Procrastination

6.11.2006

As if Philadelphia doesn't have enough language problems

Situated in a South Philadelphia immigrant neighborhood, Geno's — which together with its chief rival, Pat's King of Steaks, forms the epicenter of an area described as "ground zero for cheesesteaks" — has posted small signs telling customers, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH.'"

"They don't know how lucky they are. All we're asking them to do is learn the English language," said Geno's owner Joseph Vento, 66. "We're out to help these people, but they've got to help themselves, too."

Vento, whose grandparents struggled to learn English after immigrating from Sicily in the 1920s, said he posted the sign about six months ago amid concerns over immigration reform and the increasing number of customers who could not order in English when they wanted Philly's gooey, greasy specialty — fried steak, sliced or chopped, in a long roll, with cheese and fried onions.

Of course, it's not as if native Philadelphians speak the King's English either. A Philadelphian might order a cheesesteak by saying something like, "Yo, gimme a cheesesteak wit, will youse?" ("Wit," or "with," means with fried onions.) To which the counterman might reply: "Youse want fries widdat?"


The rest of the article.

1 Comments:

  • great post. i was just talking with friends about this today and the farce of english as a supposed unofficial/official language and even beyond that, standard english. and how people will correct your grammar when you speak and how offensive that is and how much grammar doesn't matter, because in "truthiness" we know what the person is saying. and that's all that matters. it's complicated, but i like to simplify shit like that. it makes people angry. pissed off. I probably should have put a semi colon there. fuck it.

    By Blogger Kiren, at 3:36 AM  

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