Latin Lunch

[Unkotare]

So I'm in the teacher's room eating lunch with a young substitute teacher; Greek American kid, the son of one of our more senior teachers. Just chatting away when a somewhat older guy joins us. We have a number of people around just to keep an eye on the campus and communicate with students as needed. Anyway, the guy doesn't speak much English. He took one look at the Greek kid, and I suppose because of his darker features, assumed he was Latino and started speaking Spanish with him. The Greek kid speaks very good Spanish, so it went well. He (I suppose because of how I look) didn't try to speak Spanish with me until he figured out I understood their conversation. Before you know it, the three of us were chatting away, discussing family and whatnot.

It was a pretty pleasant lunch.

 

[marvin martian]

So I'm in the teacher's room eating lunch with a young substitute teacher; Greek American kid, the son of one of our more senior teachers. Just chatting away when a somewhat older guy joins us. We have a number of people around just to keep an eye on the campus and communicate with students as needed. Anyway, the guy doesn't speak much English. He took one look at the Greek kid, and I suppose because of his darker features, assumed he was Latino and started speaking Spanish with him. The Greek kid speaks very good Spanish, so it went well. He (I suppose because of how I look) didn't try to speak Spanish with me until he figured out I understood their conversation. Before you know it, the three of us were chatting away, discussing family and whatnot.

It was a pretty pleasant lunch.

You have a teacher in the school who doesn't speak much English? Where is this school?

 

[Blackrook]

Are you bragging because you know how to speak Spanish?

 

[Unkotare]

You have a teacher in the school who doesn't speak much English? Where is this school?

He's not a teacher. He's a campus monitor.

 

[Unkotare]

Are you bragging because you know how to speak Spanish?

No one is "bragging." I'm just describing a pleasant lunch and how appearances can influence assumptions.

 

[Leo123]

So I'm in the teacher's room eating lunch with a young substitute teacher; Greek American kid, the son of one of our more senior teachers. Just chatting away when a somewhat older guy joins us. We have a number of people around just to keep an eye on the campus and communicate with students as needed. Anyway, the guy doesn't speak much English. He took one look at the Greek kid, and I suppose because of his darker features, assumed he was Latino and started speaking Spanish with him. The Greek kid speaks very good Spanish, so it went well. He (I suppose because of how I look) didn't try to speak Spanish with me until he figured out I understood their conversation. Before you know it, the three of us were chatting away, discussing family and whatnot.

It was a pretty pleasant lunch.

Wouldn't it be great if everyone just spoke American English in America? You wouldn't have to guess what language someone speaks by their color or features.

 

[Unkotare]

Wouldn't it be great if everyone just spoke American English in America? You wouldn't have to guess what language someone speaks by their color or features.

What IS great is that in this country people speak whatever the hell language they want.

 

[Blackrook]

I met a student at law school who was Hispanic but didn't know how to speak Spanish. He seemed embarrassed at this revelation. But as the Hispanics live here and assimilate, and have children born here, fewer and fewer will speak Spanish in their homes.

 

[Unkotare]

I met a student at law school who was Hispanic but didn't know how to speak Spanish. He seemed embarrassed at this revelation. But as the Hispanics live here and assimilate, and have children born here, fewer and fewer will speak Spanish in their homes.

By the second generation, the vast majority speak only English at home.

 

[Foxfyre]

I met a student at law school who was Hispanic but didn't know how to speak Spanish. He seemed embarrassed at this revelation. But as the Hispanics live here and assimilate, and have children born here, fewer and fewer will speak Spanish in their homes.

Here in New Mexico less than half of the population is 'Anglo' meaning of mostly non-Spanish European descent. The rest is mostly Hispanic/Spanish and Native American with any number of other groups represented in very small minorities or mixtures of various ethnic groups. So because of that and due to New Mexico being a popular tourist destination or stop over, when we are out and about we hear English and also a lot of Spanish, we are used to hearing English mixed with Spanish, any number of various Native American dialects, and there will also be some Italian, French, any number of Asian languages or whatever. Dealing with people who speak little or no English here is pretty common. Much more common now than it was a generation ago. We deal with it but it isn't necessarily a good thing when people cannot understand instructions, read or understand warning signs, ask for directions or needed help et al. Otherwise it is kind of nice.

