Spanish

[Hyun-Soo]

Originally Posted by Gennaver

Hello,
Not sure why not here but, back home in Chicago the Japanese/Korean/Chinese adn Indian communities do business in their native languages and have signs and newspapers in them as well. Regardless of de facto languages, we are all human.
Gen

Yes, But that is irrelevant to the question.

Those types of business have almost 100% customers of there nationalities. That is why they speak their language there. It's comfort to speak your language and be with your old cultures and home's people. You don't see many African Americans stepping into a Korean grocery store. That is why Korean is mostly spoken in a KOREAN Grocery store. But they are for the most part bilingual--English and Korean. If they go to WalMart, they will speak English to the cashier.

[SanAntoQT]

I realize this thread is about two weeks old, but I just found it.

Anyway...I just wanted to comment that Spanish is not the language being spoken in San Antonio. It's Spanglish...Tex-Mex..espingles. I know because I speak it fluently! I've since learned to speak proper Spanish, but only because I was forced into learning it. I was offered a position where I would be communicating with Latin American clients on a daily basis. Nothing like immersion for quick learning!

It's funny, though, you would think that living in San Diego, which is much closer to the border, I would have more use for Spanish. I'm still trying to find an opportunity to do so.

[ChrisSA_wxatUIW]

More and more these days, employers are looking for bilingual employees for this very reason.

Did you know that the United States DOES NOT have an official language??

[Eleanor Rigby]

Anyway...I just wanted to comment that Spanish is not the language being spoken in San Antonio. It's Spanglish...Tex-Mex..espingles. I know because I speak it fluently! I've since learned to speak proper Spanish, but only because I was forced into learning it. I was offered a position where I would be communicating with Latin American clients on a daily basis. Nothing like immersion for quick learning!

When I was in high school, I went to a prep school in New Hampshire, and got placed in an advanced level Spanish class because I had done well on the placement exam. The teacher was a very elegant, very formal man from Zaragoza, and the first time he ever heard me speak he got a very pained look on his face and said, "You. You must be from Texas."

That was a really fun year. He finally beat most, but not all, of the Spanglish out of my vocabulary ("It is NOT called 'el trucke', Miss Rigby! It is 'el camion'!"), but he never could do much to refine my accent. The funniest part is, I would come back home over the summer and speak in Spanish only to have people down here look at me funny and ask me where the hell I'd picked up that crazy accent.

Finally I've come to the point where I have two forms of Spanish - regular, for around here, and my fancy speakin', for when I'm talking to people from Spain or Mexico City.

[SanAntoQT]

I knew I had perfected my Spanish when I was speaking with a client and he asked when I had moved to the U.S. from Mexico. Biggest compliment I could have ever received. He was surprised to discover that I was American.