[S.B.Nichols]

Originally Posted by JerryLove

That's rhetoric (though not necessarily yours). The company I work for has to put out its documentation in more than a dozen languages. The overhead is minimal.
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Your personal experience doesn't negate the needs of the State of Texas. And, you personal experience certainly doesn't make it rhetoric. Unless the company you work for is Texas...like my wife, who actually does work for the State of Texas and spends a good fraction of her time dealing with language issues. If that fraction is 5% (just odd-balling the number...probably higher), that's a good deal of tax payer money, especially if you calculate it across the entire state and the thousands of people who have her same job.

Again, it makes no difference. Even if the law passes, my wife would still have to find translators, bilingual lawyers, day cares, foster parents, etc etc etc. So, it's all a non-issue for us.

[JerryLove]

Originally Posted by S.B.Nichols

Your personal experience doesn't negate the needs of the State of Texas. And, you personal experience certainly doesn't make it rhetoric. Unless the company you work for is Texas...like my wife, who actually does work for the State of Texas and spends a good fraction of her time dealing with language issues. If that fraction is 5% (just odd-balling the number...probably higher), that's a good deal of tax payer money, especially if you calculate it across the entire state and the thousands of people who have her same job

OK. Let's compare anecdotes.

Yours is that one person spends some of her time dealing with "language issues". This one person represents an infinitesimal portion of the state and therefore tells us nothing about the budgetary burden to put out information in multiple languages.

Worse: even if we were to infer current expenditures; we would have only an upper limit of what those costs can be, not a nominal nor minimum

For me, on the other hand, I know what the entire enterprise costs are for all of our customer-facing documentation to be in more than a dozen languages. The sub-company I work for prints more than 2million pages per month of customer-facing documentation. I think it is a far better base from which to draw inferences about the costs to an enterprise (TX), than the percentage of one random employee.

No analysis has been done, and yet claims are being made. That makes this rhetoric... The only motivation I can imagine for this being in place is to gain popularity off of anti-Mexican sentiment.

[S.B.Nichols]

Originally Posted by JerryLove

OK. Let's compare anecdotes.

Yours is that one person spends some of her time dealing with "language issues". This one person represents an infinitesimal portion of the state and therefore tells us nothing about the budgetary burden to put out information in multiple languages.

Worse: even if we were to infer current expenditures; we would have only an upper limit of what those costs can be, not a nominal nor minimum

For me, on the other hand, I know what the entire enterprise costs are for all of our customer-facing documentation to be in more than a dozen languages. The sub-company I work for prints more than 2million pages per month of customer-facing documentation. I think it is a far better base from which to draw inferences about the costs to an enterprise (TX), than the percentage of one random employee.

No analysis has been done, and yet claims are being made. That makes this rhetoric... The only motivation I can imagine for this being in place is to gain popularity off of anti-Mexican sentiment.

So, just so I'm clear, your personal experience isn't rhetoric, but my personal experience is? I really need to take my own advice and stop the feeding.

I am making no unfounded claims. I am talking about -real- on the ground workforce hours, not printed pamphlets.The state knows how much time and money it is spending dealing with language boundaries I can tell you, for a fact,, that the state analysis has been done. I know this because it is constantly preached at my wife during her required trainings, and I get to hear all about those when I ask, "honey, how was your day?" I know from her approximately how much of her day is spent trying to obtain bilingual services for her clients. And, her job overlaps with every major area of the Texas workforce. She deals with education, courts, law enforcement. Nothing 'random' about it. She also works in a fairly affluent, mostly English-educated Caucasian county, so if she's spending even a half hour a day on this issue, I can only imagine what those in most other parts of the state are dealing with. Several thousand people in the state have my wife's job. Same job. I know what she gets paid. Same pay grades across the state. I know what 5% of what she gets paid is. I know how to multiply. Its a lot of money, especially for a state worried about a budget deficit right now. Don't believe me? Fine, the internet is your friend. Good luck. I'm sorry, but unless you can tell me right now that this company you are working for is in fact the State of Texas, and your experiences are those of the State of Texas, your numbers or rationalizations, while I'm sure they are true for you and your company, just don't mean that much here.

But no...it's easier to just assume that those legislators that support this are either racist, or want the support of racists. I feel sad for anyone who has that opinion. FYI, we're not just talking about Spanish here either. My wife's biggest headaches right now deal in Arabic and French. But no, she must be a racist too. Finding bilingual services are easy. Finding those willing to contract with the state, not so much. Just another reason why this law would seems like a good idea.

[JerryLove]

Originally Posted by S.B.Nichols

So, just so I'm clear, your personal experience isn't rhetoric, but my personal experience is? I really need to take my own advice and stop the feeding.

So, just to be clear: If I address more than one of your points you get really confused and juxtipose them and make responses like the one above?

I am making no unfounded claims. I am talking about -real- on the ground workforce hours, not printed pamphlets.

Post the numbers. I will wait.

But no...it's easier to just assume that those legislators that support this are either racist, or want the support of racists. I feel sad for anyone who has that opinion. FYI, we're not just talking about Spanish here either. My wife's biggest headaches right now deal in Arabic and French. But no, she must be a racist too. Finding bilingual services are easy. Finding those willing to contract with the state, not so much. Just another reason why this law would seems like a good idea.

I didn't realize that you had read the legislators minds. Is there a print-out available?

[adamwagg]

Actually thinking about it over here - official documents tend to come in English, then on the back have a whole bunch of 'if you need this translated call xxxxx' written in about 16 different langauges from memory.

For an online example see: Federal Court of Australia - translation services

[S.B.Nichols]

Originally Posted by JerryLove

So, just to be clear: If I address more than one of your points you get really confused and juxtipose them and make responses like the one above?

So you have nothing else useful to say? Just insults?

Post the numbers. I will wait.

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see the numbers for your business that support your claims. Wait a sec, you didn't post any. Would you be willing to post this companies budget? I will wait. (You can find Texas' budget online, along with studies of dis-proportionality. Feel free to look, I don't feel like holding your hand).

Until then, it's my personal experience against yours. OK. I feel like I've given enough information to have made a valid point that is worthy of consideration. The difference between your point and my point is that my point actually deals with the State of Texas.

I didn't realize that you had read the legislators minds. Is there a print-out available?

I only have your own words.....

The only motivation I can imagine for this being in place is to gain popularity off of anti-Mexican sentiment.

That's racism. Your own words. Please stop calling people racists. Feel free to continue calling me names in private comments though.