linksi

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Not being rude or sarcastic or anything, but aren't people from Spain Spanish?
If they're called something else I'd be happy to know as I've been calling them Spanish all of my life.

Anyway, I live in Canada and around here you hear English and French being spoken all of the time, which pretty much every Canadian is used to. However, it's also not uncommon at all to hear Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, German, etc.
I've never heard anyone say that people in Canada should either speak English or French or leave.
I also agree that it's absolutely wrong to force anyone to speak a certain language amongst themselves.

gliscameria

I'm sorry, but you speak whatever language of the country you are in. Good old America doesn't have an official language, so speak whatever you want,but I still see a small group of people speaking a language that no one else around them speaks as equal to whispering. And, coming from an extremely diverse area, it is annoying as hell. From now I'm pulling my english speaking friends into the corner and whishpering in their ear to communicate. OR, I'm learning Esparanto! I mean, obviously I could speak how everyone around me could hear and comprehend, but, the Asians that speak perfectly good english choose to jabber on and exclude the rest of the group. It's common courtesy. You speak the language of those around you and obide by their customs, PERIOD. </end rant>

Hollywood Snob

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Amen to that one! I'm as white as you can get, being a 3rd generation US citizen, of Scotch & Irish decent, but have found other races women to have beauty as well. I've had 2 Chinese girlfriends & two black girlfriends, as well as whites. I happen to think high cheekbones & dark hair are erotic & exotic. Doesn't matter what race they are. HOWEVER, last night, I met Korean lady, who has been here 6 years & couldn't hardly understand a word I said. Will I date her again? Even though she was absolutely stunning, in anybody's book, the answer is NOT HARDLY! I advised her to look at Korean friend finder's website. :happycow: I don't see that one as a prejudice thing as much as I do being functional. As anyone who has read this far can tell, from all the above comments, functionality is the real issue. And, last time I checked, Mexico and Canada were both on this North AMERICAN continent.
Lots of good posts in this thread!

ls1camaro

Living in Florida you have to have a basic understanding of some spanish. Mainly the verbs and nouns so you know what is going on

linksi

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gliscameria, I have to absolutely disagree with you. It's not easy to learn a foreign language you know, especially English. For many it's simply easier to speak in the language they've always been taught. Also, why is it that you want to be able to listen to other people's conversations? Who cares if the people next to me are whispering, speaking Chinese, etc. Maybe they just don't want you to know what they're talking about. It's not as if there are people starting conversations with you in German.

udubtacer

I think the language issue can go both ways. Why not diversify your language library and they do the same? The guy in the line should actually realize that he'll be better off learning Spanish or at least not waste his time to find ways to alienate those who are here legitimately regardless of their country of origin. He'll be able to tap into a larger network of people while those who choose to stick to their own communities will see in the long run that they'll have some limited options.

I know this because I know three languages and when a patient was brought into the hospital, all hell broke loose because no one understood each other. The guy was screaming and the staff was about to tackle him down to the ground because he was apparently out of control. I happened to know what he was talking about and calmed him down to know what he was there for.

Wouldn't we have better relations between communities if people actually took a small step and tried to learn about their neighbors? Definitely. Even if it's just a verb or a phrase, it'll go a long way from having someone just grumble in line about how they don't understand foreigners.

Hollywood Snob

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OMG! A common sense appraoch! What a novel concept. Good post udubtacer.

Waffle

i have. one time when i was a little kid i went to canada and some dude was on the street screaming to get out if you couldnt speak french. true story. scarred me for life, made me scared of canadians
back to the topic, leaving fucntionality aside (assuming someone can speak the language but chooses not to) i dont see why anyone would care what language someone was speaking to their friends or whatever. for all the guy in the home depot line knew, those guys could have spoke english fine, but chose to speak among peers in spanish, and theres absolutely nothing wrong with that as far as i can tell.

Hollywood Snob

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Geez! More common sense. This threads really going to hell. How can we bicker & act like idiots here anymore, if you guys are going to be so wise & mature about things?

Jimi

Aren't people from Spain spanish?

Technically, the national language was Native American before English was ever here...... :happycow:

Alonias

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Ahhh hell. I'll throw my two cents in.
I think my biggest issue with the language is this. In the past 10-15 years, we have spent millions and millions of dollars making forms and various other items bi-lingual. Now, for southern californians, this is a problem because of the huge illegal immigration problem. We are trying to accomodate the illegal immigrants which I have a problem with. Typically illegal immigrants DON'T pay taxes. Furthermore illegals (and legals) send Billions of dollars back accross to Mexico (according to Western Union).
Don't get me wrong, my whole shop is filled with Mexican Americans and I love them. There hard workers with great morals.
I think I got off the subject a little, but in closing, I don't like what the illegal population is doing to southern california.

LS1-S10

Wow, im suprised to see alot of really good comments in here...makes me feel a little better that alot more people are mature about this situation in our country.

kulotsalot

if you think it's discourteous for people to whisper in front of you, don't you think that being interested in other people's private conversations is also discourteous? i'm asian and i speak perfectly good english, but i still speak in filipino when conversing with people of my own race. i don't think it matters if what you're talking about doesn't concern other people around you (like what to have for dinner, or how you think you're getting too fat, etc.) i actually don't like it when friends suddenly switch to filipino when they want to say bad things about someone else in our group that doesn't understand the language... it's so obvious... if you want to say something bad about someone at least wait for them to be out of earshot...

Jimi

Or just don't talk shit about them anyway.