Hiring manager fired for mocking job applicant's English

"Let me tell you now, if you no speak English, I will send you home."



You'd think that basic professionalism (and you know, decency) would stop someone from writing insulting, racist remarks in their workplace correspondence. Tell that to human resources employee who is now out of a job after mocking an Asian American prospective job applicant's English in an email.

Minh Huynh is a Vietnamese immigrant who is still working on his English. He speaks Vietnamese and Cantonese; English is his third language, my friends. He had inquired via email about a job at Dash Delivery LLC in Seattle. The reply he received, from hiring manager Bruce Peterson, blatantly mocked Mr. Huynh's English skills, stating, "Let me tell you now, if you no speak English, I will send you home."

Mr. Huynh's daughter, Emily, saw Peterson's email and posted a screenshot on Twitter, calling out the response as "very unprofessional and passive aggressive." Once the internet got hold of story, it was on.

When Your Parents Speak Broken English

Bless the kids who have been forced to translate for their parents in hella awkward situations.



If you're the child of immigrants, some of you can relate to this. BuzzFeed has posted a moving video featuring young men and women sharing what it's like When Your Parents Speak Broken English. They share about memorable moments from growing up, the times they've had to translate for their parents, and the sometimes awkward, sometimes painful interactions they've had because of the language barrier.

Take a look:

Arizona woman assaults students for speaking Mandarin

22-year-old Kalie Rutledge punched Xiaolin Shi for speaking Chinese on the light rail.



The hell? People apparently can't even speak Chinese in public in Arizona without the threat of violence. In Tempe, a woman was arrested for assaulting two students after she heard them speak Mandarin on the light rail.

Asian Couple assaulted in Tempe for speaking Mandarin on light rail, Kalie Rutledge arrested

Police say 22-year-old Kalie Rutledge was riding on the Metro Light Rail on May 20 when she heard Arizona State University student Xiaolin Shi speaking to a friend in Mandarin. She apparently took issue with this.

Rutledge reportedly told them, "I don't speak Chinese, shut the fuck up!" and "Bitch, go f---ing back to China."

Obama signs bill removing "Oriental" from federal laws

Rep. Grace Meng's bill eliminating outdated term for Asian Americans from U.S. code.



As of last week, the words "Oriental" and "Negro" will no longer be part of federal law.

On Friday, President Obama signed a bill eliminating the outdated racial descriptors after the legislation passed unanimously in the House and Senate. Yes, they were still on the books. Yes, this was a long time coming.

Obama Signs Bill Removing 'Oriental' and 'Negro' From Federal Laws

H.R.4238, sponsored by Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY), aimed to "modernize" two references to "Orientals" and "Negros" in the U.S. Code governing public health, social welfare and civil rights, dating back to the 1970s. The words will be replaced with "Asian Americans" and "African Americans," respectively.

Rep. Meng introduced the bill in December, and it passed the House easily in February. It reached the president's desk last week after the Senate unanimously approved it on Monday.

Harass women in every language with this translation device

Dean doesn't speak Japanese, but with ili, sexual harassment has no language barriers!



Ili is a cool-looking new wearable device that translates speech into different languages. The user speaks into the device in English, Japanese or Chinese (Mandarin, presumably?) and it will reproduce the words in any of those languages. Pretty great idea. It's, like, the future.

The commercial that's been circulating for the product, however, is pretty gross.

In the cringeworthy ad for the device, created by a Japanese company called Logbar, a white spokesman named Dean is seen roaming the streets of Tokyo and using the device to ask random women to kiss him. Dean is from the United Kingdom and doesn't speak Japanese, but with ili, sexual harassment has no language barriers! At one point, he actually chases a woman demanding "just one kiss."

Japanese Words For Beginners

A rather unhelpful instructional video by Katsu Films.



Want to learn some Japanese? Who needs Rosetta Stone? Just head over to YouTube. This short instructional video from Katsu Films offers some helpful Japanese words for beginners, outlining proper pronunciation for each word and demonstrating usage in a sentence. It's very educational.

Take a look:

Conversations with My Parents in <Chinese> & English

Guest Post by Connie Sun



I'm on vacation! This week, I'm taking a much-needed break to recharge the batteries and get a change of scenery. To keep things going around here, I've enlisted the help of several friends of the blog to submit guest posts on various topics of their choosing. Here's a comic strip from Connie Sun.

There is nothing more central to my Asian-American identity than trying to hold on to enough Chinese to communicate with my immigrant parents.

VoterVOX makes democracy accessible in every language

18 Million Rising's translation mapping app addresses AAPI language access at the polls.



It's no secret that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are terribly underrepresented at the polls. Why don't we vote? Well, one of the major obstacles to voting in our community is language. AAPIs are three times more likely to cite language barrier as a reason for not voting than Latinos.

That's why our friends at 18 Million Rising have been hard at work on an awesome, ambitious project called VoterVOX, a new solution to address the problem of language access at the polls for AAPI voters.

VoterVOX is a translation mapping app that connects multilingual AAPI volunteers with limited English speakers so that every eligible voter gets access to a ballot and voting information in their language. It's described as "1 part civic tech, 1 part grassroots organizing, and 3 parts cultural connection."

They're currently crowdfunding the project, and with the community's help -- that means you and me! -- they launch VoterVOX in time for the 2016 Presidential election.

