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I am of Latino background, and I do speak Spanish fairly well; it is my second language and I lived in a Spanish-speaking country for an extended period of time. However since I've returned to the United States and gone back to work I have CONSTANTLY been spoken to in Spanish by customers WITHOUT BEING ASKED IF I SPEAK SPANISH. Most people don't take the time to ask "Hablas espanol?" conveniently forgetting the fact that we are in the United States of America and English is the primary language! Until just recently I would simply respond in Spanish, but now I am sick of this rude mentality and I don't even bother to respond in Spanish, only in English, until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to communicate in Spanish!
I am sick of this!
I'm sick of it too, but I'm on the other side of it. People assume I don't speak a word of Spanish when in fact I can speak it and I read and understand it quite well. You'd be amazed by the rude & vulgar things Spanish speakers have said in front of me (and about me) right in front of me, assuming that I couldn't understand them.
I am of Latino background, and I do speak Spanish fairly well; it is my second language and I lived in a Spanish-speaking country for an extended period of time. However since I've returned to the United States and gone back to work I have CONSTANTLY been spoken to in Spanish by customers WITHOUT BEING ASKED IF I SPEAK SPANISH. Most people don't take the time to ask "Hablas espanol?" conveniently forgetting the fact that we are in the United States of America and English is the primary language! Until just recently I would simply respond in Spanish, but now I am sick of this rude mentality and I don't even bother to respond in Spanish, only in English, until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to communicate in Spanish!
I am sick of this!
I think you need to figure out what is REALLY bothering you.
I am of Latino background, and I do speak Spanish fairly well; it is my second language and I lived in a Spanish-speaking country for an extended period of time. However since I've returned to the United States and gone back to work I have CONSTANTLY been spoken to in Spanish by customers WITHOUT BEING ASKED IF I SPEAK SPANISH. Most people don't take the time to ask "Hablas espanol?" conveniently forgetting the fact that we are in the United States of America and English is the primary language! Until just recently I would simply respond in Spanish, but now I am sick of this rude mentality and I don't even bother to respond in Spanish, only in English, until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to communicate in Spanish!
I am sick of this!
I know a gentleman who is by birth 1/2 Japanese. Recently at an event some people asked him to translate something in Spanish. They were shocked he did not speak Spanish. .
The world is a funny place.
I am of Latino background, and I do speak Spanish fairly well; it is my second language and I lived in a Spanish-speaking country for an extended period of time. However since I've returned to the United States and gone back to work I have CONSTANTLY been spoken to in Spanish by customers WITHOUT BEING ASKED IF I SPEAK SPANISH. Most people don't take the time to ask "Hablas espanol?" conveniently forgetting the fact that we are in the United States of America and English is the primary language! Until just recently I would simply respond in Spanish, but now I am sick of this rude mentality and I don't even bother to respond in Spanish, only in English, until it becomes absolutely necessary for me to communicate in Spanish!
I am sick of this!
I feel the same way, when I make a telephone call to a business and hear "Press 1 for English."
I can only assume here, maybe you are just frustrated that some people automatically assume you are not Americanized because you look a certain way. People want to feel accepted, this is understandable.
My big brother grew up in England, so he had a pretty strong English accent. Some people were impressed by his accent, but he got rid of most of it while serving in the military. He wanted to sound "southern" for some reason in the Marine Corps because all his friends were southerners. We are who we are through experiences I guess. lol No matter how he "sounds" like, he is always my brother whom I love very much. So it doesn't really matter.
Now he is older, other people's opinions don't bother him much.
Don't think too much. You know who you are and you know what you are capable of.
I grew up in NYC. My Mom was 2nd Generation Italian (Sicily). When she went shopping in Little Italy, she was always spoken to in Italian and she answered the clerks in Italian. We lived in a Spanish (Puerto Rican) area and people spoke to her in Spanish there. She would answer them in Italian. I suppose the two languages are similar enough to converse in general?
Yet, when she went shopping on the Lower East Side, clerks would speak to her in Yiddish. I suppose they assumed she was Jewish? Mom thought all of this was very amusing. "Nobody know what ethnicity I am". If she had gone to a Greek neighborhood, I am sure people would have spoken to her in that language too. lol
My Grandma always said that her family originally migrated from Spain to Italy. When my younger daughter (blue eyes and red hair) did her DNA, she got a percentage of Spanish (Iberia). Guess Grandma was right, even through my daughter looks nothing at all like any of her maternal ancestors.
The bottom line is really so what language people speak, or what their heritage is?
Italian and Spanish are similar enough that one might know what the other person is talking about but not similar enough to have an outright conversation. Many words are completely different although both languages are derived from Latin, Italian being the closest to Latin.
I was having a conversation with a customer at my work in Italian. Another employee who speaks Spanish heard us from a distance and came over because he thought we were speaking Spanish. Then he realized he had no idea what we were saying to each other. He later told me the whole thing sounded very bizarre to him.
Lol, I live in Miami and often the conversation starts in Spanish, mostly from older people though it seems.
I am as "white" of a person as one can be, minus the tan from living in Florida.
A Hispanic person can be of any race, from the black as black can be, to being white as a ghost, so I am not sure why everyone keeps speaking to "they look/do not look" Hispanic. The term "Hispanic" as used in the US is merely a political term set forth by the US gov, nothing more.
But there are a lot of Hispanics in Miami that do not know Spanish, or are heritage speakers and can speak but not read Spanish. I know people who are fluent in Spanish, but their kids are not at all.
Lol, I live in Miami and often the conversation starts in Spanish, mostly from older people though it seems.
I am as "white" of a person as one can be, minus the tan from living in Florida.
A Hispanic person can be of any race, from the black as black can be, to being white as a ghost, so I am not sure why everyone keeps speaking to "they look/do not look" Hispanic. The term "Hispanic" as used in the US is merely a political term set forth by the US gov, nothing more.
But there are a lot of Hispanics in Miami that do not know Spanish, or are heritage speakers and can speak but not read Spanish. I know people who are fluent in Spanish, but their kids are not at all.
It's the same thing in So Cal with people of Mexican heritage. Once they intermarry with people that don't speak Spanish, it's often no longer taught to the kids or the kids just know enough Spanish to understand some but not speak it. Many people I work with fall into this category.
Of course there is no Hispanic race of people. That's just an easy term used to lump a whole lot of people together that have some Spanish ancestry mixed with something else. At one point Spanish colonies encompassed almost every continent.
But is it people who speak Spanish primarily themselves, or are you talking about people switching to Spanish thinking it's for your sake? The part of Texas I live in, bi-lingual employees are required (not by law, just companies want them for Spanish-speaking customers) so those customers are used to being able to speak in their native language, which is easier for them. And some do not speak English at all.
It's discrimination in hiring practices against native English speakers. The transformation of our country's language to Spanish isn't occuring lawfully nor naturally. Our country is being colonized by Spanish speakers who refuse to learn or to speak English. We can thank mostly illegal immigration for that and in Florida for the "wet foot, dry foot" policy that went on for far too long.
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