Please Speak English at This Ice Cream Shop

This is What’s Trending Today:

You can order plenty of sweet, tasty treats at Leon’s Frozen Custard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The restaurant’s many offerings include hot fudge sundaes, banana splits and root beer floats.

But you cannot order anything in Spanish.

Leon’s Frozen Custard opened in 1942. At that time, not too many people in Milwaukee spoke Spanish. But now many people in the neighborhood close to Leon’s do.

Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin. It is about 140 kilometers north of Chicago, Illinois.

This week, people started talking about the restaurant on Facebook. In fact, Leon’s language policy was one of the top trending topics on Wednesday and Thursday.

That is because the owner of the restaurant, Ron Schneider, wants his workers to speak English all the time -- even if both the employee and customer are Spanish speakers.

When news of the policy came out, Schneider told a television station that he would “prefer if the employees would simply speak English, and encourage those customers who can to speak English.”

Schneider said he is not discriminating against customers who cannot speak English. He just wants English to be the language spoken at his business.

But people reacting on Facebook are not so sure.

Alex Dominguez said, “so much for racism not being dead.”

Gretchen Theisen said that being able to speak the language of your customers is an asset.

Another Milwaukee resident wondered what business was like in the 1940s when Leon’s Frozen Custard first opened. In those days, Milwaukee was home to many German and Polish immigrants who did not speak English.

But many people also agree with Schneider’s policy.

Ron Hofmann said “this is America our official language is English, so speak it or learn to speak it.”

And that’s What’s Trending Today.

I’m Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

Would you be able to order frozen custard at Leon's in English? We want to know. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.