Why do i need to speak spanish ! (elect, kids, state)
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Am retired in Baja Mexico and therefore have to show respect to the locals by speaking Spanish the best that I can. I do not ask anyone to learn English to accommodate my needs being that I am in a Host country. The same would be needed for any other country. I also speak Hungarian (my 1st tongue) of which am not able to practice being where I live. Then again we cannot have it all...I just go with the flow. Steve
I'm sure you'll find the locals respect the fact that you are learning and trying. I agree, that one should speak the predominant language of the area they live.
Where are you in Baja? I lived there for a little over 2 years...
Am retired in Baja Mexico and therefore have to show respect to the locals by speaking Spanish the best that I can. I do not ask anyone to learn English to accommodate my needs being that I am in a Host country. The same would be needed for any other country. I also speak Hungarian (my 1st tongue) of which am not able to practice being where I live. Then again we cannot have it all...I just go with the flow. Steve
And; sir, you are being respectful towards Mexico and its people.
Regarding using your foreign language skills in a job environment:
I use Spanish in my job nearly every day. Many businesses are global these days, and our clients require us to protect their IP rights abroad. You have to file documents in the language of the country where doing business, so it's useless that the population of a foreign country speaks English as a second language. We still need to know how to represent our clients in each language. My job's not going anywhere, and if I didn't speak both English and Spanish, there's someone else who would. Many in our firm speak a variety of languages. This is taken from our intranet contact list when we need to find someone to provide translations.
Language Arabic Cantonese Chinese (Mandarin) Croatian Dutch Farsi Finnish French German Hebrew Hungarian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Norwegian Philipino (Tagalog) Portuguese Punjabi Russian Sign Language Spanish Swedish Taiwanese Urdu/Hindi Vietnamese
In your case: your firm provides a service as stated---------so; having people on staff who speak the listed languages is quite appropriate
Very true.... When only 25% of americans have a passport it is obvious that they don't need to know another language. The operative word here is NEED. Many of these folks looking to impose a second language tend to over look the fact that americans as a whole stay in their own country. They look down on us because many only speak english. The irony is that these egg heads from the universities who look down on common americans couldn't survive outside of academia. Can they repair their home if it were damaged? Most blue collar english speaking folks can.
They are self sufficient and proudly independent. We should never under estimate the blue collar crowd. They are after all the back bone of this great nation. This blue collar guy can speak 2 languages and make his point clear in a few others. That was by choice. Not need.
Exactly. And when Americans do travel to Mexico, many of them eagerly learn at least some Spanish, you often see Americans learn more Spanish for a weeklong vacation in Cancun than immigrants from Mexico learn of English in 20 years of living in this country.
Learning to ask "Where is the bathroom" is no more difficult than learning "Donde esta el bano". If tourists can pick up Spanish so quickly then certainly living here day after day gives no excuse to never learn a single phrase.
If you read my earlier post, you'll know that I said it shouldn't be a requirement that Americans should speak Spanish, just that it would be beneficial if they do. Stick to your way, though, I couldn't care less.
I disagree. When I traveled in Mexico, I did not find it helpful when I was trying to learn Spanish for people to come along and start speaking English to me. And yes, often the people in Mexico are very helpful that way, they'll go out of their way to help a foreigner but the best way to learn a language is through immersion -- or the "sink or swim" method. You can find helpful native speakers who simply are patient but force you to speak their language when you are in their country.
I believe when dealing with immigrants instead of trying to coddle and patronize them, that you speak English, as clearly and correctly as you can. Help them learn English, build their confidence in it. Learning Spanish to accomodate the immigrants that believe they should never have to learn English just promotes their bad attitude.
I disagree. When I traveled in Mexico, I did not find it helpful when I was trying to learn Spanish for people to come along and start speaking English to me. And yes, often the people in Mexico are very helpful that way, they'll go out of their way to help a foreigner but the best way to learn a language is through immersion -- or the "sink or swim" method. You can find helpful native speakers who simply are patient but force you to speak their language when you are in their country.
I believe when dealing with immigrants instead of trying to coddle and patronize them, that you speak English, as clearly and correctly as you can. Help them learn English, build their confidence in it. Learning Spanish to accomodate the immigrants that believe they should never have to learn English just promotes their bad attitude.
We need to finally understand and respect the fact that for many immigrants from spanish speaking countries, to retain spanish through
succeding generations is quite an importanat issue, even when Spanish becomes a second language, and this is true for millions and millions of americans, and it will not change any time soon. I know for example many
third/fourth generation of cubans, puerto-ricans, etc. that have never lived outside the united States, that speak perfect spanish, not just the prototypical, Dondi esta la bano sinor? of the american tourist. And you know what they are proud and happy that they are perfectly bilingual, that is a phenomenon unique of Spanish in the United States and will continue to be an important feature of our great americam bi-culturalism.
We need to finally understand and respect the fact that for many immigrants from spanish speaking countries, to retain spanish through
succeding generations is quite an importanat issue, even when Spanish becomes a second language, and this is true for millions and millions of americans, and it will not change any time soon. I know for example many
third/fourth generation of cubans, puerto-ricans, etc. that have never lived outside the united States, that speak perfect spanish, not just the prototypical, Dondi esta la bano sinor? of the american tourist. And you know what they are proud and happy that they are perfectly bilingual, that is a phenomenon unique of Spanish in the United States and will continue to be an important feature of our great americam bi-culturalism.
Incorrect.
Most American 'Latinos' by the third generation have little or no command of Spanish.
Many Chicanos/Cholos in California 30 years could not speak a lick of Spanish if their lives depended on it.
What gets me is why so many Americans of Mexican lineage even acknowledge; let alone embrace the Spanish language. The conquistadors mistreated the Indians/Mestizos to be polite.
That's not what's happening though. In many areas of the USA, people living here cannot communicate with one another. Where I live a very large portion of the population speaks no English at all, and there are some who speak no Spanish.
It's very bad for a country to become so divided along language lines. It's not a benefit financially to speak Spanish. The Spanish speakers have the lowest income jobs, those who speak English the highest incomes but there is also a lot of discrimination in hiring against English speakers. It is discrimination when native speakers of Spanish are given many more job opportunities even if not the higher paying jobs. That does discriminate against people of non-Mexican backgrounds.
How are we as a Country supposed to rally everyone the next time we have a disaster? We have had a war every 20 or so years and so far we have been very lucky it hasn't been on US soil. How do we evac millions of people or call them to arms and fight as a unit if we can't even speak the same language? Imagine an entire State without electricity and trying to do logistics with millions of people that can't understand each other.
Most American 'Latinos' by the third generation have little or no command of Spanish.
Many Chicanos/Cholos in California 30 years could not speak a lick of Spanish if their lives depended on it.
What gets me is why so many Americans of Mexican lineage even acknowledge; let alone embrace the Spanish language. The conquistadors mistreated the Indians/Mestizos to be polite.
You probably live some other reality, but that is just not true, why don't you check with Telemundo or Univision spanish language tv networks in the US, and check their audiences, some times rivaling the "traditional" networks audiences.
I know thousands of hispanic families, and in the overwhelming majority of them spanish is preserved through generations, in fact the few that don't
bother learning spanish early on, regret it, and then you see them as adults desperately trying to learn spanish.You should know this, you live in a spanish prevalent town.
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