I need to learn some basic Spanish.

[hutash]

For those of us living in southern California, making LA jokes is akin to Woody Allen and NY. Chill a little Tip.

[TNKen]

There are only two essential words in Spanish. Cerveza and Bano

[Viva]

There are only two essential words in Spanish. Cerveza and Bano

Don't forget puta. Makes the cerveza all the more enjoyable.

Sent from my XT1650 using TGR Forums mobile app

[BmillsSkier]

I learned about guero from Beck.

[wyeaster]

woody allen sucks.

take a community college class. personally, i would take a beginning spanish class rather than just a conversational class, but i like to understand structure, etc.

informed direction, an understanding of the language, repetition and feedback. then find places to practice. you can find conversation groups at the college or on craigslist and elsewhere. reading in the language helps a ton but that requires a bigger effort, which can also be made at a community college.

use it at every opportunity, even if it's just yes and no or hello, how are you. overcoming fear of sounding stupid or making mistakes is the biggest thing. if you can smile and laugh at yourself and keep pushing through it makes all the difference. native speakers appreciate the effort (partly because it is not common among gringos) and are usually willing to help.

[Kenny Satch]

In the words of Eddie Haskell "tu tiene una cara del un porco" is all you need to know

[BS720]

Duolingo is pretty spot on. Groupon specials for Loretta Stoned if you need it. After you pick up the basics, Netflix has a series called, "Pablo Escobar, El Patron Del Mal". It's entertaining, but shot in Spanish, with English subtitles. It's helped immensely.

The other option most people also say, if it's an option, is a month or three in a Spanish speaking country. I hear people are almost fluent after three months straight in Nicaragua. Would assume that's true for anywhere that there aren't so many tourists that you can get away with English.

[Mofro261]

Duolingo is pretty spot on. Groupon specials for Loretta Stoned if you need it. After you pick up the basics, Netflix has a series called, "Pablo Escobar, El Patron Del Mal". It's entertaining, but shot in Spanish, with English subtitles. It's helped immensely.

The other option most people also say, if it's an option, is a month or three in a Spanish speaking country. I hear people are almost fluent after three months straight in Nicaragua. Would assume that's true for anywhere that there aren't so many tourists that you can get away with English.

I had to google this, who knew that drag queens had Groupon specials?

[iceman]

A serious answer (sorry): https://www.babbel.com

I've heard it pretty much kicks ass from a couple people.

[Stikki]

If you were in Seattle you could go to Greenlake and meet up with the Spanish lessons guy. He was a staple at the lake for over a decade.

[TurxSki]

Did y'all see this?

** DEAR ABBY: I am a retired librarian who lives in Texas. I am what around here is called "Anglo," meaning white and not Hispanic. I speak four languages, with varying degrees of proficiency.

Recently, a friend who is Hispanic told me that if an Anglo speaks Spanish to a Hispanic person, it's considered an insult because it implies that the Hispanic person is "too stupid" to learn English. I had never heard of this before, so I asked a retired college-level Spanish teacher who is also Anglo. She informed me that Hispanic people use the language difference as a "boundary," and my speaking Spanish to them was a violation of their boundaries.

It came as a complete shock! This happened more than a month ago, and I'm having a hard time dealing with it. I spent a lifetime developing language skills. I always considered speaking another language to be a sign of respect and friendship. Now I'm being told that it's insulting and intrusive?

I can't believe all Hispanic people feel this way, but I don't know what to do with this information. My next-door neighbors are Spanish-speaking. I've always spoken to them in Spanish because it's what I heard from them when I first met them. Now I don't know if I've been insulting them. What should I do? -- IN SHOCK IN SAN ANTONIO

DEAR IN SHOCK: After reading your letter, I polled a focus group of Spanish-speaking friends about it. Some said it didn't bother them, but the majority explained that the reaction may depend upon how long the family has been in this country. If it has been several generations, the people you are addressing might identify more as English speakers than Spanish speakers, and consider your addressing them in Spanish to be condescending because it implies that you don't think they have learned English.

So the rule of thumb would be: Assume that everyone speaks English; then if it turns out they don't, use their language.

P.S. If your relationship with your neighbors is a good one, tell them what you were told and ask if you may have offended them because if you have, you would like to apologize. **

[wyeaster]

i'm no expert but i've never had anything close that kind of experience and i have associated for many years with native spanish speakers from all walks of life, countries and classes, multi-lingual and not, here and abroad, legal and illegal and i'm as gringo as they come. i have offended people with what i said, but never for speaking their language.

if you demonstrate respect and humility, which is easily done within seconds verbally and non-verbally, your chances of offending someone are slim. it's really easy to say something like "is it okay if we speak spanish?"

i have seen language used as a boundary, but most of the time it was with gringos who associated regularly with native-spanish speaking groups and never made the tiniest effort to learn their language. i have native spanish-speaking friends who do not mix their spanish-speaking friends with their english-only speaking friends at social gatherings for that reason and/or because it's just a pain in the ass to have to translate for one person.

[hutash]

That offense thing only applies in Paris, and they take offense to anything or any one who is not Parisian, so fuck 'em anyway.

[Captain Awesome]

In the words of Eddie Haskell "tu tiene una cara del un porco" is all you need to know

Ha. Just saw that episode the other day. Poor Chuey was so hurt.

[Garth Bimble]

Check and see if the local JC/CC offers a conversational spanish class. They skip all the technical shit you get in 101 and focus on more practical stuff where you actually engage others in real conversations.The only way to truly learn it is to use it enough to where it becomes 2nd nature otherwise you're wasting your time.

[HansJob]

En Los Estados Unitos habla ingles, cabron.

[Danno]

One of these years I'll learn Spanish.

[irul&ublo]

One of these years I'll learn Spanish.

As WM said, "If you don't do it this year, you'll be a year older when you do."

[Danno]

That's true.

[BmillsSkier]

Warren Miller. One hip gringo.

[ICantLogIn]

I found "The Blizzard of AAHHH's" on youtube and its in Spanish. No sub titles but I think I remember most of the words.

[MarcusBrody]

Did y'all see this?

** DEAR ABBY: I am a retired librarian who lives in Texas. I am what around here is called "Anglo," meaning white and not Hispanic. I speak four languages, with varying degrees of proficiency.

Recently, a friend who is Hispanic told me that if an Anglo speaks Spanish to a Hispanic person, it's considered an insult because it implies that the Hispanic person is "too stupid" to learn English. I had never heard of this before, so I asked a retired college-level Spanish teacher who is also Anglo. She informed me that Hispanic people use the language difference as a "boundary," and my speaking Spanish to them was a violation of their boundaries.

It came as a complete shock! This happened more than a month ago, and I'm having a hard time dealing with it. I spent a lifetime developing language skills. I always considered speaking another language to be a sign of respect and friendship. Now I'm being told that it's insulting and intrusive?

I can't believe all Hispanic people feel this way, but I don't know what to do with this information. My next-door neighbors are Spanish-speaking. I've always spoken to them in Spanish because it's what I heard from them when I first met them. Now I don't know if I've been insulting them. What should I do? -- IN SHOCK IN SAN ANTONIO

DEAR IN SHOCK: After reading your letter, I polled a focus group of Spanish-speaking friends about it. Some said it didn't bother them, but the majority explained that the reaction may depend upon how long the family has been in this country. If it has been several generations, the people you are addressing might identify more as English speakers than Spanish speakers, and consider your addressing them in Spanish to be condescending because it implies that you don't think they have learned English.

So the rule of thumb would be: Assume that everyone speaks English; then if it turns out they don't, use their language.

