Press 1 for English, NO Thanks

I had to activate a new credit card the other day. I called the 1-800 number given. What I heard was “Press one to continue in English, Prensa dos a continuar en espanol, or stay on the line if you are calling from a rotary phone and the next available operator will assist you.”

Well after two attempts totaling 10 or 12 minutes, the next available operator never got on the line, let alone assisted me. I have a little bit of problem with the whole bilingual issue as I believe these folks immigrating here(legally or illegally) should be learning the language here. But at least these services can do is DEFAULT to English after a set period of time if you do not make a choice. I do not want to have to choose English over Spanish, Press 1 for English,“ No Thanks.I called the customer service line on the back of the credit card. I told the lady who took my call that I absolutely refuse to press one for English and I wanted my credit card activated. After asking a series of questions to identify me she activated my card.

I recently changed banks because the ATM did not default to English and made me press one to get an English menu. I wrote the bank a letter telling them why I had quit them. They responded by saying that they were not going to alienate an important demographic, the Hispanics. Gee I feel alienated every time I have to press one for English, what about you?

If we all started refusing to “Push One for English”, and forced an actual operator to get on the line it would start hitting these corporations in the only place they understand, the pocket book. As long as we compliantly act like sheep and continue to do business with organizations that force us to choose English over Spanish, we might as well turn in our English Literature books. It is time we started fighting back before the corporations totally sell our way of life down the Rio Grande.

You saying to yourself right now, I’m just one person and it will not make a difference. You are right, but if I did this, and you did this, and your brother did this, and your neighbor did this… These corporations running our country would get the idea. We cannot count on our politicians to do something about it, because basically they are owned lock, stock, and barrel by these same corporations.