What is Happening to my Country

[Mike]

I phoned the Pensions Office this morning,
the machine that answered, said, "If you
would like to speak to someone in English,
press 1", I am in England, that should be
the default, language and all other speakers,
should be the ones that get a choice, I chose,
1, but I should have listened to all the choices,
just to see how many there are.

Mike.

 

[outlander]

The way things are going it wouldn't surprise me if English becomes politically incorrect or socially unacceptable

 

[George1959]

Well, in Germany meanwhile in some cities are the names of streets also in Arabian language.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

People have feet, and they use them. History is groups moving in and out of areas.

 

[MACKTEXAS]

I got my claim detail statement, otherwise called "EOB" from UnitedHealthcare this week for recent claims. This one only had prescriptions on it (no doctor visits). Beginning on page 2, this statement appears in English:

"Attention: Free language assistance services and free communications in other formats, such as large print, are available to you. Call the toll-free number on your identification card."

Below that, the same statement (as in italics above) is presented again, in 37 other languages (labeled in English as to country of origin). Some of the foreign languages I might expect, such as Spanish, French, and German, but the the rest of them may not be used by anyone in the United States who is on my UHC plan. Here are just some of them:

Armenian (from the Armenian Highlands of West Asia.)
Bengali (Bengal region only of the subconitnent)
Khmer (a kind of Cambodian)
lus Hmoob (Hmong) (from parts of Southeast Asia)
Ilocano (spoken by an ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines)
Marshallese (spoken in the Marshall Islands)
Nepali (the official language of Nepal, or Gorkhali,)
Faa-Samoa (spoken in Samoa)
Tagalog (Austronesian language spoken primarily in Luzon)

. . . . . plus many other languages I cannot list becuse they are partially spelled by backward lettering and unknown symbols which are not offered on a standard U.S. laptop keyboard such as mine.