Do you get treated with hostility in Miami if you don't know Spanish? (Kendall: city hall, bankrupt)

[boxus]

Originally Posted by Sjd1

Throughout the US there are people who will criticize those who speak other languages by saying "This is America, we speak English". I'm wondering if it's the same in Miami except it would be more "This is Miami, we speak Spanish". Do people who don't know Spanish get hostile treatment?

I have never encountered hostility due to me not speaking Spanish. The rare occasions where I encounter such language barrier, people were very accommodating and everything was worked through just fine.

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

Are there some restaurants that don't have English-language menus?

I have eaten at many places, but I have not encountered this. I am sure it exists somewhere probably.

Originally Posted by BNBR

It doesn't bother you if the restaurant has a menu that you can't read? I know some people are adventurous, but do you just randomly point at the menu and pick whatever you happened to point at?

As a client, would you want to work with a realtor who doesn't speak the same language as you?

It does not bother me at all if a place has a menu I cannot read. I have never encountered a menu anywhere in the world that I could not sort out somehow what to eat, either through root words, knowing common words like "pollo", through communicating with the server, or by pictures.

[Sugah Ray]

Originally Posted by BNBR

One complaint I had for an Italian restaurant in Doral was that half the menu was in Italian (without translation).... lol. La Fontana if you are curious.

Did you have ravioli with 4 cheese sauce and your wife had a panini?

[tartufo1]

Originally Posted by Travelassie

Maybe that is more like it. There were a few times in the 36 years I lived in Miami where I felt as though I was passed over or not treated as well as I should have been-in a store, or in a fast food place by Hispanic employees for reasons best known to themselves, I would assume because I looked like a gringo, but it didn't happen often and never by anyone I knew or cared about.

Most of the time in my experience in places with non-English speakers we muddled through the communication, half-English, half-Spanish as we were able, and it got the job done.

The English owner of an English supermercado in San Fulgencio, Alicante, might get nervous if a group of Spanish speakers enters into the shop. Not that you were not well received, it's just that they might not speak good English and are nervous.

Nobody asks the 1.500.000 Brits in Spain to speak Spanish, why should they?


We don't know yet if many are leaving or another 2.000.000 will come over!!

I used to go a lot to Casablanca, La lechonera, Lila's, Yayo and Esquina de Tejas decades ago and they always spoke to me in English until I replied in Spanish. Well, not in Yayo's, fascinating place.

Before I lived in Brighton, with a high proportion of foreign students...never met any local that could speak a foreign language, which was tough as there were many students from Germany, France, etc, that did not know a word of English.

[Sugah Ray]

There are places in southern Spain where you are greeted in English. I even knew some waiters who were immigrants who spoke English but didn't speak Spanish because most tourists were British or Germans. Why were they gonna bother? LOL

In Catalunia I've seen places where the menu is not in Spanish but the waiters were nice enough to help me with my order.

It's not a big deal.

[tartufo1]

Some Spanish are strangely similar to those Americans that say "the language of America is English"...blah..

The "language of Spain is Spanish (Castilian)"..blah..blah"....exactly the same....but their hate is directed at "peripheral languages", not to foreign languages.

They are not bothered if people speak, say, Hungarian or Tibetan.

The "Imperial" frame of mind.

English are more into their imperial past, for them is English or "foreign".

Problems are not languages, but frame of mind.

How can a Hungarian speak decent Spanish in weeks? Hungarian has no relationship whatsoever with no language.

[Eeko156]

Originally Posted by Sjd1

Throughout the US there are people who will criticize those who speak other languages by saying "This is America, we speak English". I'm wondering if it's the same in Miami except it would be more "This is Miami, we speak Spanish". Do people who don't know Spanish get hostile treatment?

Absolutely not. I can only tell you that it will be massively harder to find a job, though.

[CXT2000]

Originally Posted by Sjd1

Throughout the US there are people who will criticize those who speak other languages by saying "This is America, we speak English". I'm wondering if it's the same in Miami except it would be more "This is Miami, we speak Spanish". Do people who don't know Spanish get hostile treatment?

I've actually been told that by older generation Cubans, that i should speak Spanish since i'm in a Spanish city. And for hostile treatment it does happen, but it's not like they'll harm you for not speaking Spanish. Also finding a job is very difficult without Spanish even though by law its not an official language.

[ElGuito]

Originally Posted by djesus007

I've actually been told that by older generation Cubans, that i should speak Spanish since i'm in a Spanish city. And for hostile treatment it does happen, but it's not like they'll harm you for not speaking Spanish. Also finding a job is very difficult without Spanish even though by law its not an official language.

The older generation from elders from the Mambisa Protesta? Due respect, with their cigars and rum, may not be around much. Further more respect, Miami is not a Spanish City, please. Por favor!
As far as finding a job, hmmm, if you're in Los Angeles, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida perhaps You should polish your Spanish. Yep, the Chinese kitchen restaurant we favor, on NW 7Th ST, requires fluent Spanish for prospective employees.
Anyone been in Europe here? This ENGLISH ONLY thing is not only limiting your opportunities, but makes you look a little backwards and, dumb.

[Wild Style]

Originally Posted by Sjd1

Throughout the US there are people who will criticize those who speak other languages by saying "This is America, we speak English". I'm wondering if it's the same in Miami except it would be more "This is Miami, we speak Spanish". Do people who don't know Spanish get hostile treatment?

Nope, I have never been treated poorly because I didn't speak Spanish in Miami. The only time I felt like a little bit discriminated against was when some new store opened up. There was a guy greeting people at the door. This was a national chain mind you. Anyway, he greets EVERYONE at the door, in Spanish, accept me. He doesn't say anything to me at all. Then this white man walks in behind me and he greets this guy in Spanish. The white guy stops, walks out of the store, walks back in and then says "Lets try this again, this time, in English". The guy smiled and said "sorry" and then said whatever he was saying, but in English. That happened ONCE.

[boxus]

Originally Posted by ElGuito

This ENGLISH ONLY thing is not only limiting your opportunities, but makes you look a little backwards and, dumb.

Yet knowing only Spanish in a country that speaks predominately English does not make someone look backwards and dumb?