I traveled to the Dominican Republic a few years ago and found out the acceptable language was Spanish. You couldn't even live comfortably in Dominican Republic if you couldn't speak Spanish. They have a way of forcing you to learn their language by speaking it to you whether you understand it or not. Same with when I worked in Paris, I had to attend French classes to be able to relate with the French people. It was almost a crime for you not to be able to speak the French language. I wasn't wholeheartedly accepted if I could not communicate in French. I have traveled to many African countries and even worked in Africa and in all my experience, I realized that in order for me to be able to relate with the people in the community and be generally accepted, I had to either learn their language or learn their culture. While I worked in Saudi Arabia I had to dress conservative and respect their culture and religion. In Bangladesh I had to do same thing.
Unfortunately back home in St Maarten everything goes. Everywhere you go to drink on Sundays the only music you hear is Bachata. You go out to order food and some of the restaurants have their food written in Spanish. You can hardly visit a bar without being forced to listen to the Spanish music.
St. Maarten is a Dutch Caribbean Island! Sometimes I almost forget that I am on a Dutch Island. All you hear is Spanish! Don't get me wrong, I do not hate Spanish people. I just think that it is wrong for anybody irrespective of their culture or language to force another person in their own country to speak their foreign language. My grandmothers was Spanish but she trained all of us and taught us to speak Dutch. She spoke fluent English and could also write in English Language. As far as I am concerned, I believe that she did that to prove her love for her husband's country.
It kills me each time it seem like I have to try really hard to impress the Spanish speaking population in my country to be accepted. I didn't realize how terrible this problem had become until I had the following experience.
A few months ago, I was in the hospital when I heard a Spanish lady insulting a nurse. The reason why she was mad at the nurse according to her was because the nurse couldn't speak Spanish. Therefore she deserved the insult. Again, during the last election, I attended a rally and one of the candidates of the White Party was a Spanish lady, I stood there in amazement when all she did was speak two sentences in English Language and carried on with her Spanish language as if to say "the vote of all the Spanish people in this gathering is all I need. I don't care if you understand me or not, I will just fly my country flag in your country." As if that's not enough, I visited the government building last week to pick up an official document and the security guard at the front desk gladly attended to the Spanish lady in her language, gave her all the help she needed before attending to me in a rather sad mood. These experiences are just a tip of the iceberg. The straw that broke the camel's back was this last experience. I visited a restaurant, while I waited for my order to be taken, since there were two customers before me, the Spanish waitress took the order of the first two customers who spoke Spanish, she turned to me and said something in Spanish, not sure what she said, I tried to explain to her that I didn't understand Spanish. The waitress's facial expression suddenly changed and before I could even finish my sentence, one of the customers quickly snapped, "You are in a multi-cultural country, you should speak Spanish". She was so upset, the second customer joined in, she said "I speak five languages and I am was born here". They said it was very wrong of me not to speak Spanish since I grew up here. I was so embarrassed and angry at the same time.
Wait a minute, the last time I checked, St Maarten was a Dutch Island! From my past experience, when you are a visitor in a country, you learn their language and culture so that you can relate with the people. You cannot be resident in a country and not be able to relate. I shouldn't be the one striving to learn a language to be able relate with a foreigner, it should be the other way round. You can ask me to speak Spanish when am in your country.
I think that the people of St. Maarten need to wake up and stop allowing themselves to be downtrodden. If the Spanish are smart enough to protect their language and culture in another country, we should be able to protect ours in our country. St. Maarten may be a multicultural country as they claim but we do have the original language and culture of the owners of the country and that should be first on the list no matter what. That language and culture should be respected and protected. Very soon am sure Spanish schools will start to operate just to cater to the Spanish population if care is not taken.
This beautiful Island has people from over 100 countries living here peacefully. How do you think we can all live peacefully if every foreigner tries to enforce their language on the people of St. Maarten? How would you feel if you are required to speak Chinese whenever you go to a supermarket to shop or Hindi when you visit a jewelry store in St. Maarten? Everybody has a language but they speak English to be able to relate with other people. You cannot convert somebody else's country to yours. If the Spanish can be so proud of their language that they are not willing to learn any English or Dutch, we should also be proud to speak our language wherever we communicate with them, maybe that way, they will understand how it feels.
Cecil Scott
