No Habla
From Sports Illustrated:
"Coaches on a Little League team filed a protest with the league after an umpire ordered the players to stop speaking Spanish during a state tournament game this week. Coaches said the order demoralized the Methuen players and cost the team the game..."It appears the umpire was concerned that the coach or manager may have been using a language other than English ... to communicate potentially 'illegal' instructions to his players..."
I don't know anything about Little League but in the Big Leagues anything meaningful is communicated through unspoken "signs" so I'm not sure I buy the umpire's explanation. As to Spanish being spoken by the players during a baseball game, there's a whole lot of that at the Major League level given how many Latin players there are in the game these days.
While I am not an "English Only" fanatic, I do think English is and should be the primary language in our country. That being said, a Little League game is hardly the place to be making that point.
posted by Presley Bennett @ 7/29/2005
1 comments
1 Comments:
Well put. I believe if an activity is in any way government-funded (i.e. school) then English should be mandatory, and those who do not have a firm grasp of the language should be forced to take remedial classes. That being said I highly doubt this league was receiving funding from the government. If people want to start making one-language-only leagues that's fine, but good luck dealing with the wave of criticism that is sure to follow.
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