On 2005-08-27, Jay Honeck wrote:
they certainly would never have dreamed of all the bi-lingual crap we must
deal with every day, from ATMs to voice mail systems.

Nothing wrong with multi-lingual ATMs - it's easy, it's just done in
software. I rather like it on the very occasional visit I make to
France. In fact, the ATMs here won't ask you a language if your bank
card is recognised as local.

Let me describe this issue in cold economic facts, rather than the emotion
of English versus Spanish: For every million shoppers who must spend an
average of 3 seconds (probably far longer) trying to figure out which button
to push (Spanish or English), that is 34.7 DAYS spent wasting everyone's
time in line, making a stupid, unnecessary choice.

No it isn't. Most people have realised by now you can swipe your card
whilst the checker is scanning the goods. Therefore the tasks are
happening in paralell - unless it takes you SO LONG to make that
selection that the checker beats you scanning the items.

In any case, it certainly doesn't take me 3 seconds to choose the
language. It's hardly something that needs "figuring out" unless you're
functionally illiterate.

The people who are really wasting time are those who insist on paying
for $3 worth of groceries with a check!

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
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