Misterio del dia

Question

Por qué los anglo americanos no pueden hablar espanol? Por qué todos los hipanos ya saben hablar Ingles y no tienen que estudiar Ingles?

Anglos son bobos? O no sirven las escuelas americanas'

Answer 1

My wife is a Spanish teacher at the elementary level. She also teaches some non credit Spanish classes at the University of Southern Indiana (USI) and is tutoring several high school kids. We've discussed this several times and the biggest problem we see is that the majority of the Spanish teachers can't speak the language and of course can't teach it properly. But they are usually hired instead of native Spanish teachers because they have the paper that says they are Spanish teachers or have a Masters Degree in Spanish (even though they can't put a sentence together). When my wife writes an email to any Spanish high school teacher (for tutoring purposes) she usually does it in Spanish. Most of the times she gets the answer in English. For the few that answer in Spanish that answer it's always full of mistakes. When the people in charge of hiring teachers realize it's more important to really know the language than having a piece of paper saying you do, maybe the schools will start to have better Spanish teachers.

Answer 2

Todos los hispanos no hablan inglés; solo tienes que ver cómo escribe y habla la mayoría. Hay muchísimos millones tratando de aprender, e incluso muchos de los que viven en EE. UU. siguen sin saber hablar y escribir bien.

En cuanto a los estadounidenses, no suelen aprender español tan temprano como nosotros empezamos a aprender inglés, y a diferencia de ellos, no hay ningún Hollywood en español para que puedan ver películas.

Answer 3

No creo que seamos bobos.

Las escuelas americanas, es decir, muchas de ellas, no sirven my bien para aprender español, ni tampoco cualquiera otra lengua estranjera. De mi opinión, hay dos razones.

(1) Casi ningunos de los maestros en las escuelas secundarias son habladores madernos. A lo mejor, han estudiado en algún país de habla español por varios meses.
(2) En muchas de las clases, se habla mucho inglés, y depienden mucho en usar el libro de texto. Así, los estudiantes nunca van a llegar a tener ningua facilidad de comprender ni de hablar.

P.S. Puedes corregir mi español, siempre hago muchos errores, pero no lo intento.

Answer 4

Lazarus said:

:

e incluso muchos de los que viven en EE. UU. siguen sin saber hablar y escribir bien.

Please don't accuse me of stereotyping here, but there are many, many cases where (in immigrant families) the man works and so picks up English, but if the wife is taking care of children at home she may live in the U.S. for many years and not speak much more English than "hello."

Answer 5

¿Porqué te contentas an mencionar solo el español? Hay también mucha gente de Rusia, Alemania, Italia, Korea, China y otros tantos países. ¿Te parece que los gringos deben senntirse obligados a aprender todas esa lenguas también'

Answer 6

Estoy tratando aprender Espanól, y no es fácil para mi. Mi problema es qué no hay muchas oportunidades hablar con otros aquí. Si muchos hispanicos hablan Inglés, no es nececisario que los turistas estadounidensas hablar en Espanól. ¡Qué lastima!

Forgive my mistakes. I'm struggling. Perhaps Mexicans in Mexico should require that Americans speak Spanish to get by. Then they'd have to learn. =)

English is sort of a universal language now, like Latin in the Middle Ages. It's easier for us to not have to learn foreign languages. However, if Spanish is hard for me, I can't imagine tackling Chinese or Arabic. But I know lots of fellow Americans who are trying to learn Spanish.

Answer 7

Pergolesi --

I too am struggling to learn to speak at least a serviceable, respectful amount of Spanish. Spanish seems to be coming easy for me, probably because I speak natural Romanian and Romanian is also a romance language like Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.

I am making progress in learning Spanish mostly from (I know it sounds silly), reading comics in Spanish on-line. Comics may not be the King's Spanish, but they use the everyday, street-level Spanish which is more important than text-book Spanish. I also find that watching television in Spanish (Univision y Telefutura), is extremely beneficial for "tuning up the ear." (Ajustando el oido)? I also practice by speaking to immigrants whenever I can. Immigrants don't usually speak good English. Consequently, they don't make fun of your attempts to speak Spanish to them. A lot (un monton de) Hispanics will pretend they do not understand your Spanish and will mock you. Immigrants don't. They seem pleased that someone respects and wants to learn their language.

Just thought I would share some of my learning methods with you. You seem dedicated.

Que le baya bien y muy buena suerte.

This is a great language forum. Forum member Lazarus is especially helpful to others.

Answer 8

Anglos son bobos'

Please read the rules of this friendly forum. Don't be disrespectful to others.

Answer 9

I have to agree with Natasha. It's not the case that we are a bunch of bobos. It's a question of necessity. I took french for several years and spanish for at least one year in school, and this at a time when the schools in the US were much better than most of them are now. There was nothing wrong with the classes or me. I didn't need to use it, and so I forgot it. growing up in Texas in the 60's and 70's all the spanish a person really needed was enchilada, cerveza, baño, agua, por favor and gracias. Latinos in the US learn English because it's all around them, and it behooves them to do so. I am currently working very hard at becoming bilingual, which is why I am here. My wife and my son are both fluent Spanish speakers. Neither of them is a native speaker. I am trying very hard to (at least partially) catch up. I could be wrong but I think the same could be said of a lot of the bobos here.

Answer 10

Steve has hit the nail on the head so to speak. I grew up in a German / American community and studied German and Latin for years in school. The thing is , if you don't use it or need it you lose it. I now am trying very hard to learn to speak Spanish because of the pure joy of learning this language. When I get to a respectable level I intend to keep using it this time through television , radio and friends. And by the way the "bobos" comment is just silly.

Answer 11

Heidita said:

Anglos son bobos' Please read the rules of this friendly forum. Don't be disrespectful to others.

Pero fíjate que lo dijo como pregunta, no como declaración.. Por lo menos, somos todos bobos de vez en cuando.

Answer 12

somos todos bozos en este autobús- firesign theatre

samdie said:

Heidita said:

Anglos son bobos' Please read the rules of this friendly forum. Don't be disrespectful to others.

Pero fíjate que lo dijo como pregunta, no como declaración.. Por lo menos, somos todos bobos de vez en cuando.

>

Answer 13

samdie said:

Heidita said:

Anglos son bobos'Please read the rules of this friendly forum. Don't be disrespectful to others.

Pero fíjate que lo dijo como pregunta, no como declaración.. Por lo menos, somos todos bobos de vez en cuando.

Yes, Sam...and I am the first of that bunch! lol

In any case, bobo is not a nasty term. We use it all the time here in Spain.

No seas bobo....you cannot be offended by that. It depends who says it I guess.

However...I think it was not a very "nice" term to use either in the context.

Answer 14

paseloquepase said:

Pergolesi -- I am making progress in learning Spanish mostly from (I know it sounds silly), reading comics in Spanish on-line.

Would you be willing to share some sites with fellow learners'

Answer 15

I love Mexican comic books and fotonovelas. I used to read Supermachos and Donald Duck. Not to mention Kaliman. Hard to get where I live. If only there was a place in my town that sold them. There is a fairly sizable number of immigrants around here, but very little reading material in Spanish anywhere. Don't know why that is. It's easy enough to get Mexican music.