Non-Hispanic whites in Miami-- are they able to integrate well within this Latin city? (moving, vacation)

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by ray1945

I am a she and if you go back and read my posts, I consistently refer to "bilingual" workers, neighbors, etc. Do I need to define "bilingual" for you??

sorry bout mistaking your gender.

[Blackscorpion]

Originally Posted by soulsea

I was born in Paris, but my nationality of origin is Greek. I grew up mostly in Paris and Athens, but my mother lived in Italy so I also picked up Italian from spending a lot of my time there. I moved to the US at the age of 16 speaking fragmented English, and other than a few years away working in London in the 90s I have lived in the US for appox. 25yrs.

So I speak Greek, French, Italian, and English. Mind you, one picks up languages very easily at a young age, so it is by no means any indication of any sort of personal achievement ... more a result of happenstance + necessity.

That's why I'm kind of curious to see how my 45yo brain will cope with attempting to introduce a new language into its diminishing storage space. Maybe its just a natural result of my life experience, but I find the notion of learning Spanish to ease my interaction with the South Florida culture as something interesting and exciting, as opposed to an inconvenient burden.

Wow that is amazing..i myself am wanting to learn French amd Italian next

[Blackscorpion]

Originally Posted by unquiltom

I have a feeling my views on this won't be too popular, but as a non-hispanic white who has just recently moved here from California, I feel very much like an outsider here. There seems to be an unspoken kinship among the Latin Americans in Miami and the non-spanish speaker is just someone to be used for money or anything else that benefits the Latin American community. When I bought a house here, my financial situation, of course, had to be revealed to the Cubans who were handling my purchase. I thought they were trying to help me when they recommended an insurance agent and a home inspection company, (both Latin American owned companies) but both of them were just trying to get as much money out of me as they could and provided less than expected service in exchange. I have a feeling they were told that I had some money in the bank and that they should try and get as much of it as they can.
I've made no new friends in the 10 months I've been here. My neighbors, both Latin Americans, have been polite, but not friendly. I've had almost daily battles with the parents that come to pick up their kids from the middle school across the street from me. Apparently, parking in someones driveway is considered acceptable in the L. A. culture, in my world, it's called trespassing, but they get upset and argumentative when I ask them to not park in my driveway.
Even at my work, where there is a larger number of non-hispanics than you would expect considering the area demographics, there is still a separation where the L. A.'s socialize and speak to each other in Spanish and don't include the non-hispanics.
I know it sounds like I should just pack it in an leave for other locations, but I've committed myself to living here and plan on sticking out, taking the good with the bad as best I can.

Umm no its not. In mexico if you park somewhere where you are not supposed to, then they can tow your car. Just put a sign that says no estacionarse, se usa grua. That will get the message across

[Blackscorpion]

Originally Posted by Sugah Ray

Yes many people say that but none of them consider themselves non white while many hispanics are called mixed or biracial for the same thing. As long as you don't speak spanish, you can always be white unless one of your parents is a 100% black, asian or native american. Hispanics too bad, you are not white unless you can prove that all of your ancestors for the last 520 years came from Europe.

A poor soul In the Mexico board was concerned that he might have Ameridian ancestors so he felt the need to ask anonymous posters if he and his family looked "European" Someone told him he looked Euro-mestizo.

What an idiotic thing to say, so you can be white if your parents are not 100% black or asian but if you're hispanic then you're screwed? You do realize that most hispanics have spanish blood in them right? And spain is in europe so...

[Blackscorpion]

Originally Posted by doggiebus

^^^Because this country as a majority doesn't speak spanish, english is the language spoken by most people in this country. By learning English immigrants show respect to this country as well as assimilate into the America culture. When my mother came to this country she learned english, when I go to her home country I don't expect them to speak english. I speak the language of that country out of respect and the immigrants coming to this country should learn english out respect to this country. They shouldn't expect people here to speak their language, that is just arrogant and disrespectful of them.

Amd tell that to the americans that refused to speak amd learn spanish when they lived what was then called mexico

[Blackscorpion]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime69

"preserving your cultural heritage"
um, if you're so desperate to cling to ur cultural heritage...perhaps stay in the country that has ur cultural heritage...instead of moving to a new country and expecting them to change.

No, you deal with it. At the very least your ancestors are from europe which means they couldnt hack it there and whined and complained and then left. Now you are being i tolerant just like other people were i tolerant to your ancestors, sounds hypocritical to me

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by Blackscorpion

Amd tell that to the americans that refused to speak amd learn spanish when they lived what was then called mexico

very true the USA never followed what mexico said they had to do to live in Texas.

[Blackscorpion]

Originally Posted by BigSicily954

Learn English, period.

This is a mostly English speaking NATION.

This isn't Puerto Rico. I don't give a damn what "region" this is, this "region" is still in America.

What's going on in Miami is equivalent to 1 million Americans moving to an area of Puerto Rico and changing the language to English and expecting Puerto Ricans to adapt to us.

When you move to a country you learn the native language, PERIOD. You move to Italy, you better learn Italian. You move to Colombia, you better learn Spanish. You move to America, it's cool, keep speaking Spanish. SMH

All of the other countless nationalities that moved to America adapted to English. EVERYBODY.

that is not true at all. Americans moved into what was then mexico amd they refused to speak spanish. Even now when americans go to mexico, where do they go? They go to all the tourist hotspots that speak English. So dont give me that crap that everyone learns english, when americans wont even botber themselves with learning another language when they have to

[doggiebus]

It doesn't matter if Americans do or don't learn other languages. The spoken language of most people in this country is english, which all new immigrants should be required to learn to get their citizenship.

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by doggiebus

It doesn't matter if Americans do or don't learn other languages. The spoken language of most people in this country is english, which all new immigrants should be required to learn to get their citizenship.

I know English but don't force me to speak it.