Why do so few Mexicans speak basic English? (moving, bill, businesses)

[Ian_Lee]

Never been to Tijuana but have been to Laredo and Nuevo Laredo.

In Laredo, the town exactly looks like a Mexican town. People speak Spanish. But if you speak English, you are perfectly understood.

In Nuevo Laredo, the town is a Mexican town, but more dilapidated even though it is supposed to be "new". Most of the time when I spoke English, I was not understood.

But in the brothel the Mexican girls did understand basic English.

[Ian_Lee]

There is a reason that American tourists eat at McDonald in a foreign country, especially those 3rd world countries. I guess the reasons are:

(1) With the exception of those Scandinavian countries, food price in McDonald worldwide are generally cheaper than those in U.S.
(2) They are homesick
(3) They don't know what to order in eatery that serves local food
(4) McDonald worldwide maintains a certain sanitary condition that tourists can put their hearts at ease dining there
(5) They know if they get food poisoning, they can sue albeit most overseas McDonald operate under franchise

[Ian_Lee]

But the communication problem is not confined to McDonald in Tijuana.

I have been given the wrong items in local McDonald for so many times. Except the manager, most of the staff in McDonald speak broken English. Moreover, the young seems to shun working in McDonald. Those cashier are all grandmas who seem to have hearing problems and are fresh from the plane 90 days ago since they barely speak English.

Even paying $10.5/hr, McDonald still has a hard time to find qualified workers.

[keyhero]

I have gone through the 22 pages of this thread to have a decent opinion, read all of your posts and my perception as a mexican in all of this matter is this:

Yeah, Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers in the world and everything you have in this country will be, written, spoken, broadcasted and/or published in SPANISH. not only that, Mexico produces more TV shows, radio programs, books, music and internent content than any other spanish speaking country, in fact, we export all of that to the other 18 Spanish speaking countries in the continent, and Spain, as well as we import from them. Spanish is the third most used language on the internet, so most of what you are looking for will be in Spanish. Therefore, there is almost no need for Mexicans (and even Latinamerincans in general) to learn English.

Mexico is a world of its own, we have our own culture (whether other people like it or not), and most mexicans embrace it and love it. Part of that culture has a resentment towards Americans and the US, due to several factors, mainly racism. So, a the vast mayority of mexicans aren't interested in learning English out of prejudice. And as I mentioned before, Mexico is a huge country with great relationships with the rest of the Spanish speaking countries, so different from small countries in Europe who NEED to lern another language because otherwise they wouldn't have communication with anybody else.

A girl in a McDonald's in a touristy area in TJ who doesn't understand basic English is not an indicator of anything, maybe she can understand but didn't want to answer you due to your attitude, or she was just so proud of her language and the fact that you are in her country that it was like a pride thing to make you speak Spanish or at least try to. Or perhaps, she was just recently hired in that store and she was so nervous she just froze. There may be a million reasons why she did that other than just say "She doesn't speak English".

Now, as the High school and University ESL teacher I am I can tell you, English is mandatory in Middle school and High school, but guess what? Most of the teachers only teach grammar, beacuse that is what the curricula says, there has been a new reform to that curricula, but to be honest it is the most stupid thing I have ever seen, the govenrment adopted the curricula of those programs from the UK where they teach English to new comers. to England, so my students see this as something they are not related to, E.G. today we will talk about time schedules in airports and train stations (México doesn't have a train service for people) and most of my students have never been in an airport, let alone a flight. I know I could change that for busses, but still, we have only 3 50-minute classes a week, 48 classes a semester (minus special activities, etc) with 50-60 students per class, who have no motivation to learn the language, who have their own problems, who have more desire to pass a subject rather than learn it, who don't have any other space to really practice the new language other than the classroom. So, what do you really expext? English speakers in the lowest-paid-job-in-the-most-Spanish-speaking-country-in-the-world?

I understand your point of view, you talk about how Asians speak decent English (at least the younger ones) but they have the interest and the need, Mexicans in general don't, even if it is for a few more dollars, most of them just want to get along with life and enjoy it and not be so obssesed with making more money. It's a cultural thing I don't expect you to understand.

Just my two cents.

[l1995]

This is a ridiculous thread, why would you expect anyone in a non-English speaking country to speak English?

[l1995]

I highly, highly doubt most people in China speak passable English

Definitely not more so than people in Mexico

[l1995]

Originally Posted by Mattks

I've always thought the US should press English language requirements into our free trade agreements. English should be compulsory for 4 years in any country we have free trade agreements with us. Why we haven't pressured Latin America to teach English in schools is beyond me. Travel to every other continent in the world, Europe, Asia, and Africa and it's entirely possible to get around with only English. It's always good to know some of the local languages, but almost everywhere uses English for trade and tourism.

