?Hablas espanol, Mickey?

[scpergj]

This is the aspect that worries me more than anything else. The arguments about hispanic targeting aside, if a CM is not careful, they may "assume" someone speaks a dialect and it could offend the guest if they are not correct. I know there's been issues at hospitals where a translator was brought in based on "perceived" nationality and they were wrong. They are then made to feel guilty of "stereotyping" based on race/language. What started out as an attempt to help the patient turns into an issue. As we all know, when an issue involves a large corporation, phone calls to lawyers are quickly made.

I understand the marketing slant, but it seems to be a "slippery slope" that could cause more harm than good.

I have to agree here. I can see the lawsuit now.

Lawyer for Disney to Judge "Well, the child looked hispanic so the castmember spoke to her in Spanish"

Lawyer for 'offended' family "So....just because someone looks hispanic makes you think they can't speak english?"

Man, that could get really ugly. We live in the USA. If you live here, learn the language (both of my Great Grandfathers had to). If you are visiting, don't expect people to speak 'your' language. There are WAY too many languages around the world to have to speak all of them.

 

[Pr1nce55]

My blood gets boiling when I read stuff like this. Unfortunately because of being deemed racist or at the least politically incorrect most people cannot say how they truly feel...hence the minority gets whatever they want. It's just backwards. All I have to say is my grandmother's generation would be appalled. They had to learn English and have a job when they came to this country.

 

[Erika]

This is the aspect that worries me more than anything else. The arguments about hispanic targeting aside, if a CM is not careful, they may "assume" someone speaks a dialect and it could offend the guest if they are not correct.

My friend has had people approach her speaking Spanish multiple times... she is from India :lookaroun :lol:

She's never taken offense to it but we've had some good laughs.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Here is a simplified example....

If I were to go to Mars, would I expect Mars to change its climate to accomidate my needs. No, I would not. But I guess there are people out there who would think, just because I visited Mars, Mars should create a Earth like environment for me to survive.

Makes no sense....

 

[CaptainMichael]

Here is a simplified example....

If I were to go to Mars, would I expect Mars to change its climate to accomidate my needs. No, I would not. But I guess there are people out there who would think, just because I visited Mars, Mars should create a Earth like environment for me to survive.

Makes no sense....

Post of the Day!

 

[PSU_Princess]

I'm not sure yet where I weigh in on this. My first thought was no way...that is absolutely ridiculous, but after reading some of the posts I am now mixed. One of the things that got me thinking is about the fact that a lot of ride announcements/signs are already in english and spanish, so does adding a spanish speaking character hurt....i don't know. I definetly agree that if you come to live and work in this country you need to speak english.

There have been some posts regarding going to other countries and being able to speak there language. In all reality we in the US are far benhind many other countries when it comes to speaking multiple languages. There are a lot of countries who teach children english at a very young age. In Europe it is not uncommon for people to speak 3 or 4 languages.

Like I said...I'm still not sure what I think about this. I'm sure that they will train the CMs very well on not just assuming what language to speak...they will probably always start in english then wait for a cue to speak spanish instead.

 

[imagineer boy]

This whole thing is very, very stupid. It really is bizaar that they want to have advertisements that appeal to a certain race. They should have commercials that show people of all races having fun. Not just black people riding Splash Mountain or spanish people riding El Rio Del Tiempo. Disney's marketing department needs a reality check. Hell, they've needed one for quite some time.

 

[CaptainMichael]

This whole thing is very, very stupid. It really is bizaar that they want to have advertisements that appeal to a certain race. They should have commercials that show people of all races having fun. Not just black people riding Splash Mountain or spanish people riding El Rio Del Tiempo. Disney's marketing department needs a reality check. Hell, they've needed one for quite some time.

Hmmm...we agree

 

[kcnole]

This whole thing is very, very stupid. It really is bizaar that they want to have advertisements that appeal to a certain race. They should have commercials that show people of all races having fun. Not just black people riding Splash Mountain or spanish people riding El Rio Del Tiempo. Disney's marketing department needs a reality check. Hell, they've needed one for quite some time.

Posts like this make me laugh. Disney is wrong because they're marketing to a segment of society who doesn't currently consider Disney their vacation spot. Yep, how evil of them to try and bring more people into the park. It's no different than putting in thrill rides to bring in teens.

Secondly, they're targeting spanish and not chinese or whatever other language because Spanish (whether we English Speakers like it or not) has become the secondary language in America and there is a huge population who speak nothing but spanish. Now we can debate all day long whether that's right or wrong, but it's the way it is. If Disney can use that to bring more people and thus more money into the parks, well they're going to do it.

 

[ilovepluto23]

Here we go with trying to be politically correct and all that load of crap!

I do think it's wrong if they FORCE this upon the characters, and it should be voluntary.

I don't get this...if you go to another country you should expect to have to deal with that country's language and culture. I'm tired of this country bending over backwards for visitors, immigrants, etc. and stripping the USA of what our country was built on. Here I go, getting into the illegal immigrant issues...I'll stop b/c it's too controversial.

I know I'm getting beyond the point of this post, and I apologize. These issues just annoy me to no end!

But I do think it would be appropriate to hire CMs that speak multiple languages to accommodate foreign visitors (which I'm sure they already do, right?). I just don't think THEIR language should be shoved on us in our own country.

 

[imagineer boy]

I do think it's wrong if they FORCE this upon the characters, and it should be voluntary.

Exactly! Say an actress playing Snow White had trouble communicating with multiple Spanish guests on several work days, so she probably could decide to take some spanish classes to communicate with them better. If an actress playing Cinderella had no problem communicating with foreign guests ( not speaking their language, but communicating with body language and things like that ) and had a busy shedule, it would be a pain to take Spanish classes which she doesn't care for.

