Some signs are just clearly obscure

Staten Island's melting pot is helping to contribute to varied interpretations of the language

Staten Island Advance - April 27, 2005

Simon Cheng, co-proprietor of The Washboard laundry shop in West Brighton, pointed to his new sign, "We open 7 days," and said with a laugh, "We ARE open seven days! Is that the proper way of saying it?"

Cheng, a New Springville resident who hails from China, had copied another sign verbatim and had assumed the phrasing of the original was correct.

For the 17 percent of Staten Island's population new to the country, the nuances of the English language are daunting.

According to a report issued by the office of City Councilman Michael McMahon in June 2004, roughly 9 percent of Staten Islanders older than 5 years noted they "did not speak English very well."

Still, those presumably well-versed in the lingo can become clenched between tenses, conflicted by idioms and traumatized by singular versus plural.

Idioms -- expressions that skip normal language patterns -- can present problems for new Americans. Taking "coffee light," going to a "flea market" or the sky "raining cats and dogs" may cause consternation.

"It is flat-out difficult for immigrants to understand idioms," said Barbara J. Murphy, academic coordinator of the English Language Institute at the College of Staten Island, Willowbrook. "Idioms don't follow rules, and there are a lot of them.

"But the problem doesn't end there; fitting idioms into conversation in the right way at the right time is remarkably hard."

She added that new Americans who are unfamiliar with the language still can communicate well without idioms.

"If you say to someone, 'Don't lose your head,' you can also say to them, 'Relax.'" She explained, "You can replace an idiom with ordinary language."

CURIOUS WORDS

Yet mundane words offered by new Americans can be downright curious, even when chosen meticulously.

Take, for example, a skin and nail salon in Castleton Corners with "Spring Beauty Beauty" written on its awning.

"We were puzzled over it ourselves," admitted Diana Lamey, the landlord of the building. She said the tenants sent a feng shui expert to examine the environment around the store. The beauty salon is adjacent to Creamy Cone, an ice cream shop, and Blossom Time Flowers, a garden center.

"He came over to our property, and after he saw all the flowers, he told them it would be a success if they opened next door," Ms. Lamey said. "They came up with the name Spring Beauty Beauty having to do with here."

Lamey remarked that the store's interior uses curves rather than straight lines to redirect a force called "qi."

The salon is doing well, she noted, "so perhaps there's something to it."

For any American, native or newcomer, proper spelling is essential.

This holds true for a South Beach resident who made his way from Ukraine seven years ago. He landed a job as a truck driver and knew enough English words to read road markers like "stop," "do not enter," and "one-way."

He explained his habit of pulling the truck to a halt so he could hold up street names written on a scrap of paper. He checked if the words matched the sign exactly.

"You learn letters are close but meanings are different and can send you in another direction," he said through his wife, who translated. He still only knows a handful of English words.

He recalled his first trek down Route 9 South in New Jersey, which landed him right back where he started several hours later, the goods undelivered. Indeed, he recognized digits on the signs but, at the time, could not distinguish "north" from "south."

"I could figure the numbers," he said. "The words with letters were hard to read."

He now works in construction.

NATIVE LANGUAGES

"The real problem is people who don't leave their community," Murphy said. "Some people can come to New York and not learn the language at all."

She uses the Chinese and Hispanic communities as an example: The groups have a healthy support network in their native languages, thanks to newspapers, television and ethnic markets.

"Problems arise with parking tickets and filling out forms, but New York is an international city." In the end, she said, immigrants do "quite well and find ways of resolving problems."

Nimal Muthugalge, an Elm Park resident who came from Sri Lanka 15 years ago, is a cook in a North Shore restaurant. In the past, he has worked only with Sri Lankans. Recently, though, he has encountered Mexicans on the job. "I speak broken Spanish," he said. "Sometimes I use sign language. It's very hard."

Mexican-born Martin Melendez, Muthugalge's co-worker, knows English words related to the kitchen, yet he's far from bilingual. Melendez knows that English is important, but he takes time to instruct Muthugalge in Spanish words. He's open to picking up Sinhalase, a tongue of Sri Lanka. Speaking in Spanish, Melendez said, "It's not difficult. I understand him." And, as far as his Sri Lankan colleague is concerned, it does not matter how the words come out; the food gets out and the work gets done, he said.

The bottom line is that we are dealing with one complicated language. Regardless, we all do our best to communicate.
 

By Pamela Silvestri
Reprinted here with permission from the