Watching the Republican Presidential Debate the other night on CNN, I was surprised to hear Tancredo, one of the Republican Presidential candidates say on the subject of immigration something to the effect of our immigration policy will not be correct “until we no longer have to press 1 for English and 2 for any other language”. Now, I agree whole heartedly that no interface should say “press 1 for English”, which should be the default, with only “press 2 for Spanish (or another regionally relevant language)” spoken in that native language instead, but I’m surprised to hear a somewhat obscure presidential candidate display such voice user interface design expertise. Of course, that’s not what he meant at all and if you haven’t guessed before, I will now have to reveal my liberal bias. I realize that the republican platform most often includes conservative views on immigration and immigrants and English as the National language, etc., but a statement as direct and harsh (to my ears) as that one just further confirms my general decision to not vote republican. I watched the debate, I liked what some of them had to say, and it’s important to check in like this once in awhile, but every single one of them said at least one thing during the debate that I cannot stomach. Tancredo just crossed by my political as well as my linguistic boundaries.