But I've traveled around Mexico quite a bit and more and more young people do know some English, but it's not on par with even somewhere like China or Vietnam.

Not true, I went to Spain and most people there did not speak English. And I've been to France too, while they generally speak basic English, they often don't like to use it.

Most Americans are monolingual unless their parents are immigrants from a non-English speaking country, so why should we pressure other countries to teach their students more English?

[l1995]

Originally Posted by keyhero

I have gone through the 22 pages of this thread to have a decent opinion, read all of your posts and my perception as a mexican in all of this matter is this:

Yeah, Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers in the world and everything you have in this country will be, written, spoken, broadcasted and/or published in SPANISH. not only that, Mexico produces more TV shows, radio programs, books, music and internent content than any other spanish speaking country, in fact, we export all of that to the other 18 Spanish speaking countries in the continent, and Spain, as well as we import from them. Spanish is the third most used language on the internet, so most of what you are looking for will be in Spanish. Therefore, there is almost no need for Mexicans (and even Latinamerincans in general) to learn English.

Mexico is a world of its own, we have our own culture (whether other people like it or not), and most mexicans embrace it and love it. Part of that culture has a resentment towards Americans and the US, due to several factors, mainly racism. So, a the vast mayority of mexicans aren't interested in learning English out of prejudice. And as I mentioned before, Mexico is a huge country with great relationships with the rest of the Spanish speaking countries, so different from small countries in Europe who NEED to lern another language because otherwise they wouldn't have communication with anybody else.

A girl in a McDonald's in a touristy area in TJ who doesn't understand basic English is not an indicator of anything, maybe she can understand but didn't want to answer you due to your attitude, or she was just so proud of her language and the fact that you are in her country that it was like a pride thing to make you speak Spanish or at least try to. Or perhaps, she was just recently hired in that store and she was so nervous she just froze. There may be a million reasons why she did that other than just say "She doesn't speak English".

Now, as the High school and University ESL teacher I am I can tell you, English is mandatory in Middle school and High school, but guess what? Most of the teachers only teach grammar, beacuse that is what the curricula says, there has been a new reform to that curricula, but to be honest it is the most stupid thing I have ever seen, the govenrment adopted the curricula of those programs from the UK where they teach English to new comers. to England, so my students see this as something they are not related to, E.G. today we will talk about time schedules in airports and train stations (México doesn't have a train service for people) and most of my students have never been in an airport, let alone a flight. I know I could change that for busses, but still, we have only 3 50-minute classes a week, 48 classes a semester (minus special activities, etc) with 50-60 students per class, who have no motivation to learn the language, who have their own problems, who have more desire to pass a subject rather than learn it, who don't have any other space to really practice the new language other than the classroom. So, what do you really expext? English speakers in the lowest-paid-job-in-the-most-Spanish-speaking-country-in-the-world?

I understand your point of view, you talk about how Asians speak decent English (at least the younger ones) but they have the interest and teed, Mexicans in general don't, even if it is for a few more dollars, most of them just want to get along with life and enjoy it and not be so obssesed with making more money. It's a cultural thing I don't expect you to understand.

Just my two cents.

I don't think Asians are any more likely to speak English than Latinos.

[l1995]

Why does OP think that Chinese people all speak English? I've met plenty here in New York who barely speak any English. I doubt the average person in China can speak conversational English.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Originally Posted by Bettafish

I'm in Tijuana, Mexico now. I'm surprised by the low level of English prificiency ordinary people have here, considering it's only 10 minutes away from the US border.

When I went to McDonald's to order some nuggets and fries, the service girl could not even say words like medium, large in English. And she could not repeat the price in English either. So I had to pretend and guess all the time.

When I had some trouble exiting the garage, the security guy (in early 20s) could not understand any English.

Yes there are people speaking very good English, such as the ones in my hotel. However, I wonder if English is compulsory in schools here? Or any foreign language?

It is not to blame them. Just curious.

Why would you expect Mexicans in Mexico to speak English? That would be like moving to Minnesota and then complain about the cold weather.

Once you get a way from the US state's that border Mexico, plus Colorado and Nevada, and the areas of the country that have a large population of Hispanics, such as South Florida, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, and possibly Connecticut, you'll be hard pressed to find Americans who speak Spanish, or any language other than English. Actually, in every area of the US, you'll be hard pressed to find people other than Hispanics who speak Spanish fluently. That's just a fact.