I understand what you meant but have exception to it.
I recall saying something to my (maternal) grandfather Kelly about being an "Irish-American" back in the '60 and was told in no uncertain terms that he was not "Irish-American" He then noted that his parents were Irish-American.", they were born in Ireland.
My grandparents did speak with strong accents. It wasn't his Irish or her Swedish but the same accent that my mother still retains 62 years after leaving New Haven, Connecticut to go to college in the mid-west.
Yep, and English is the worlds buisness language, even in China all college students take English. To get a head English is the language except for in the USA haven't we learned anything?
College students in Spain take English too. But if you heard them speak it, most of them would make you cringe, or die laughing. I try to be kind, because I know I have un acento más fuerte when I speak Spanish, and they are real polite about it here.
I think that there is a little misunderstanding about who exactly put the Spanish menus in the ATMs or the Spanish shows on TV. That would be bank executives, who want Spanish-speaking people to put their money in the ATMs, or TV executives who want people to watch the shows. I have Dish Network myself, and in the United States I have access to 20 Spanish TV channels, plus Chinese, Polish, French, Arabic, Russian, you name it. Most of the immigrants or migrants that I know in the States want to speak English more than anything, but it takes time. If you watched Telemundo or Univision for an hour, you would probably see six or seven commercials for "Inglés sin barreras", a product that promises to teach you fluent English in a few weeks. If you have ever studied any foreign language, you will know that this is unrealistic, but that is what the networks and advertisers are pushing on the Spanish language shows. I find that ironic.
The part of the U.S. that I live in, they were speaking Spanish here two hundred and fifty years before anyone even heard English. Some of them still do.
I've been to India a few times and that was one of the things that kind of amazed me. There were times in our travels when our driver(Indian) could not understand the language of the locals (also Indian) of whatever town we may have been in. I wasn't quite sure how you operate a country when a good portion of the population has a hard time understanding one another.
Been a long time but actually, yes. I was stationed outside of Memphis for awhile and one of my friends had family in Tibido (sp?) Louisiana so we would shoot down on weekends for some fun at the local watering holes. Once I got used to the sometimes horrific cajun accent it wasn't hard to pick up on the lingo. At least I don't recall having any serious problems understanding people.
One particularly interesting night I remember hooking up with this honey of a college girl and we went bar hopping. We wandered into a slightly seeding looking place where the band was rockin hard. We wandered up to the bar where there was this rather enticing older (early 40's at the time?) woman standing on a bar stool and shaking that money maker. I was trying to not notice "too" much considering my "date". After about 5 minutes of this the girl I'm with finally looks up at this women and says "Mom, will you PLEASE get off the bar stool". Of course the fantasy pictures started to fly but THAT wasn't happening for sure. Too bad because Mom was actually more fun to be with than her daughter!
Amen to that...... I second it whole heartedly!!!! I too would like to say thanks for your service and to all those who have served... GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!!!!
My paternal grandparents came over to the US in the mid 1920's from Norway. They got married in NYC, and had two children, one of them my father (obviously). My dad and aunt only knew how to speak Norwegian till they were about 4 and 2 yo respectively. My grandparents realizing that dad would be going to school in a year had better teach him English. So they did. My grandparents spoke perfect English. They had to. My grandfather was an architect in a very big NYC architectural firm, and my grandmother was for all practical purposes a nurse but without the degree. They would only speak Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, or, German over the phone with friends when they didn't want us grand kids to know what they were talking about! :) Oh, my grandparents both learned to speak Spanish in their
70's so they could "speak the language" when they vacationed in Spain.
Difference in attitude, Eric. I didn't realize that I spoke German until I was well into my teens and started dating a girl who had escaped from Hungary with her parents during the dustup in '56. She spoke 7 lanuages (and all were in common use around her house). She was delighted to discover that I understood her when she used German and more than a little surprised when she found out I aslo spoke Spanish (or at least a bastadrized mix of Mexican and Puerto Rican) since very few people she had met in the States spoke anything other than English - with the exception of first generation immigrants. This was not a concious process on my part - it was more self preservation: When my Grandmother started hollering in German I quickly learned that I damned well BETTER understand what she was saying. The Spanish came from growing up in South/West Texas and 5 years in Puerto Rico.
The ironic part came a few years later. When it came time to choose a language at the AF Academy, I was not permitted to take Spanish because I had taken a Spanish course in High School. Instead, they assigned me to a German class.
It's a pity that this country has become so weak > My paternal grandparents came over to the US in the mid 1920's from
Will, I think it's called adapt or assimilate? I've never had the pleasure of going to a country where English wasn't the "official" language in OCONUS. But, from my fellow GI's who have had the pleasure, they all said, that you learn the language of the host country if you want to get around on your own. I think that we can all agree that it's up to the individual. Those who learn the language of their new or host country will forge ahead, those that don't or won't, will be out in the cold. With the exception of a few words, and phrases, my siblings, cousins, and I were never privelaged to learn the language of our Norwegian grandparents. What I still know, I've passed down to my children. Well, off to work. Enjoy life...one day at a time!
Eric N2JHJ
92XJ, 02KJ, and my 97 XJ alng with me...both Hurricane Katrina survivors!
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