How have you been treated by native Spanish speakers?
After reading a response from an old thread, I thought I would open a new one as the original thread dealt with the way we correct members in this forum.
Reading this answer from Stormcrow made me sad and I was wondering if anyone else has had this experience when trying to communicate with natives from either Spanish or English. I can only speak from my own experience. I have been shown nothing but help and support from absolutely every native Spanish speaking person I have met.
What are your thoughts?
Here is Stormcrows answer:
A little necromancy here...
I find myself being very offended and upset with the way my girlfriend corrects my Spanish. It doesn't bother me when anyone else does it, with exception to her mother. I just wonder if it is my being sensitive or if she is actually being insensitive. rofl I write out these long phrases and all I get in return is, "I don't have any idea what you just said." That kind of hurts. Given that she is a native speaker, and I am a beginner. I would think that she would take the extra time to at least try and figure it out anyway. And, of course, after all this she's mad at me. The whole reason I started learning was so I could communicate with her family. Needless to say, they haven't done anything to help me, either. I'm learning Spanish for myself now.
19 Answers
This is my answer from the last thread, which I am moving here in response to Stormcrow:
In response to Stormcrow:
The whole reason I started learning was so I could communicate with her family. Needless to say, they haven't done anything to help me, either. I'm learning Spanish for myself now.
I am very sorry to hear this. This is atypical behavior as compared to most native Spanish speaking people. Of course there are always exceptions to everything. However, in my experience, Spanish speaking people are genuinely friendly and helpful and are extremely encouraging. Over and over again, I have met absolute strangers who seemed thrilled at even the smallest attempts to speak their language. I have never encountered even a hint of negativity.
Perhaps, the truth is as Vikingo expressed it. If you are not receiving encouragement and support for attempting to learn the language of your girlfriend and her family, perhaps she is not the right girl for you. I'm not suggesting you end things. I understand there may be a language barrier, but try to express to her how frustrating this is to you. Hopefully, she will see things from your point of view and change her attitude.
Other than a seven year old telling me I couldn't speak Spanish, my experiences have all been positive.
I was pretty upset when I posted that, so sorry it was in the wrong place. :D This week has been pretty rough.
The worst experience I've had was when I was dining in a mexican restaurant. I was speaking with the server and he asked, "Why do you want to learn spanish? I came to this country to speak English and I had to learn it so I could interact. It took me a long time to learn and now I speak english. Why would you want to learn a language when you don't need to use it?"
I basically said that it is great to learn more languages and that I love the latin culture. I also let him know that my great grandparents were from spain, and that mi apellido es Fernandez...
Just one of my experiences. Most are good experiences, but they talk so fast to me because I know the structure and some decent vocabulary - I usually get left behind haha.
