Angered Because I Can't Speak Spanish?
Oct 27, 2023 20:32:03 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Oct 27, 2023 20:32:03 GMT -5
Angered Because I Can't Speak Spanish?
At first read, this statement might seem ridiculous. After all, why would anyone get angry because anyone else doesn't know a language as well as he or she does do? Well, this anger can arise because the person imagines that you are putting on airs. You know, making as if you are better than they are because you speak English better than they do. Or else that you despise the Spanish culture and are attempting to identify with the English one which you deem vastly superior.
Now, to be fair, that very well might be true with some individuals. However, there are other very valid reasons why a Latino might not be able to speak Spanish fluently, or have difficulties with expressing certain basic ideas in it, such as dates.
Such a Latino will feel forced to shift to English temporarily in order to avoid the mental confusion and inevitable hesitations, or else, the inaccuracy that such an attempt might result in. For example, I can't fluently name the months of the year in Spanish easily, my birth-date doesn't flow fluently from my lips, and I clumsily hesitate and struggle. So in order to avoid the that embarrassing hassle, I provide such information by shifting to English.
Why this difficulty? Well, in my case, it's because I never attended a School where Spanish was the tutoring tongue as most of the immigrants to the United States from Latino countries have. In contrast, I arrived as a preschooler. In short, and as strange as it might seem, my very basic Spanish gradually became my second language as the English tutoring at school began taking effect.
That's the reason why I am forced to constantly consult a dictionary in order to understand many of the different Spanish expressions when I read Spanish poetry, while these other Spanish-speakers might easily take them for granted.
Now, of course, the Latinos observing me are unaware of all this. So they automatically assume that I am feeling culturally superior to them, and get angry over it. After all, they reason, if I am able to hold a very basic conversation with them in Spanish, then why the hell am I suddenly shifting to English just because I must provide the date of my birth? Same with the days of the week.
They don't imagine that although I can recite them effortlessly in English, I can only do so hesitantly in Spanish. Curiously, such an expectation led one JWS to imagine me crazy because I hesitated in expressing the days of the week in Spanish. You see, he was an Anglo American JWS attending a Spanish-speaking congregation as a Circuit Servant, who expected all the Latinos to be very fluent in Spanish. What he didn't know, was that I was in the slow difficult process of learning how to read, write and understand Spanish at the age of Twenty three.
In other words, since we don't know the intricacies of a person's cultural background, then it's best not to be so quick to judge.
Now, to be fair, that very well might be true with some individuals. However, there are other very valid reasons why a Latino might not be able to speak Spanish fluently, or have difficulties with expressing certain basic ideas in it, such as dates.
Such a Latino will feel forced to shift to English temporarily in order to avoid the mental confusion and inevitable hesitations, or else, the inaccuracy that such an attempt might result in. For example, I can't fluently name the months of the year in Spanish easily, my birth-date doesn't flow fluently from my lips, and I clumsily hesitate and struggle. So in order to avoid the that embarrassing hassle, I provide such information by shifting to English.
Why this difficulty? Well, in my case, it's because I never attended a School where Spanish was the tutoring tongue as most of the immigrants to the United States from Latino countries have. In contrast, I arrived as a preschooler. In short, and as strange as it might seem, my very basic Spanish gradually became my second language as the English tutoring at school began taking effect.
That's the reason why I am forced to constantly consult a dictionary in order to understand many of the different Spanish expressions when I read Spanish poetry, while these other Spanish-speakers might easily take them for granted.
Now, of course, the Latinos observing me are unaware of all this. So they automatically assume that I am feeling culturally superior to them, and get angry over it. After all, they reason, if I am able to hold a very basic conversation with them in Spanish, then why the hell am I suddenly shifting to English just because I must provide the date of my birth? Same with the days of the week.
They don't imagine that although I can recite them effortlessly in English, I can only do so hesitantly in Spanish. Curiously, such an expectation led one JWS to imagine me crazy because I hesitated in expressing the days of the week in Spanish. You see, he was an Anglo American JWS attending a Spanish-speaking congregation as a Circuit Servant, who expected all the Latinos to be very fluent in Spanish. What he didn't know, was that I was in the slow difficult process of learning how to read, write and understand Spanish at the age of Twenty three.
In other words, since we don't know the intricacies of a person's cultural background, then it's best not to be so quick to judge.