2 Letters to Editor of Pahrump Valley Times

Our bilingual U.S. society isn’t helping many

Regarding the article on page A19 of the June 2, Pahrump Valley Times:

“Why do I have to push 1?” made one comment that I would expand on.

He states “Those same immigrants speak their native language in their homes, with their families and their friends but they speak English when they step out into their daily American lives.” I would add: “But they don’t speak it well.”

This dual language causes the immigrant to think and speak primarily in the native language and they never learn to speak English fluently.

I am amazed at the number of people that talk on the phone that are impossible to understand due to the accent and poorly spoken English.

He mentioned the waiter that learned to speak English well from video games. There is another way. I spoke to a man from an oriental country a few years ago that I could hardly communicate with. I asked him how long he had been in the U.S. He said five years. I then spoke to a young lady from the same country who spoke perfect English. I asked her how long she had been here. She said five years. I compared her English to the previous person and asked her why the difference. She stated that she moved in with an American roommate and only speaks English with friends and family unless absolutely necessary to revert to her native language.

So Mr. Burke’s statement needs to be revised to “Those same immigrants will never learn proper English as long as they spend a large amount of their time speaking in the native language.”

I worked for a couple of immigrants who had been in the U.S. for over 20 years. The husband spoke fairly well. The wife was barely understandable and she was allowed to answer the phone for the business.

In our business, we get numerous sales calls weekly obviously from other countries or immigrants hired here. Most of them have such a heavy accent that I tell them “I don’t accept calls from persons that I can’t understand!” You may think that rude but I am fed up with a “bilingual” country and trying to understand bad accents.

Finally, most Americans are also tired of calling for help and getting an outsourced “customer service” person that has a terrible accent. When that happens I ask they to transfer me to someone who speaks better English.

Loren Barrett

Reader rebuts Hof letter on brothel fee increases

I read Mr. Dennis Hof’s letter and was sad to see we have yet another antagonistic, bitter person looming over our public life, right here in Nye County. Mr. Hof is convinced that political enemies of his have targeted his businesses, potentially costing him profits, as the Nye County Commission plans a different fee structure, which he has deemed is unfair to him. He laments the fact that his employees, the women of the brothels, will now have to pay $100 more a year for work permits.

He is even outraged, and clearly wants the reader to be, that this money is being newly designated for the general fund, which he does not deem a worthy repository. Gee! There’s more on his list of complaints. There’s more whining about the cost of doing business, and then he compares his plight as a reluctant taxpayer and brothel owner to the apocalyptic horror of Pearl Harbor. He declares himself “a sleeping giant” who has been awakened to a terrible injustice. Whew! No need to look afield for a petulant strongman - we grow ‘em locally.

Time, costs and public opinion all do march on. What once seemed like a glittery and edgy enterprise can become distasteful, even repugnant to the majority of voters as our rural communities mature and cohere. Mr. Hof seems surprised that his wishes may not always be met by the citizens of Nye County, but voters can’t count on a bellicose conspiracy theorist to spread prosperity.

Mary Beth Aragon