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Post by chanito on Dec 29, 2008 19:43:24 GMT -5
 I had a family breakfast over the weekend, and a conversation came up that has come before, but i vent my frustration and gave my point of view, but since most of the people i associate with are Hispanics, maybe the Anglos point of view is different and then what i said was wrong. I came to this country over 20 years ago escaping a political unrest on my country, and brought my immediate family over (wife and older kid) over time i had more kids and learned to speak English which i did not before coming to this country and settle down here in sunny south Florida. Some of my wife cousins also came some years later and went to different parts of the country, one of them married an American guy about fifteen years ago, on some occasions the family gets together and the relatives fly in into Miami and we get together, the other cousins meet people and got married to some Hispanics from other countries, so usually when you put a big family together on a table we tent to start speaking in Spanish and the Miamian guy always make a big fuss about being left out and everybody should speak English, we usually do so we can keep him and his wife and son happy, but the other day my son who is just back from the navy was at the table, and start to tell how he got a Japanese girlfriend and when he visit her at her (he was station in Japan) home he would have to use a lot of body language in order to comunicate with them who do not speak English or him Japanese. and then the guy interrupted him and started saying how he feels like he is in some foreign country (even though my son was talking to him in English, but the other use to oportunity to talk with each other in Spanish) . And i got upset and told him that is his choice, had i been in his shoes i would have learned to speak Spanish so he could be a part of the group, he did not wanted to learn it for whatever reason, so he should not complain, he got upset and said he lives in USA and should not learn any other language, to which i said, i could understand an answer like that from someone who left school at the 5th grade, but not from someone with some education, i can understand if learning Spanish will make him forget his English, then by all means do not learn any language, but being bilingual is a plus not something to be ashame of. Anyway it got ugly, and now with a cool head i think i need a different point of view
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Post by yaris on Dec 29, 2008 22:52:09 GMT -5
You are right, being bilingual is a big plus, especially if you like to travel. Or just if you are a french speaker like me because most mecanicals things are in english and there is not so much place where peoples speak in french.
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Post by Kami no Chiizu on Dec 30, 2008 0:13:09 GMT -5
I dunno, if I was new to the family, I would complain (to my girlfriend/wife/whatever, not to the family) that I feel left out, but I would think I would try to learn the language to keep up. Plus, it's not like Spanish is that hard to learn, just takes a little effort.
You should have bought him Rosetta Stone for Xmas.
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Post by Dandy Dan on Dec 30, 2008 0:37:15 GMT -5
Learning a new language is a huge undertaking.....I think it's awesome if you can do it but I'm not sure you can just expect someone too. I can see how it would be frustrating if everyone else can also speak the language you can speak but they choose to speak the language you can't speak. I think everyone should learn the main language of the area (ie. learning english if you move to the USA) but it might be too much to expect to ask someone to learn a language just for the occasional family get together. It sounds like this guy was being a bit rude about this though.....I think he should kindly ask if you guys can speak english and at the same time he should atleast try to learn spanish.
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inkerb2b
Junior Ruckster
b2b crew... Graff since 1982
Posts: 88
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Post by inkerb2b on Dec 30, 2008 0:37:20 GMT -5
that dude is crazy. I been here for almost seven years, and i speak english as much as i can, but, its not perfect, so i end up talking in spanish. But all the people i know dont mind, and even though they know spanish but dont speak it, they end up talking broken spanish, so we get balanced... Jaja buena vibra chanito!
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Post by Dandy Dan on Dec 30, 2008 0:39:06 GMT -5
I was watching a YouTube video on Yamaha's new BWS 125 today and it was a 3 minute video from some overseas news TV station. The whole thing was in spanish (I think) which I don't speak but I was amazed that I could actually understand the gist of what he was saying just because of word similarities. I think if this guy at your christmas tries hard and learns a bit of spanish he could perhaps catch quite a bit of what's said.
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Post by Kami no Chiizu on Dec 30, 2008 2:23:03 GMT -5
I was watching a YouTube video on Yamaha's new BWS 125 today and it was a 3 minute video from some overseas news TV station. The whole thing was in spanish (I think) which I don't speak but I was amazed that I could actually understand the gist of what he was saying just because of word similarities. I think if this guy at your christmas tries hard and learns a bit of spanish he could perhaps catch quite a bit of what's said. That's what I'm referring to with the ease of learning Spanish. I don't expect someone to become fluent in a week, but in a couple months you can get the basics down pretty easily. |
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Post by skuuter on Dec 30, 2008 2:31:24 GMT -5
Learning a new language is a huge undertaking.....I think it's awesome if you can do it but I'm not sure you can just expect someone too. I can see how it would be frustrating if everyone else can also speak the language you can speak but they choose to speak the language you can't speak. I think everyone should learn the main language of the area (ie. learning english if you move to the USA) but it might be too much to expect to ask someone to learn a language just for the occasional family get together. It sounds like this guy was being a bit rude about this though.....I think he should kindly ask if you guys can speak english and at the same time he should atleast try to learn spanish. I'm goin' with this....... ;D...and yes, I think You handled it OK Chanito...he sounds somewhat "rude" and not real good at using "TACT" when expressin' himself......... ;D |
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Post by Firegut on Dec 31, 2008 2:19:56 GMT -5
I don't think I should have to learn another language for a job, but I would cut off my right hand to be with my family. It may be frustrating for him at first, but I think that the rewards will greatly outweigh the earlier difficulties. He should at least try to learn. Also, immersion is the best way to learn a language.
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Post by chanito on Dec 31, 2008 7:50:30 GMT -5
Those are my feeling, if you just married, and do not speak the language it must be frustating, but being married for 20 years, having this happening on any holiday (eastern, Christmas, thanksgivings, 4 of July, etc) not trying to learn the language seems silly and selfish to me
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