Uno de los asuntos más importantes en la intersección del transporte y el medio ambiente en el sur de California es… el español.  Por supuesto, hay muchos residentes de la región que hablan español, o como su idioma único o al costado del inglés.  Y todos estos hispanohablantes usan el sistema de transportación, o en algunos casos, proveen servicios de transporte, y todos viven y respiran aquí.  Por eso es importante que puedan comunicarse efectivamente con los que toman decisiones sobre el ambiente, el transporte, o los dos.

 

One of the most important issues at the intersection of transportation and the environment in Southern California is… Spanish.  Of course, many residents of this region speak Spanish, either as their only language or alongside English.  And all these Spanish-speakers use the transportation system, or in some cases provide transportation services, and they all live and breathe here.  This is why it’s important for them to be able to communicate effectively with decision makers in matters of the environment, transportation, or both.

 

This was certainly clear earlier this week as the Long Beach Harbor Commissioners heard five hours of public testimony in advance of their decision on the remaining elements of the port’s Clean Truck Program.  An apparent majority of port truck drivers are Hispanic, and a good portion of those testifying on Tuesday afternoon did so in Spanish, with the aid of an interpreter.  Most testified to the financial difficulty, or impossibility, of upgrading their individually owned trucks to meet the new emission standards being set by the Port.  I hope most drivers will find creative ways to work with trucking companies to take advantage of grants and leases the Port will offer to help fund the industry’s transition to cleaner trucks.

 

My post today is actually not about the port trucking program, which simply provides a very clear example.  My point is that we have, collectively, a responsibility to seek ways to communicate with each other.  This is especially true where elected, or appointed, representatives make decisions on behalf of the broader community.

 

When I started my consulting business in 2006, I took a month off first and went to Querétaro, México, to spend four weeks at a Spanish language school.  I already spoke Spanish, having taken four years of it in junior high and high school.  However, that was a very long time ago and I’ve used it little since.  After four weeks of one-on-one instruction, five hours a day, five days a week, I advanced to the point where, I liked to say, I made errors with much greater confidence.  The paragraph above represents my best written effort, and I’m sure it contains some errors as well.  I’m still shy about speaking Spanish and I usually have a hard time understanding native speakers.

 

But I have tried to reduce one barrier to communication with other people in my community.  Languages are expressive, often graceful; they hold and convey human culture; but they can also be complete barriers to communication.  To finally get to my point:  if you can, learn other languages.  Choose them to suit your own needs, but try not to live inside an English-only world.  If you have kids, encourage them to learn other languages, as many as they can handle and as fully as they can.  Youth is the best time to learn, and to this day I wish I had gone farther with Spanish when my brain was still elastic enough to hold it.  Non-English-speaking immigrants have the same responsibility to try to become effective communicators in their new home.  If we all make these efforts, we are likelier to find ways to get along and ultimately, to prosper.