¿Habla español?

[Reuben]

Do you speak Spanish?  If so, how much?

[Haus]

Well, I was stumped when a favorita told me "te odio". 

[smoothburnn]

 

 

Are you still stumped ??

[Haus]

LOL, I figured it out eventually.

 

[fotofreak]

I can read it okay - not great but okay.  

Speaking it?   

As an Amigo once said when asked if he spoke Spanish: "Not in whole sentences!"   Yup. That's me, too.

I keep trying sort of, but frankly I'm lazy and there always seems to be a helpful deportee nearby who will happily translate for me if needed. 

[nonsensicalElixir]

My Spanish is getting better. I can read a lot and speak enough to get by (my gringo accent is horrible though). I've had several dates in full Spanish with one chica who is very patient with me. Includes dinner, doing something fun and a TLN.

But when people talk to me with normal speed Spanish it is like my brain switches off and they might as well be speaking Russian. Need to practice listening to people more.

[sampson]

1 hour ago, nonsensicalElixir said:

My Spanish is getting better. I can read a lot and speak enough to get by (my gringo accent is horrible though). I've had several dates in full Spanish with one chica who is very patient with me. Includes dinner, doing something fun and a TLN.

But when people talk to me with normal speed Spanish it is like my brain switches off and they might as well be speaking Russian. Need to practice listening to people more.

I have the same problem, but sometimes if you can pick up a couple of words you can figure out what they must have said.  So my advice would be to listen and try to replay what you heard and don't be ashamed that you may not understand. 

[Don Pisto]

6 hours ago, sampson said:

I have the same problem, but sometimes if you can pick up a couple of words you can figure out what they must have said.  So my advice would be to listen and try to replay what you heard and don't be ashamed that you may not understand. 

what he said above! Thanks Sampson!

VIVA MEXICO!

[Surfer 123]

On 9/2/2018 at 7:31 PM, nonsensicalElixir said:

But when people talk to me with normal speed Spanish it is like my brain switches off and they might as well be speaking Russian. Need to practice listening to people more.

Like this lol?  These were from Saturday night around 9:00 just after the shooting outside of HK.  The first message was too fast and I had trouble understanding so listen to her cadence on the other messages lol.  She speaks Columbian spanish and her accent is awesome.

 

 

PTT-20180901-WA0014.opus

PTT-20180901-WA0016.opus

PTT-20180901-WA0015.opus

[reytj]

7 hours ago, Surfer 123 said:

Like this lol?  These were from Saturday night around 9:00 just after the shooting outside of HK.  The first message was too fast and I had trouble understanding so listen to her cadence on the other messages lol.  She speaks Columbian spanish and her accent is awesome.

 

 

PTT-20180901-WA0014.opus

PTT-20180901-WA0016.opus

PTT-20180901-WA0015.opus

While her Colombian accent is adorable she is of the belief that someone  was killed so I wouldn't say she's a reliable informant

Edited September 4, 2018 by reytj

[Surfer 123]

Yeah her accent is adorable and her face is adorable as well .  I really like her accent in the first message when she says llegando and then like 3 words later she also extends out the O sound in another word that I can't understand, almost like an Italian. 

Yep she heard the gunshots again and thought welp another person died.

[reytj]

49 minutes ago, Surfer 123 said:

Yeah her accent is adorable and her face is adorable as well .  I really like her accent in the first message when she says llegando and then like 3 words later she also extends out the O sound in another word that I can't understand, almost like an Italian. 

Yep she heard the gunshots again and thought welp another person died.

She says "aqui tienen todo cerra[d]o"   ie here all  is closed off.  Dropping the d is a characteristic of spanish as spoken in the caribean or on the coast.  BTW in her messages she doesn't say she heard the shots but she told you she did?

Edited September 4, 2018 by reytj

[Surfer 123]

7 minutes ago, reytj said:

She says "aqui tienen todo cerra[d]o"   ie here all  is closed off.  Dropping the d is a characteristic of spanish as spoken in the caribean or on the coast.  BTW in her messages she doesn't say she heard the shots but she told you she did?