 

[ilovepluto23]

My blood gets boiling when I read stuff like this. Unfortunately because of being deemed racist or at the least politically incorrect most people cannot say how they truly feel...hence the minority gets whatever they want. It's just backwards. All I have to say is my grandmother's generation would be appalled. They had to learn English and have a job when they came to this country.

AMEN!
What about all those people who worked hard to become citizens of this country?!
I think many immigrants have become unappreciative and ungrateful of what the USA offers. Things aren't handed to you on a golden platter, you have to work for it.

 

[PSU_Princess]

Here we go with trying to be politically correct and all that load of crap!

I do think it's wrong if they FORCE this upon the characters, and it should be voluntary.

I don't get this...if you go to another country you should expect to have to deal with that country's language and culture. I'm tired of this country bending over backwards for visitors, immigrants, etc. and stripping the USA of what our country was built on. Here I go, getting into the illegal immigrant issues...I'll stop b/c it's too controversial.

I know I'm getting beyond the point of this post, and I apologize. These issues just annoy me to no end!

But I do think it would be appropriate to hire CMs that speak multiple languages to accommodate foreign visitors (which I'm sure they already do, right?). I just don't think THEIR language should be shoved on us in our own country.

I definetly agree that it should be on a voluntary basis, but I don't think it is right to say that they are shoving their language on us. We as a culture are very rude when it comes to issues like this...why do you think that so many other countries teach their children english from a young age. The majority of our schools have the kids take one language..and it generally doesn't start until middle school/high school. Sure there are more and more schools here that are starting to teach children a language at a young age, but I think it would be fair to say that most of us can only speak english fluently. Look at most European countries and you will find that most of the younger generations can speak English very well.
Its not like they are talking about all CMs being fluent in Spanish and using it as their primary language...they are thinking about a select few people to speak Spanish to make a childs day and encourage more visitors.

 

[PSU_Princess]

AMEN!
What about all those people who worked hard to become citizens of this country?!
I think many immigrants have become unappreciative and ungrateful of what the USA offers. Things aren't handed to you on a golden platter, you have to work for it.

ok..so before you get mad at me for my previous post...I think some of us are thinking different things. I totally agree that if you want to live and work in this country and become a citizen then you need to speak English.....I was thinking more about bringing in tourists.

 

[wannab@dis]

they are thinking about a select few people to speak Spanish to make a childs day and encourage more visitors.

I understand what you are saying, but the section of you post that I quoted above is an issue. There's a LOT of character CMs across the parks and across the shifts. If only a "select few" speak other languages then I'm not sure the impact would be that big. They would need for a large percentage of their speaking CMs to be able to schedule at least one per character per location.

I hope that makes sense... basically, this could have significant scheduling and HR impacts along with employee morale issues.

I'm all for targeted marketing. Not a thing wrong with it. However, attempting to create a "unique" experience for multiple spoken languages by characters or shows seems to be pushing the envelope. Not only financially, but it could have wider negative impacts as has been discussed.

One last thing... I want to applaud all the posters in this thread for keeping this above board and clean of insults or slurs. :sohappy: Let's just hope it stays that way and nobody sees these posts as anything other than a simple discussion.

 

[wannab@dis]

ok..so before you get mad at me for my previous post...I think some of us are thinking different things. I totally agree that if you want to live and work in this country and become a citizen then you need to speak English.....I was thinking more about bringing in tourists.

The article was not really talking about foreign tourists... it's concerning targeted marketing to ethnic groups already in America. At least that appears to be the intent to me.

 

[PSU_Princess]

I understand what you are saying, but the section of you post that I quoted above is an issue. There's a LOT of character CMs across the parks and across the shifts. If only a "select few" speak other languages then I'm not sure the impact would be that big. They would need for a large percentage of their speaking CMs to be able to schedule at least one per character per location.

That definetly makes sense. After re-reading the article it looks like I got a little over excited...oops! But I will agree that the marketing is a good idea.

 

[CoffeeJedi]

TIt really is bizaar that they want to have advertisements that appeal to a certain race. They should have commercials that show people of all races having fun. Not just black people riding Splash Mountain or spanish people riding El Rio Del Tiempo. Disney's marketing department needs a reality check.

Actually, its not that bizarre nowadays. And its not Disney's marketing dept, its an outside ad firm that they've hired. This is simply the way advertising is done nowadays, you can easily tell which races ethnicities or economic classes are being targeted in any given commercial. If they WEREN'T doing business like this, then i'd say they needed a "reality check".
And while i think it would be great if companies didn't NEED to market directly to demographics and could take a more universal approach, studies have been done to show that this type of focused advertising works much better on today's consumer than generalized ads.

 

[RedBaron]

Should Disney advertise on Hispanic television? Absolutely, but not with the promise that once you get there Cinderella speaks Spanish? Just advertise that Hispanic people can enjoy riding Dumbo as much as any other family. My blood boils with all the people that come to america with no intentions of adapting to our culture/language and then expect me to learn their language to cater to them. And if someone is coming here as a tourist then they should be able to cope. When I travel to other countries I dont expect anyone to speak English, and I get by just fine. Maybe this topic really boils my blood since my husbands mother has lived here 30 years and has never bothered to learn the language, however managed to muster up enough English a few weeks ago to tell me that I need to start teaching my daughter Polish. (I dont speak Polish and never will.) :fork: Yes, the holidays are really a lot of fun. :hurl:

 

[eroyee]

:wave: I dont think they should force the CMs to learn another language. they should hire someone that already speaks that language. My son is in the air force and got stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and he learned to speak Japanese. Also, he sent me videos of Tokyo Disney and though they had a lot of English over there, he had a video of one show that was all Japanese speaking. it was kinda neat to watch Mickey and Minnie speaking Japanese! ha.ha. :lol: