charli's Blog

arky... how true about money speaking louder than words. But back to cuban vs spanish... my point was that the story should have used the correct word... cuban, not spanish.

When I was a teenager I received letters from my cousins in France. France had made it a law that everyone should learn "American".

My problem with the story was that they were exonerating a woman for going into schools and teaching spanish to young children. She was actually teaching them a dialect. From what I've heard from friends, one a coworker whose hubby is mexican... he has trouble understanding the cubans that work with them.

In Germany, northern germans have a had time understanding southern germans! But, that is another story.

You posted "Cuban is NOT Spanish!"

Yes, it is. I learned Puerto Rican Spanish, a touch of Mexican, etc. Some one who speaks any variation of Spanish can be understood in any Spanish speaking country. Been there; did that. A froend who speaks fluent Italian got along just fine in Spain even though he speaks no Spanish. Go figure.

Should we all speak "proper" English too? How dull.

Dialect will matter, somewhat. But, it does not have to be the "wall between church and state" that some people make of it.

When you learn that the Mexicans use a lot of Aztec words, and the Cubans and Puerto Ricans each have their own brands of slang, It doesn't help you uderstand them better, but it does allow you to say, "No me comprendo. ¿Favor, que signifaica _______________?"

Did you ever start a conversation with someone you thought was Spanish speaking, only to find out quickly they were speaking Portugese?

I will just say this in my gringo dialect, "La mayoria de los Americanos son estupidos, porque no les crean que necistan una otra lingua."

¡Oye! ¡Muchas gracias!

De nalgas.

nyerk-nyerk-nyerk

Learning and speaking someone elses language is a convenience and sign of respect. Not learning the language in the country where you live is foolish and just plain wrong. Que lastima.

vittoria.... good comment. When I went back to France, I practiced my french. I was, afterall, in their country.

What I was trying to get across was the point that the woman was not teaching the children spanish, she was teaching a dialect. In Florida, what she was teaching the children, would help the children if they went to Cuba... or Miami.

Another poster posted that he grew up in Ybor. A good friend of mine, well into his 70's was of the same heritage as the poster. He often had trouble understanding some of the "newer" Cubans. The language in the old Ybor was closer to Spain spanish that "modern" Cuban spanish.

Hope everyone gets by with little damage from the rain that is finally arriving. I live in Hyde Park and have not seen rain in weeks.

Yep, and I don't like idiots!

george, I agree with you. Learning a language should be a choice. When I moved to South Florida in 1962 learning Spanish was a requirement in junior high school for at least one semester. I had moved there during the end of the semester and only got 2 weeks of spanish. I aced the final as the teacher made a special test for me... I had to find a certain amount of words that were the same in English, Spanish, and French. After that, you had your choice of languages. But, the languages were limited to French, Spanish, German, and Latin!

Cranky... I found the same to be true in France. Our tour guide spoke english unless she wanted to convey something to me in private, usually about the women in our group that acted as if they should be treated different because they were American. I was respected because I tried to speak the language of all the countries I visited during that tour. The other adults were not. I went to a post office with a few of the adults. They could not understand why I got service while they did not. I usually started off conversations with... in french... "I was born here but moved to the USA when I was 9 months old. My mother was born and lived here for many years." That was about all the french I could speak without really thinking about it... but it got me special privileges and compliments.

Interesting story to add... at work today a Cuban was telling a story of his family coming to the states in the very early 60's. He was explaining the arrival of the first immigrants during the late 50's and the early 60's... that these people knew what was going to happen and they were the upper to upper middle class. He went on to explain the later arrivals during the early to mid 60's, being those that really did not have the money to leave earlier, or defended the "my Cuba" feeling. I mentioned my blog and he agreed with me. Cuban is not Spanish and he takes offense at people saying that it is the same language. It is not even a dialect... but a lanquage of its own coming from the natives (which most were killed by the Spanish) and the Spanish invaders. He went so far as to say the Puerto Rican, Haitian, etc. are all languages unto themselves. The topic that got him started was a new show on TV called "Cane" that represented the American Cubans more factual than anything he had ever seen.