Here's a video with some more information:

40th Anniversary of Lau vs. Nichols Decision

National Conference on the Rights of Linguistic Minorities, September 12



If you're in San Francisco, scholars and educators will be gathering for a conference commemorating the 40th anniversary the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lau vs. Nichols, a ruling that recognized the rights of linguistic minorities in public education. The conference will revisit the case and examine its impact on linguistic minorities and disabled Americans in education and other areas of public service. It's happening Friday, September 12 at the Chinatown Campus of City College of San Francisco.

Here are some more details:

Man assaulted on train for speaking Bengali

Muslim victim harassed, assaulted and accused of being a terrorist on Virginia commuter train



News of a hate crime out of the DC area... In Fairfax, Virginia, a man is accused of harassing and attacking a Muslim man on a commuter train last month because the victim was speaking on his cell phone in Bengali.

Commuter Attacked for Speaking Bengali

58-year-old government worker Patrick Sullivan apparently became agitated because the victim, an unnamed Muslim man, was talking on the phone to his wife in his native language of Bengali. According to police, Sullivan began shouting at the man, telling him to speak English. He then hit the man in the head and tried to get him thrown off the train, suggesting to the conductor that the man was a possible terrorist.

What language does your state speak?

Most Commonly Spoken Languages Other Than English or Spanish



I've been seeing shared around on social media, and I thought it was pretty interesting... Do you know what is the most commonly spoken language in the United States, other than English? Yes, it's overwhelmingly Spanish. But what is the most commonly spoken language other than English and Spanish?

Behold, a Slate map of the United States depicting the Most Commonly Spoken Language Other than English or Spanish, broken down by state, created with data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The geography of some of the languages represented might surprise you.

It's important to highlight this note from Slate:

Student pepper sprayed after falling asleep at the library

Ohio State student Yuxiang Chen arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting arrest

At Ohio State University, community members are demanding justice for a student who was harassed, pepper sprayed and arrested by campus police after falling asleep at the library while trying to study.

Campus Police Mace Chinese Exchange Student at Ohio State University

23-year-old Yuxiang Chen, a senior math major from China, was studying late last month at the 18th Avenue Library, which is open 24 hours a day. When library staff noticed him dozing off, he was asked to leave and invited to return later. When he did, he was confronted by police, and that's when things got physical.

A language barrier seems to have been an issue.

That funny Chinese homework assignment... now with context!

Turns out, it was supposed to be written in Chinese.



This blog has recently received a spate of traffic from a Distractify list, 38 Test Answers That Are 100% Wrong But Totally Genius At The Same Time, which links back to this amusing November 2010 post, featuring a viral photo of a grade school homework assignment that a student seemingly took quite literally.

According to the assignment: "You are to assume the role of a Chinese immigrant in 1870 and write a letter home describing your experiences. Your letter should include the following: your contributions and experiences in the West." What folks found funny is that the student went the extra mile and wrote out the letter in Chinese -- just like an 1870s immigrant would.

But it turns out, that's exactly what the student was supposed to do.

I just heard from Anna Janssen, the former elementary teacher who came up with this assignment, circa spring 2008, for an English/Chinese dual language class. Owing to the language disparity in the class -- some were new immigrants from China with no English proficiency, while others were raised in America with minimal written Chinese, and everything in between -- the students were free to write the essay in English or Chinese.

And yes, Ms. Janssen speaks Mandarin. Here's part of the message she sent me:

British woman has a migraine, wakes up with Chinese accent

No joke, Sarah Colwill suffers from "Foreign Accent Syndrome."



There's no other way to describe this than just plain weird. A woman from the United Kingdom goes to the hospital with a terrible headache. She comes out speaking with a Chinese accent. Whaaaaaat. According to BBC News: Plymouth woman 'woke up sounding Chinese.'

Three and a half years ago, 38-year-old Sarah Colwill was rushed to the hospital suffering from a severe migraine. When she woke up, she spoke with what can best be described as a "Chinese" accent. Colwill grew up in the English city of Plymouth, and has never been to China. I'm going to assume she hasn't spent a lot of time with Chinese non-native English speakers with a similar accent. But this apparently how she speaks now.

Colwill has been diagnosed with a rare speech impediment called Foreign Accent Syndrome:

Chinese Immigrant Homework

Found this kind of amusing, though I don't know exactly what it is... Well, it's homework. It's a history/creative writing assignment. And the directions seem fairly straightforward. But I guess this student took the instructions quite literally: Chinese immigrant homework.

Hey, a Chinese immigrant in 1870 probably isn't writing home in English, right? I just wish I could have seen the look on the teacher's face when this assignment got turned in. (Thanks, Stephen.)

UPDATE: Hold up! Some background on this homework assignment, from the teacher who actually assigned it: That funny Chinese homework assignment... now with context!

'The Daily Show' investigates Chinese language programs

Aasif Mandvi interviews Jay Chen about the brainwashing conspiracy in Hacienda Heights.



Not too long ago, I wrote about the controversy over a China-funded language program for students in Hacienda Heights, California. Basically, critics are concerned that the language/culture curriculum could somehow be used to brainwash our precious American children.

Could this all be a nefarious scheme to indoctrinate young American minds with the ways of communism and general evil-ness? The Daily Show recently sent correspondent Aasif Mandvi to investigate, in this awesome segment: