???? [It's supposed to be Chinese for "Convenience Store", but Blogger don't do that.]
Marrickville will go to a vote on whether shop signs must include English. Apparently, some residents, or Councillors, anyway, are concerned about Asian-language shop signs they can’t read. What? Do they think they’re selling crack? (???? [Again, no non-Roman characters available, so never mind, don't bother contacting the Laowai; you'll have a pretty good idea what it probably said, anyway.]) Now, I’m all for being able to find a tea-smoked duck at the lowest price, or I would be if I was eating duck, let alone wasn’t thoroughly grossed-out by the shop display usual to such places as sell it, but this is forced assimilation and a little silly. It would be indicative of a desire to integrate for such shop owners as are deliberately catering to a particular ethnicity that they include English, and I’m sure delicatessens and bodegas anywhere in the English-speaking-majority world could attest to more success by expanding their signage past Hebrew or Yiddish and Spanish. I couldn’t begin to count the number of “Sino-Latino” restaurants I used to see in NYC, and back when I lived in Queens, it was a multicultural delight to walk into the local Chinese take-out joint and find it was run by Koreans who spoke English and Spanish as well as their native language. But, again, isn’t this just (legislatively) catering to a xenophobic few, already well-serviced by shops providing for mainstream consumers, who are otherwise intimidated by an immigrant presence maintaining their cultural identity through language and custom without otherwise interfering with the day-to-day lives of anyone else? If the shop’s signage puts you off, don’t go in. Or even better, go in and ask questions. What’s this? How much is it? Etc. Buy something. The operators may realize they’re missing out on some income.