How to Cross Language Barrier?

Question

I live in northeast Pennsylvania, and for the past 5 years or so, we have had a great deal of immigration of Mexican immigrants to the area. I never encountered any close up until I moved to the city. I now have two Mexican families next door to me.

The problem is that they don't speak English, and I don't speak Spanish, so its impossible to have any sort of neighborly friendship with them. We can't even say, "Hi, how are you? How are the kids? How is your job?" I attempted once to very slowly introduce myself in English, and the one woman yelled a bunch of spanish words at me, threw her hands into the air, and stormed into her house. Since that time, she avoids me like the plague.

But, being neighbors, I want to be able to communicate with them at least a little. Anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Its hard man, but if is something good and nice about americans is how friendly you can get, and also how civil you can be...

When it comes around Mexicans it really depends what region these people comes from, for example if you are dealing with northern Mexicans they will be very open to new encounters, but if they come from the south like Puebla, Oaxaca etc,  they tend to be less polite and more shy, more so if they are from some native nation like Zapotec, Mixe, Totonac, etc. Once you get to break the ice they will be extremely friendly.

Try to make  her acquaintance  once her husband is around, lots of mexican woman specially if they come from a working class people are very shy and they never talk to a strange male if the husband is not around,

Learn some words in spanish like Buenos Días ( good morning), but remember they need to learn english too.

Finally most of the people that cross the border illegally to the US are people with a very poor education, most of them with something lees than 6 grades of it, and if they are natives probably they don´t even speak spanish well.

Answer 2

Try using the Rosetta Stone series of Spanish at home.  It's a really good program.  It's expensive but it works.  Once you learn to use the casual conversation, you'll be able to help them learn English.  Hopefully the families will be as open to learning English as you are to learning Spanish.  Good luck.  Have fun with it.  Even if you don't use it with your neighbors, I'm sure you'll meet some Hispanics one day that will be more than happy to know that you took the time to learn their language and will be willing to let you share yours.

Answer 3

Well if she has kids there's a good chance that they speak English.  Maybe catch them when the kids are outside and tell them that you would just like to introduce yourself to their parents.  Or maybe make them a fruitbasket or something and write a few nice things.  Here's a good site for a translator http://www.babelfish.altavista.com Maybe they'll come around after that?  I'm not sure what else to tell you.

Answer 4

To learn the most Spanish in the least amount of time, I would recommend a full immersion Spanish school in Mexico like the one in the first link below.  If you can spend the time and the money to travel to Mexico, you'll be speaking and understanding Spanish very well in two weeks.  And you'll learn about the culture while living with Mexicans.  They test you before starting and keep the beginners, intermediate and advanced student together in small classes.

Second option is to go to the book store and see what kind of Spanish lessons are available their.  Write down the prices for the ones that impressyou.  And then when you get home check the prices on ebay.  Prices out there can be quite a bit less--like the Pimsleur CD set in the second link below.