Can you get by in San Antonio not speaking Spanish? (Howe: live, racism)

[HisLilSecret]

Originally Posted by wCat

I was referring to Spanish spoken in Texas beyond the "Tex Mex"...Spanish learned in Mexico and spoken here either by residents or visitors. I attempted an explanation but didn't do a very good job here......>

Ok...now I understand. What I find amusing, though, is when you come across Mexican nationals who have lived here a while using Tex-Mex. Obviously, badly influenced! *lol*

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by wCat

Here's an interesting link that lists the 50 most spoken languages in the world. Chinese is #1 followed by English #2 and Spanish #3. It's also interesting that it lists 8 other "Chinese" language dialects as being separate languages.

The 50 Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World

Uhhh man, you are gonna start another one of those conversations that 90% of people think they are experts when in reality they don't know c... about it.

To put it in few words... how do you determine when a few slangs become a dialect and when a dialect becomes a language?

Portuguese is very similar to spanish, from my point of view, it is a dialect of Spanish (I can understand about 50% of what they say on TV)
The italian pronunciation is identical to Spanish, they just use different words.

Then you have languages called dialects, such as Euskara, the dialect from the Basque region in Spain which has no connection with Spanish.

Greetings:

YouTube - Basic Greetings in Spanish

YouTube - Basic Greetings in Brazilian Portuguese

YouTube - Italian: Top Ten!

Couldn't find one for Euskara (Basque language) but here's a newspaper
Berria.info

[CelesteDF]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Uhhh man, you are gonna start another one of those conversations that 90% of people think they are experts when in reality they don't know c... about it.

To put it in few words... how do you determine when a few slangs become a dialect and when a dialect becomes a language?

Portuguese is very similar to spanish, from my point of view, it is a dialect of Spanish (I can understand about 50% of what they say on TV)
The italian pronunciation is identical to Spanish, they just use different words.

Then you have languages called dialects, such as Euskara, the dialect from the Basque region in Spain which has no connection with Spanish.

Greetings:

YouTube - Basic Greetings in Spanish

YouTube - Basic Greetings in Brazilian Portuguese

YouTube - Italian: Top Ten!

Couldn't find one for Euskara (Basque language) but here's a newspaper
Berria.info

Dopo - if you're going to start criticizing someone for starting conversations they know nothing about, you might want to begin with yourself. First, wCat is a woman, not a man, as you would know if you'd read this board for more than 2 days. Second, Euskara is a language, not a dialect. As you noted, Euskara has no relationship whatsoever with Spanish. It is a pre-Indo European language isolate (meaning it existed in some form in Europe long before Spanish or any of the other Romance languages). If you want an example of a dialect, you can visit Andalusia and Galicia for regional variants of the Spanish language.

[wCat]

Originally Posted by CelesteDF

Dopo - if you're going to start criticizing someone for starting conversations they know nothing about, you might want to begin with yourself. First, wCat is a woman, not a man, as you would know if you'd read this board for more than 2 days. Second, Euskara is a language, not a dialect. As you noted, Euskara has no relationship whatsoever with Spanish. It is a pre-Indo European language isolate (meaning it existed in some form in Europe long before Spanish or any of the other Romance languages). If you want an example of a dialect, you can visit Andalusia and Galicia for regional variants of the Spanish language.

LOL....thanks Celeste...yes, I am female last time I checked!

Dopo.....there is room for debate about different dialects, but for this study, the bottom of the list hold this notation to avoid confusion.

1. Many of the languages listed are technically dialects, not separate languages. They are listed separately because they differ from each other enough to be mutually unintelligible.

I'm sure that's debatable as well.....but it's a disclaimer for this particular list.

BTW - I found another list that had Spanish as number one....and another with English. Take your pick. I'm pretty sure the top three are Chinese, Spanish and English....in various forms.

[sapphire]

The Spanish terms for bathroom, beer, and "Can I have the MILDLY hot sauce, por favor?" have served me well over the last 24 years. The other words I've picked up over time have also come in handy, and I can actually "communicate" in Spanglishese. It's rare that the situation becomes hopeless.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by CelesteDF

Dopo - if you're going to start criticizing someone for starting conversations they know nothing about, you might want to begin with yourself.

Sorry if it sounded as if I was attacking her or critizicing her, because I wasn't

My point is that I'm bilingual and I always get preached about how different spanish is in different countries by people that can barely say hello in Spanish.

I guess Euskara is a different language, but what about Portuguese?
I can understand more Portuguese than Catalan (South-East Spain dialect)

[malamute]

Originally Posted by itsawomanthing

Actually when I first got here last year, I was not hired by a large company, because I was not bi lingual. Their comment was most of my employees that I would be supervising are immigrants and barely spoke English, so they wanted to know how I would be able to communicate effectively with them. I chose to answer that I would show them what I meant, and I was willing to learn Spanish and would be willing to help them with English. I still was not hired, they really wanted a bi lingual person.

It's completely legal racial discrimination. You will see many businesses in Texas that make it a point to hire 100% Mexicans, many of course illegals who cannot speak a word of English. Then by hiring 100% native Spanish speakers (who tend to work for very low pay and no health insurance benefits of course), they can keep justifying anti-American discrimination. They never have to hire a white American, black American. But Americans demand too much anyhow like paid vacations.

[HisLilSecret]

Originally Posted by malamute

It's completely legal racial discrimination. You will see many businesses in Texas that make it a point to hire 100% Mexicans, many of course illegals who cannot speak a word of English. Then by hiring 100% native Spanish speakers (who tend to work for very low pay and no health insurance benefits of course), they can keep justifying anti-American discrimination. They never have to hire a white American, black American. But Americans demand too much anyhow like paid vacations.

There are some AMERICANS of every color who do speak Spanish, so how would that justify "anti-American" discrimination? There is no such thing as "legal" racial discrimination.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by malamute

It's completely legal racial discrimination.

You have a point, even though I don't agree with you completely.


Yes, it could be used to discriminate, but how can you stop it? Affirmative action for english speakers?
Businesses can hire whoever they want, I've had many interviews ranging from McDonalds to American Airlines and when I didn't get hired I never got a letter explaining why I didn't get hire.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by HisLilSecret

There are some AMERICANS of every color who do speak Spanish, so how would that justify "anti-American" discrimination? There is no such thing as "legal" racial discrimination.

Sure there is. If you walked into a business with over 100 employees and noticed 100% of the employees were white, no blacks, you could be sure there was some discrimination but of course this no longer exists. It's very common to see businesses where 100% of the employees are Mexican.

Language is being used to discriminate against national origin. When they require native fluency in Spanish that is exactly what they're doing. No blacks, no whites need apply.

Many construction firms have zero non-Mexican employees. Not a one.