I live in south Florida. The area has a large number of Spanish-speakers, primarily from Cuba. There also is a large Hatian population. We also have immigrants from Latin/South America.
Most of the Cubans have been here for many years; many since the 1960s.
The other day a charter bus slammed into an overpass at Miami International airport, killing two passengers and injuring at least 11 others.
The accident should not have happened.
According to the accidenrt report, the bus driver got lost on his way from Sweetwater, an independent political unit surrounded by Miami, to West Palm Beach. A map shows that the route between the two communities was an almost direct path - Tamiami Trail (FL 836) to I-95 North to West Palm. FL 836 skirts Miami International's southern limits.
Somehow the driver managed to turn into Miami International and then, ignoring signs, drove the bus under an overpass marked by multiple signs stating that high vehicles, such as the bus, must avoid trying to pass under the bridge.
About the only way a sober driver could have ignored the signs - and there is no indication the driver was less than sober and awake - is if the driver, like his passengers, failed to comprehend the language of the country, English.
So far, according to local police, no charges have been filed against the driver.
If my assumption is correct that the driver's command of English was severely limited, it is the driver's employer that should be charged. The employer failed to assure the driver was able to read, comprehend, and obey road signs.
(Florida does not require a knowledge of English to pass either the written test - available in Spanish and Creole - or the driving test, yet 99% of all road signs in south Florida are in English; many are graphics or a combination of text and graphics.)
I understand that learning a "new" language can be difficult for older people. My mother-in-law speaks very little Hebrew even though she has lived in Israel since the 1960s. But she, unlike immigrants to America, lacked any opportunities to learn the language. Later immigrants to Israel, including this scrivener, had the "ulpan advantage."
In the U.S., English as a Second Language courses have been offered for 100 years or more, either free or at low cost, during the daytime or in evenings to accommodate almost everyone.
Like my mother-in-law, many of the non-English speakers cluster into "first language" communities, meaning that their social, and to some extent business, lives are carried on in their native language. This reduces any impetus to learn a new language, to integrate into the larger community.
(When I was a youngster growing up in Miami, signs in store windows proclaimed two things: "Conditioned Air" (air conditioning) and "Si Habla Espanol" (Yes, Spanish spoken). Then, in the 60s, the signs started to change to "We speak English" and by the 80s, if you didn't speak Spanish in Miami, you didn't do business in Miami.)
I lived in Israel from 1975 to 1979. I went to learn to learn Hebrew. Following my 6 month stint in an ulpan (intensive language course, an American innovation, by the way) I could have gone to an English-speaking community such as Netanya or an American-populated kibbutz and survived nicely on my English knowledge.
Instead I moved away from English-speaking communities to one where few spoke the language. To deal with my grocer, who spoke 7 languages, none of which was English, I had to speak Hebrew. Fortunately I had a good dictionary. Later I worked as a technical writer - in English - but the engineers with whom I worked insisted on adding to my Hebrew vocabulary and grammar, and my "Russian" co-workers could converse with me only in our common Hebrew.
The bottom line: I was in Israel. The two national languages are Arabic and Hebrew. If I wanted to survive in Israel I had to know Hebrew, the dominate language where I lived and worked. I could have survived with English as long as I didn't venture out of my own group, but then I would not be living in Israel.
Trust me, I was past my 20s when I got on my first flight to Lod. Learning Hebrew - not only a different language but a different alphabet - was a challenge, but to live in Israel, learning at least a survival-level Hebrew was a must. (I'm still no Ben Yehuda, but I "get by.")
As an English-speaker in the U.S. who has struggled to learn another language, I have a problem with non-English speakers who come to "my" country" and (apparently) cannot make an effort to learn English, the national, albeit unofficial, language. Certainly a person working here ought to have some command of the language, more so if the person holds the lives of others in his or her hands (as did the bus driver).
Again, IF the driver lacked sufficient English skills to read and comprehend road signs, the fault lies with the driver's employer and, to be fair, the State of Florida for licensing the driver in the first place.
The bottom line: As far as we know at this point, there is no excuse for the accident that claimed two lives and caused injuries to at least 11 others.
