Strand businesses becoming multi-lingual

By Steve Porter
The Herald

Street signs remain in English

Myrtle Beach—The influx of foreigners into the Myrtle Beach area has sparked fears among some residents that the city might become a bi-lingual community such as Miami, San Antonio or San Diego where Spanish seems at times to be the predominant language on the street. One of the gripes heard most often is about the local business telephone answering machine that requests the caller to press “1” for English.

There is no doubt about the influx of foreign language speaking people and it’s hard to ignore the fact that many Grand Strand businesses are providing information to consumers and workers in two languages, if not more in some cases.

Most of the big box stores, in fact, routinely post signs and advertising in both English and Spanish.

Myrtle Beach’s city government is also trying to accommodate non-English speaking visitors and immigrants. Mark Kruea, the city’s public information officer, says the city has no plans at this point to start posting bi-lingual street signs and other services as one might find in a city such as Miami.

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