TT must be more welcoming to visitors

THE EDITOR: The recent reports of the hiccups involving the Venezuelan registration process took me back to one year ago when I was returning on a COPA airlines flight from Panama. On that flight the passengers were mostly Spanish-speaking people.

As the time for touch down approached, the air hostesses handed out the immigration forms. I took mine oblivious to the commotion that was taking place around me. On completion, I looked around and saw most people were struggling. Looking back at my form, I realised that the forms were solely in English. The air hostess tried quickly to to explain the instructions to all passengers, but it was not enough. I felt thoroughly ashamed as a Trinidadian because before visitors arrived to our country, we had made them feel unwelcome. To remedy the situation I found myself attempting to assist passenger after passenger who came to me with my rudimentary CXC Spanish, all grateful for the small postponement of anxiety I offered.

This may sound like a small issue, but on reflecting on it afterwards I realised that I did not face such a problem at all. In my previous trips to Mexico and Peru, both immigration cards were in Spanish and English. They had foreseen the inconvenience I would face in visiting their country and tried to remedy it. For a nation whose close proximity to Latin America once made us a candidate for the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, we should have had the foresight to make such a simple change.

The Venezuelan registration debacle reminded me of this sorry reality. If we are serious about attracting people to our land to invest or visit, the ease of access needs to be changed. This starts with simple gestures like an immigration card or document. It starts at the immigration counter where courtesy must be met with convenience.

English language spoils us. Many years ago as a young secondary school student, I had the opportunity to attend an UNESCO forum where many international delegates were there. As I made my presentation, so many people came to me and in very good English congratulated not so much my content, but my command of English grammar. It was at that point I realised that what I took for granted was a luxury in so many parts of the world. It is a shame that we are not pressured or encouraged to learn another language growing up.

In this regard I fondly remember the late prime minister Patrick Manning. Despite his many flaws in governance, he did have the foresight to advocate that we make Spanish our second official language. Sadly, like every thing else in this country, that dream failed to reach the lofty goals it should have.

Our institutions should strive to make our processes welcoming and convenient for non-English speakers, and we as a people should strive to ensure we are fluent in other tongues. There are many languages we can study, as they all play a role in who we are as a people: Spanish, French, Hindi, Arabic, etc. We will be enriched by such an experience.

Vedavid Manick, Sangre Grande

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"TT must be more welcoming to visitors"

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