Thanks for the clarification.  When I saw her in person about 9:30 is when she told me she heard the shots.

[ElHefe]

I speak fluent Spanish and can use some older slang. 

[Jefffffrey]

I speak Spanish very well and I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy some of the "other" bars in TJ.  One problem I have though is that because I didn't learn until college, I will always have a pretty bad accent.

[Sloan]

31 minutes ago, Jefffffrey said:

I speak Spanish very well and I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy some of the "other" bars in TJ.  One problem I have though is that because I didn't learn until college, I will always have a pretty bad accent.

I'm with you on this one. I really didn't learn to speak Spanish until late in life (very late). But I studied it for years in school as an academic requirement and managed to pass the courses too. I know I can speak Spanish well enough to communicate. The only place I don't have any confidence is in a legal situation. 

But the problem I find is that when Spanish speakers who are not used to hearing your accent don't really listen to you, they want to act like they don't understand you. I've developed the confidence (over time) to tell them to listen to me. Then, I repeat what I said. 

 

[Reuben]

50 minutes ago, Jefffffrey said:

I speak Spanish very well and I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy some of the "other" bars in TJ.  One problem I have though is that because I didn't learn until college, I will always have a pretty bad accent.

 

12 minutes ago, Sloan said:

I'm with you on this one. I really didn't learn to speak Spanish until late in life (very late). But I studied it for years in school as an academic requirement and managed to pass the courses too. I know I can speak Spanish well enough to communicate. The only place I don't have any confidence is in a legal situation. 

But the problem I find is that when Spanish speakers who are not used to hearing your accent don't really listen to you, they want to act like they don't understand you. I've developed the confidence (over time) to tell them to listen to me. Then, I repeat what I said. 

 

Realize that even with an accent both of you are leagues ahead of those who barely speak Spanish or don't speak it beyond cerverza, por favor, and baño.  @Sloan, as you've noted, if you are a Gringo, they rarely expect fluency and will tune you out thinking you're speaking English but that's good that you persist.  I've found that even when I butcher up a word or phrase, once they realize I'm speaking Spanish, they become even more friendly.

[Jefffffrey]

13 hours ago, Reuben said:

 

Realize that even with an accent both of you are leagues ahead of those who barely speak Spanish or don't speak it beyond cerverza, por favor, and baño.  @Sloan, as you've noted, if you are a Gringo, they rarely expect fluency and will tune you out thinking you're speaking English but that's good that you persist.  I've found that even when I butcher up a word or phrase, once they realize I'm speaking Spanish, they become even more friendly.

Typically I refuse to speak English.  If I'm in Mexico I speak Spanish and eat tacos.  Just my policy.  There os an asshole desk worker at Villa Zaragoza and one time he refused to speak with me in Spanish and I refused to speak with him in English.  He said he couldn't understand me so I turned around and asked a Mexican in line if he understood me.  The guy in line said yes and laughed.  In some ways I guess I am being the asshole for not acknowledging their English, but that is one reason it is harder for English speakers to learn other languages (the common steriotype is because we don't want to)..  

[aventurero]

Remember guys, we are the consumers and the paying customers. If we spent time studying their language and they don't want to speak to us and allow us to practice speaking in Spanish because of an "accent", I would rather take my money elsewhere. I am an easygoing guy but at the same time I know my place as the paying consumer. It's very disrespectful for someone in customer service to purposely answer back in a different language. It is another way of saying "You don't speak my language well enough so I am going to answer in a different one. They are here to serve us, not the other way around. If we want to speak to them in Spanish, they can use their excellent customer service skills to answer back in Spanish as well. If they don't understand us, they can just say they didn't understand rather than abruptly and disrespectfully switching the language. 

Personally, I'll speak whatever language is appropriate for the situation, but in a customer service situation, I have different expectations since I am paying money. 

