(Parts of this is meant in humor or in jest... or is at the very least- sarcastic... just wanted to do a l'il warning before anyone got enraged by any parts of it! Also, none of this is directed at janie or her original question about labeling...)
Relax folks. The whole world speaks English- so we're just a l'il spoiled... and we go nuts when we run into a Spanish word on a map, or a French road-sign up near the Canadian border! And then there are the whackos who think you're a communist if you buy a bottle of "Evian" or "Aquafina" over "Water" at a gas station... Sheesh! I wish we weren't such an ignorant culture (myself, definitely included)
My former partner was born and raised in Argentina and he never learned Spanish at all in school (Argentina's native tongue) It was assumed he would properly learn Spanish at home from his parents- his entire public school education was taught to him in English- English and American history was DRILLED into them. Arturo could name every American president from Washington to Reagan when in high school, and he knew that LBJ was the U.S. president when I was born, but didn't even know that Néstor Kirchner was the president in Argentina the year he was born!
Can you imagine the whacko outcry in the U.S. if all of a sudden we stopped teaching our native tongue and started teaching only Spanish or French or German, and taught strictly Russian or Fillipino, or Canadian history? (by the way- as Americans WHY were we taught ZERO Canadian history?) Lord- there'd by lynch-mobs and large-scale protests formed, and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity would be on blow-horns in every large city from coast-to-coast rallying the forces!
Travel to any nation in the world and as soon as a shop-keeper, waiter, or man on the street knows you're from the U.S. they're falling all over themselves to accomodate you in English. We'd do well to try and return the kind courtesy here. But instead we prefer to force others to conform to English. It all adds to a rough image-issue of cultural arrogance and negative public perception. For the most part, "foreigners" LOVE Americans, and have great views of us- BUT they do tend to see us all as "Texans" who think we don't need to take into account anyone from anywhere else. And I'd say that's largely a pretty true assessment.
Also, for what it's worth, in every kitchen I ever worked in there were always Latino immigrants (to my knowledge, they were always legal, as they provided proper documents- but for all I know all of the documents may have been false!) from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America... and as a chef/manager who was really into getting optimum performance from staff, I think I'd have to say that pretty much any immigrant I ever worked with could and did outwork their American counterpart, every single time.
I hate illegal immigration and I recognize its huge problems, BUT, I wish that we as American citizens could nominate lazy, low-life, scum-sucking American citizens to be TRADED to other nations for their hard-working citizens! (Hell- I've got a list of 50 I'd like to ship-off somewhere else as we speak!) I'd take an average Mexican kitchen worker over almost any white American dude, any day of the week- they have the strongest work-ethic I've ever witnessed in my life! (The second strongest work ethic I've ever seen? Mormons!)
It didnt dawn on me til I was in the car what had happened. Rednecks with not a single IQ point between them. My grandmothers on my Dads side were full blooded Indian and there are black dutch in the family along with irish. Everyone on Dads side is either dark skinned with dark hair and eyes or red haired, fair skinned and blue eyes. It is crazy lol. A few get black hair and blue eyes which is georgeous. I never cared much about who was in the family tree. Honestly with my family I would be afraid of what I would find lol.