time, I can’t tell you how grateful I was to encounter a cashier or banker who could speak English during my time abroad -- even though I didn't necessarily come to expect it. Even on my best day, it was immensely helpful to have someone help me out as I slipped and stumbled my way through a language I was still learning, providing me with the English equivalent to foreign words I simply didn't know.
Being unwilling to advertise in, or routinely use, another language as part of your store’s daily activities is understandable, even if only for the English-speaking manager’s benefit. But outright banning bilingual employees from assisting non-English speaking customers in their native tongue seems like an unnecessary and excessive step -- and a fantastic way to lose some business.