Edited October 14, 2018 by aventurero

[zombie]

Its challenging and lots of fun trying to communicate with locals. The efforts are rewarded when you really want to get your point across.

Before you know it though, the SG's are rattling off long sentences and questions.  You want to tell them Whoa!  Slow down! Did I really sound that fluent?

Funny thing I notice is when some Americans act frustrated and even disgusted when they speak Spanish and are not understood.

Its very obvious their pronunciation is the problem.  Big chuckles, when you have a southerner that complicates things a bit with that twangy twang.

[PhordPhan]

2 hours ago, aventurero said:

Remember guys, we are the consumers and the paying customers. If we spent time studying their language and they don't want to speak to us and allow us to practice speaking in Spanish because of an "accent", I would rather take my money elsewhere. I am an easygoing guy but at the same time I know my place as the paying consumer. It's very disrespectful for someone in customer service to purposely answer back in a different language. It is another way of saying "You don't speak my language well enough so I am going to answer in a different one. They are here to serve us, not the other way around. If we want to speak to them in Spanish, they can use their excellent customer service skills to answer back in Spanish as well. If they don't understand us, they can just say they didn't understand rather than abruptly and disrespectfully switching the language. 

Personally, I'll speak whatever language is appropriate for the situation, but in a customer service situation, I have different expectations since I am paying money. 

I'll agree up to a point. I never expect anybody in Mexico to speak English, so I always do my best to approach every situation in Spanish and butcher their language as little as possible. However, on occasion I get stuck and/or my brain goes into low gear. A couple of times, recently, a nice lady at a burrito place in Otay and the proprietor of a pizza place down towards Rosarito, would interject a bit of English, just to help out and politely let me know they spoke English, in case I was more comfortable using that language.

I agree it's rude to just answer back in another language altogether. And I think I know the guy referred to at VdZ. 

I do find it funny when dealing with an airline, or similar, and you're in line. The agent always speaks Spanish to the Mexicans in line. As soon as they see a white face they immediately switch to English. I will often answer in Spanish just to confuse them. 

[PhordPhan]

2 hours ago, zombie said:

Its challenging and lots of fun trying to communicate with locals. The efforts are rewarded when you really want to get your point across.

Before you know it though, the SG's are rattling off long sentences and questions.  You want to tell them Whoa!  Slow down! Did I really sound that fluent?

Funny thing I notice is when some Americans act frustrated and even disgusted when they speak Spanish and are not understood.

Its very obvious their pronunciation is the problem.  Big chuckles, when you have a southerner that complicates things a bit with that twangy twang.

When first learning (and still some now) I had that problem. I'd figure out what to ask, then ask, and then get swamped with a thousand words at a million miles per hour.

I then memorized the phrase "Habla mas despacio, por favor." I always thought it translated into something like "speak slower, please." But, I was wrong. Apparently it means to just say whatever it was you were saying in a different manor, using more words, twice as fast. 

[Bubby]

1 hour ago, PhordPhan said:

When first learning (and still some now) I had that problem. I'd figure out what to ask, then ask, and then get swamped with a thousand words at a million miles per hour.

I then memorized the phrase "Habla mas despacio, por favor." I always thought it translated into something like "speak slower, please." But, I was wrong. Apparently it means to just say whatever it was you were saying in a different manor, using more words, twice as fast. 

This happens to me in clubs like La Gloria or La Carreta, especially when the chica has been drinking. They assume I'm fluent and I am far from it. 

I tell them to speak to me and use words like they would if they were speaking to a 6 year old kid. That usually helps.

[Haus]

5 minutes ago, Bubby said:

I tell them to speak to me and use words like they would if they were speaking to a 6 year old kid. That usually helps.

 

...do they answer that their kid was 6 years old twenty years ago??     

[Bubby]

2 minutes ago, Haus said:

 

...do they answer that their kid was 6 years old twenty years ago??     

Some of them could.

I'm an Equal Opportunity monger. I discriminate based on sex, but that's about it.

Old hookers need love too, ya know.