Do you speak spanish?

Bird · Mar 21, 2006

I'm not sure it would help an old fellow like me to know another language now. As I've gotten older and my hearing had deteriorated, there's another small problem in this country. Every time I call tech support for anything, I usually get someone who speaks English, but with such an accent that I can hardly understand them. I currently have a problem with my Dish Network satellite TV, so I called today and I know that lady was speaking good English, and I'm sure her first language was Spanish, so with her accent and my hearing, I had a devil of a time understanding her. And one our best friends is French; been in this country for over 30 years, married a GI who was a friend of mine before he died, and although she was a neighbor for 11 years and been a close friend for 19 years, I still have a real problem understanding her much of the time. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

MossRoad · Mar 21, 2006

Bird, half my relatives are Hungarian. The old ones are hard to understand because they still have the accent. They say it is hard to understand me with my American accent. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But at family gatherings, everyone gets along just fine... must be the Paprika! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Bird · Mar 21, 2006

David, at family gatherings all my family get along just fine, too. Of course, I have no idea what they're talking about. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif They tell me I have "nerve damage" so plenty of volume doesn't mean I "hear" and understand what's said. I usually have no problem face to face, one on one, but if two people talk at the same time, I have no idea what either of them said, even if they are speaking good English. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Alan L. · Mar 22, 2006

I don't care what language people speak, but for my tax dollars the schools in Texas should only teach in English. Learn it or leave. Unfortunately this is not whats happening.

YanmarFever · Mar 22, 2006

I speak castillian spanish well, however its my opinion that if someone immigrates to another country that they should learn that countries language. Instead its a real burden on the school system & on tax payers to teach them if they live there. This applies to all countries of the world. lets be fair.

1948berg · Mar 22, 2006

Here in Norway children start learning english when they are very young, about 8 years of age. When you are 13 you can choose another language, usually german or french, but spanish is getting more and more popular. Spain is much like Florida for us here, people retire there, or spend their holidays there. Trouble for me and many others is to speak the language right, it sounds "norwenglish". If you travel in Norway most people under 60 speaks some sort of english, kids speaks very well. The norwegian language is "infected" with a lot og english words! Funny thing though, a lot of the english words the norwegians of today are picking up origins from the viking. old norse, era in England, so we are in fact getting the words back

lrunge · Mar 22, 2006

I had two years of high school spanish but that was 40+ years ago. I have taken an 6 week course on conversational spanish that was good but you need to practice. The best course I found to help is from pimsleur.
http://ww3.pimsleurapproach.com
You can listen to the cd's while you are tractoring and no one can hear you talking to yourself. I was trying to improve my spanish because of all the hispanics in the area now and because my grandaughter started spanish lessons in kindergarten and continued through the third grade. Unfortunately, due to cost cutting they laid the spanish teacher off. I know she was always correcting some of my pronunciation. I don't trill my r's very well. I need to start back into it again with spring starting.

BB_TX · Mar 22, 2006

I found China to be a real oddity with its multitude of dialects. The company I work for does business in China. Attending a meeting in China, there would be a translator for us. Then if there were Chinese from different regions of China, they would have translators for the different dialects. If they had any difficulty in the translation, they would just write it down. They all read that same written text, just pronounce it so differently they can't always communicate with each other. Sort of like a Texan and a New Englander. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

pennwalk · Mar 22, 2006

I speak castillian spanish well 
Ernie.
Castillian is Spanish spanish correct? Is it hard to talk to people from other spanich speaking places?

Chris