But back in the 1990's we were in the San Jose airport waiting until time for our flight and I was approached by an old Chinese gentleman who had just arrived. He spoke no English but I understood he needed some help. You would think in California that is swarming with Asians, it would be easy to find somebody who spoke Chinese. But none I found spoke anything but English. I towed that old man pretty much over the entire airport before I finally found a man who spoke English and Chinese and could help him.

Before he left the airport though, he found me again and offered his hand for a hand shake and said in very accented English "Thank you."

 

[Blackrook]

The opposite of the Tower of Babel is happening all over the world. More and more people are learning English because it's an international language. I saw a video of Paris, and half the signs were in English. In Japanese anime, English is also prevalent. English is the language of air travel. My prediction is that in the next century, many other languages will go extinct.

 

[Unkotare]

...

But back in the 1990's we were in the San Jose airport waiting until time for our flight and I was approached by an old Chinese gentleman who had just arrived. He spoke no English but I understood he needed some help. You would think in California that is swarming with Asians, it would be easy to find somebody who spoke Chinese. But none I found spoke anything but English. I towed that old man pretty much over the entire airport before I finally found a man who spoke English and Chinese and could help him.

Before he left the airport though, he found me again and offered his hand for a hand shake and said in very accented English "Thank you."

And that's what it's all about. Way back when, I used to chat with an old Chinese man on the T to work every morning. Good practice, good conversation.

 

[Unkotare]

.... My prediction is that in the next century, many other languages will go extinct.

Many do, all the time.

 

[sparky]

So much of our differences could be behind us if the world could just do lunch Unkotare...~S~

 

[hjmick]

Wouldn't that have been, technically speaking, a Spanish Lunch? I mean, no Latin was spoken...



Seriously though, I sometimes wish the language had stuck with me. I took two years in high school because a language was a requirement, but nowadays I understand little and speak enough to order dinner and get my ass kicked... okay, maybe I speak a little more than that, but you get the idea.

 

[Unkotare]

So much of our differences could be behind us if the world could just do lunch Unkotare...~S~

The Greek kid is second generation, but speaks fluent Greek. He's been teaching me a little. So far my vocabulary is painfully limited.

 

[Foxfyre]

The opposite of the Tower of Babel is happening all over the world. More and more people are learning English because it's an international language. I saw a video of Paris, and half the signs were in English. In Japanese anime, English is also prevalent. English is the language of air travel. My prediction is that in the next century, many other languages will go extinct.

Off topic but you reminded me of a supposedly true story I read years ago. Pilots flying into the Frankfurt Germany airport conversed with the control tower in English. One night as several planes were circling waiting for their turn to land, a private pilot spoke to the control tower in German. The control tower immediately instructed him to use English.

The annoyed pilot said, "I am a German flying a German airplane into a German airport. Why do I have to speak English?"

Immediately another pilot with a pronounced Cockney accent said, "Because you lost the bloody war!"

(Sorry. These things just pop into my head.)

 

[daveman]

I inherited my father's talent for languages: None at all.

He went to high school in Burbank in the late 30's. Took a Spanish course. At the end, the teacher said, "Lester, I will pass you if you promise to me you will never take a foreign language course again." He did, so she did, and he didn't.

 

[Foxfyre]

Wouldn't that have been, technically speaking, a Spanish Lunch? I mean, no Latin was spoken...



Seriously though, I sometimes wish the language had stuck with me. I took two years in high school because a language was a requirement, but nowadays I understand little and speak enough to order dinner and get my ass kicked... okay, maybe I speak a little more than that, but you get the idea.

I took Spanish in high school and college and a conversational Spanish course since but I still get by with mostly the Spanglish street Spanish I picked up in high school in Santa Fe. Really really wanted to learn the language fluently but I guess not enough to have the discipline to actually do it. I can generally get by as long as we keep it really simple. Don't know if the non English speakers appreciate my very awful efforts to converse with them or if they pity me or make fun of me. I do appreciate their very awful efforts to speak English to me though so. . .

My main problem with Spanish is a sort of speech impediment thingee in which I cannot roll my r's which is really necessary to speak Spanish properly, so I would never likely ever be able to speak it really well.

 

[luiza]

What IS great is that in this country people speak whatever the hell language they want.

Which is great until you want to actually group communicate or save time and money by speaking once instead of having to repeat the same thing in different ways .

Your idea is crackpot unless you are a teacher where life is obviously casual , relaxed and inefficient .
Probably partly explains why kids are so dumb in the US these days .
No" Three Rs " or Geography .