Getting booted out of an automated phone system with the recorded voice saying "Thank you and good-bye" is known as "voice-mail jail." It's an insulting way of handling one's customers/clients and its enough to make me not want to deal with any company that chooses to structure their auto-phone system that way. People feel very strongly that they have a right to speak to a human being if they so choose.
As for "Press 1 for English" I find it only mildly annoying simply because (yeah you guys are gonna bitch at me for this one) no other langauge gets that kind of a free pass in our culture --no other language did for that matter in all of American history. (But I am duly noting MaryMumsy's mention of French in Maine.) Take for instance Italian Americans --a vast ocean of immigrants spanning many decades of wave after wave of First Generation arrivals at Ellis Island-- they never got that kind of a free pass. They had to learn English and there were no such dual language anythings for them outside of some merchants in some urban neighborhoods who hired an English speaking Italian lad as part time help in the shop, and utilized him as an interpreter when the situation called for it.
I know learning a new language is hard, but there is a "sense" of things that doesn't seem right here. The sense of things is this:
--Established residents, and welcome new comers.
--Established langauge, and outsiders' language.
The idea of American being the Great Melting Pot means that the newcomers have to melt themselves in to the existing culture. But remaining for too long behind the barrier of one's native langauge prevents that melting from happening, or at least slows it down considerably.
As for me, I'm Irish American. And I have heard the tales from my parents and grandparents of the extreme hostilties that Irish immigrants and their children all suffered for many generations in this nation -- and they spoke English! Even in the 1950's, "help wanted" signs graced the windows of many businesses in America, with the caveat of
"No Irish Need Apply" (aka the "NINA" designation for help wanted signs in windows and help wanted ads in local newspapers). It wasn't until JFK became president that Irish Americans were finally accepted by mainstream Americans AS actual Americans. Italian Americans didn't become accepted into the mainstream until the early 1980's. BOTH groups were denied access to the Grownups' Table for way too long.
The barriers that divided past historical ethnic groups from the mainstream included langauge and religion and culture. So it was with the Germans, and the Norwegians, and the Polish, and the Irish, and the Italians, and the Chinese, and so many others. And now here in the 21st century, we're seeing the same thing all over again with the Hispanics. The langauge barrier is only one aspect of several that will keep them from full acceptance for far too long. But I see these present-day EXTREMES of langauge accomodation for Hispanics as delaying for even longer what will certainly be an already way too long delay of their full arrival at a place of acceptance.
While I appreciate and applaud governmental agencies (in our Post-Miranda Rights Supreme Court Ruling society) for trying to accomodate Hispanic people (and other non-English speakers), I do not see private businesses as doing them long-term good by accomodating them. I merely see business making the shrewd business decision of "Gee, guys, Hispanic dollars are just as good as English-speaking dollars, so let's court Hispanic bsusiness by having fluent Spanish/English speakers in customer service," (much like the merchant in my above example who might hire an English-speaking Italian kid). But that's just money to them, it's not humanity or community. So I think if Master Card and General Motors REALLY wanted to do some societal good, they should simultaneously give charitable support to ESL-language classes throughout our major cities. That's the whole "give a man a fish" principle right there in my estimation.