P.S. If your relationship with your neighbors is a good one, tell them what you were told and ask if you may have offended them because if you have, you would like to apologize. **

i'm no expert but i've never had anything close that kind of experience and i have associated for many years with native spanish speakers from all walks of life, countries and classes, multi-lingual and not, here and abroad, legal and illegal and i'm as gringo as they come. i have offended people with what i said, but never for speaking their language.

if you demonstrate respect and humility, which is easily done within seconds verbally and non-verbally, your chances of offending someone are slim. it's really easy to say something like "is it okay if we speak spanish?"

i have seen language used as a boundary, but most of the time it was with gringos who associated regularly with native-spanish speaking groups and never made the tiniest effort to learn their language. i have native spanish-speaking friends who do not mix their spanish-speaking friends with their english-only speaking friends at social gatherings for that reason and/or because it's just a pain in the ass to have to translate for one person.

I understand where the offended people are coming from to some extent. When I lived in Spain, I initially found it vaguely annoying when I would say something in Spanish to someone and they would reply in English. It made me feel as if they were saying my Spanish wasn't good enough. Eventually I realized that most people were just trying to be nice and were often eager to show off their English.

There's also the possibility that even if someone is Hispanic, their first language might not be Spanish (they might not even speak it). i can see how someone how is Hispanic would get offended if random people always came up to them and started speaking Spanish in the same way a black person might get offended if everyone was always trying to bafflingly talk to them in Swahili or an Indian American might feel if people kept talking to him in Hindi. It's kind of like the "So where are you from?" "New Jersey" "No where are you REALLY from?" question.

That being said, I don't think most people I know would be that offended.

With my Hispanic students, I don't generally randomly talk to them in Spanish. With some it comes up that I speak Spanish and we'll chat and they're often pretty excited about it. But most of our conversations after that are usually in English. They tend to speak it better than I speak Spanish and they're taking the class in English so they need to get that vocab down. A few have really appreciated the Spanish talks though, and I've revised my opinion on at least one student after talking to her in Spanish. What I'd perceived as more general critical reasoning deficits turned out to be more related to weak English skills. I just try to make it seem like I'm excited to get the chance to practice my Spanish rather than thinking that I doubt their English.

[old goat]

It's not just a language thing--it's a class thing. Black people are offended if you speak to them in stereotypical black speak. Given the fraught relationship between Anglos and Hispanics in this country I can understand Hispanics feeling condescended to by being spoken to in Spanish, especially really bad Spanish. OTOH a lot of Hispanics around here don't speak English, or very little. There's a reason Panda Express is the most popular lunch spot in town--they hire Spanish speaking servers. In CA it's not unusual for a business to advertise "Se habla Espanol". IMO English should be the default language for English speakers, unless the other person doesn't understand it. (When we were in Spain it seemed that many Madrilenos didn't speak English or didn't want to, while in Barcelona most did.) I think there's also a difference between Anglos who are reasonably fluent in Spanish and people like me who took a couple of years of Spanish in HS and whose Spanish is more likely to confuse rather than elucidate--in one interaction regarding a price I thought I was saying "not enough" when what I was actually saying was "too much". So I've given up trying.

One of my partners did a month long Spanish immersion course in Mexico because we have a lot of non-English speaking patients. She said it was worthless.

In New Mexico there are Hispanic communities that pre-date the Mayflower where some people don't speak English. Try telling those folks that in Amurca we speak English.

[wyeaster]

coming back from s.america through dfw my wife spoke two sentences in spanish to by all appearances a hispanic worker probably out of habit and the worker was not having it and responded in english. i wouldn't say the worker was offended but would not respond otherwise.

i have seen people get offended by people speaking spanish to them in the assumption that they were hispanic when in fact they were not but that is a different offense.

we took her family through eastern oregon a couple years ago and went to a store in chemult. we bought some stuff and left and i forgot something and ran back in. the two middle aed white people behind the counter asked me if they were from mexico, which i thought was odd. i said, no, they're from ecuador.

their faces lit up and they said "oh yeah, they're way too classy to be mexicans."

[The Reverend Floater]

Thanks to this thread, I have started using Duolingo. I used to be able to "speak" Spanish, though never fluently. My entry exam on Duolingo put me at 50% fluent, so getting back into it has been fun. My daughter is being raised bilingual and at two years old, she can speak way better espanol than I can, so I'm psyched to try to keep up.