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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
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Stories from the NFCCA Newsletter, the “Northwood News” |
Northwood News ♦ February 2009
Editor’s Note: The following four letters were sent in response to Cait James’ article, “Revisiting the Question of Latino Inclusion,” in the October 2008 issue of the newsletter. They were inadvertently left out of the December 2008 issue.
I was pleased to be included in the area’s civic association and its fine works. Although I am unable to attend functions or engage in committee work at this time, it is evident that you have accomplished very much in the past months.
But I understood that the association was formed to promote activities and to spread information for the residents of the area. To deny important information to residents because of their limited language skills puzzles me.
Wouldn’t the translation into Spanish of the valuable information in Jacquie Bokow’s article on recycling rules help the Spanish-speaking residents to learn the rules and would tend to encourage them to keep the neighborhood neater? The presently uninformed persons would not be regarded as persons of bad habits if they could understand and would follow the correct practices while they were learning “our” language, the most difficult language in the world to learn. (For example, try pronouncing “tough,” “though,” “thought,” “through,” “thorough,” and “throughout.” How about “to,” “too,” and “two”?)
As “our” language was learned, slang and all, it would follow that many new residents would find it easier to want to support and to participate in our community, and even become dues-paying members.
What about the article on recycling our old electronics? Let them learn to keep their discarded materials on the move. Tell them, in their language, about how to handle the constructed traffic barriers on Arcola which, when covered with snow, will certainly make the worst and most costly community traffic jams in the area.
When I prepared documents for the Office of Civil Rights, we used the rule of thumb to produce translated documents where any population group or pocket of population which constituted approximately 30 percent of the general or “pocket” of population. We were able to issue alternate translations in Spanish, Cambodian, and Vietnamese, and considered translations for those who spoke the native language of the Philippines.
The NFCCA is not an exclusive social club nor fraternity. Let’s help our neighbors.
This is a response to Caitlin James’ article in our last Northwood News in which she puts forward the idea that in order to make our local non-English speaking Latinos feel more at home, a bilingual newsletter and a translator at civic meetings should be considered.
While I agree that every person in this neighborhood should feel included, I do not agree that translators or bilingual newsletters is the way to go.
Whenever people emigrate from one country to another there is always a “language barrier” to be faced, unless they are fortunate enough, as I was, to speak the language of the country. Close to my house there are immigrants from Iceland, Germany, Slovakia, Paraguay, and China. Learning a new language means making an effort, it can be difficult and tedious, but all these people managed to learn English and now are thriving — as well as enjoying the benefits of the NFCCA! For Latinos who choose not to learn English, it is very hard for them to get ahead. To continue speaking Spanish/Portuguese may seem like the soft option, but, in the long run, they are making it more difficult for themselves.
Regardless of the racial percentages in this community, or anywhere else for that matter, everybody who lives in this country should be able to speak the lauguage of this country.
I just finished reading the article “Revisiting the Question of Latino Inclusion” in the latest issue of the NFCCA News. I am moved to respond.
The author, Cait James, implies that if we don’t publish our newsletter in Spanish as well as English, the neighborhood association, and those of us who participate in it, are insensitive and wish to exclude our Latino neighbors who don’t speak English.
May I remind Ms. James that this is a country of immigrants. My grandparents came here from Italy in the early 1900s. They spoke no English. They came here to make a life for themselves and their children as Americans. They, like the people Ms. James sites in her articles, came with very little money or resources. They learned to speak and read English because there was no other choice. It was what they expected to have to do to make a life here. I am quite sure they did not feel excluded because they didn’t find local publications in their native Italian. Immigrants from other foreign countries have had the same experience throughout the history of this country.
I find Ms. James’ attitude to be unjustly judgmental. She sees people who don’t share her views as being disinterested in the diversity of the neighborhood. Not so, Ms James. We just don’t see this as a direction the community association should spend time, energy, and money pursuing.
I am embarrassed that I did not respond to your original article on inclusion. I assumed that the idea was so obviously a good one that one “more” positive response would be unnecessary. It saddens me that I was so wrong about my neighborhood. Please don’t give up on your campaign of inclusion and, if having a bilingual newsletter is not feasible because of increased space/cost, please let me know. I’d like to help. Thanks for your good work.
© 2009 NFCCA [Source: https://nfcca.org/news/nn200902d.html]