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Miami is the only place in the US where I can remember being stopped by Spanish-speaking tourists for directions or to make conversation and they'd just start speaking to me in Spanish. Or restaurants or stores I'd walk into just assume I spoke fluent Spanish. I sort of look like a Cuban though, so it's understandable. A lot of Miami just feels like a Latin American city however, so I expect it there.
I grew up around Mexicans in California and they rarely assumed I knew Spanish when I'd walk into a restaurant or store--so if I did start speaking Spanish they'd be surprised. Of course the Korean convenience store owners in my town always thought I was a Mexican so they'd always say the few Spanish phrases that they knew when I walked in as a kid--it was sort of cute... Of course most of the Mexicans I were friends with were either second generation(who usually knew more Spanglish than real Spanish) or third generation(who barely knew any more Spanish than me and would end up taking it in high school and get a B).
Maybe in a few places with really heavily Mexican populations on the West Coast in places I've lived near--like Watsonville, California or Woodburn, Oregon or parts of Los Angeles, people might just assume you know Spanish--but at the same time it's not as if most people won't speak English to you as well.
Miami is the only place in the US where I can remember being stopped by Spanish-speaking tourists for directions or to make conversation and they'd just start speaking to me in Spanish. Or restaurants or stores I'd walk into just assume I spoke fluent Spanish. I sort of look like a Cuban though, so it's understandable. A lot of Miami just feels like a Latin American city however, so I expect it there.
I grew up around Mexicans in California and they rarely assumed I knew Spanish when I'd walk into a restaurant or store--so if I did start speaking Spanish they'd be surprised. Of course the Korean convenience store owners in my town always thought I was a Mexican so they'd always say the few Spanish phrases that they knew when I walked in as a kid--it was sort of cute... Of course most of the Mexicans I were friends with were either second generation(who usually knew more Spanglish than real Spanish) or third generation(who barely knew any more Spanish than me and would end up taking it in high school and get a B).
Maybe in a few places with really heavily Mexican populations on the West Coast in places I've lived near--like Watsonville, California or Woodburn, Oregon or parts of Los Angeles, people might just assume you know Spanish--but at the same time it's not as if most people won't speak English to you as well.
My experience also growing up in San Antonio. My work location is in the heavily Hispanic Southside of town. The restaurants I sometimes patronize, the Hispanics patrons and restaurant workers may speak Spanish to each other but never to me. The color the establisments' care about the most is green. As a matter of fact Hispanic friends and coworkers use the word yall just like everbody else!
About 30% of Fall River, Massachusetts speaks Portuguese, not Spanish, but it was the largest city I could find with a large population of non-Spanish/English speakers.
Most Hispanics will try to use English if you don't know Spanish, I lived and worked in Miami for a few years with my wife and her family doesn't speak English and i know only the amount of Spanish that a 2 year old watching dora knows. They lived in the Hialeigh area which almost everything is done in Spanish but easy enough to find younger people who could translate for you. Funny thing is its kind of fun having a mother-in-law that can't understand me and i can't understand her... saves a lot of headaches lol. But when we need to communicate we use our hands a lot and go thru a list of words to find something that can get our point across.
Did you know that 50 percent of the city of Los Angeles is hispanic? that's 2 million of the city's 4 million residents. There's your answer.
Of that 50% Hispanic population-- how many of them actually speak Spanish?
Anyway, the answer definitely is Miami-- that is a spanish-speaking city through and through. Whether one is in Coconut Grove, Hialeah, South Beach, Aventura, etc-- Spanish is heard everywhere.
I live in south FL about 30 mins north of Miami and when I go to Miami I can only speak English and have never had a problem either. I feel as if it's a Spanish speaking city, but also very multi-lingual and very heavily visited by tourists, so u hear languages from all over the globe spoken, not just Spanish, but German, French Creole, English, Portuguese, etc
I live in California. I've visited San Antonio and other areas of Texas, and I've never experienced an area where the only language was Spanish. There are neighborhoods and communities where most everybody speaks Spanish, but I can't imagine that the entire population there wouldn't speak some English. The children and workers who make better money all speak English. Even in Mexico, when I lived there for a year, there were lots of Mexicans who also spoke English. There would be rare occasions where Spanish was the only choice, but I can't imagine that to be the case anywhere in the US. I mean, anywhere where out of 10,000 people, nobody spoke English.
Interesting question. I enjoyed the Wikipedia link.
I live in California. I've visited San Antonio and other areas of Texas, and I've never experienced an area where the only language was Spanish. There are neighborhoods and communities where most everybody speaks Spanish, but I can't imagine that the entire population there wouldn't speak some English. The children and workers who make better money all speak English. Even in Mexico, when I lived there for a year, there were lots of Mexicans who also spoke English. There would be rare occasions where Spanish was the only choice, but I can't imagine that to be the case anywhere in the US. I mean, anywhere where out of 10,000 people, nobody spoke English.
Interesting question. I enjoyed the Wikipedia link.
Of course it wouldn be 0 out of 10,000 people, but there are towns, especially near the boarder in South Texas, SoCal, SoAz, SoNM, and SoFla, in which a good portion of those towns have Spanish-speakers who know very little English.
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Of that 50% Hispanic population-- how many of them actually speak Spanish?
