Reverse discrimination?

Question

My first language is French, but I speak English almost as well. I had Spanish in high school (10+ years ago) and have travelled throughout Mexico so I was pretty fluent, but where I lived in California, some latino(a)s would allow me to practise with them, others wouldn't.

So last year I moved to Texas and am back in college. I live less than an hour from the border but not all Latino(a)s here speak spanish.

What upsets me is that many refuse to speak it with me, yet I speak it better than many of them. And yet they're both the cultural and linguistic majority here, it's not as if U.S. English is knocking on their front doors asking "Ya'll speaking gringo in there?" Could it be that they're ashamed of this and don't want to admit it?

Favor de dejar sus comentarios en espanol o ingles pero de preferencia en los dos, de este manera todos pueden participar.

Please leave your comments in english or spanish, but preferably in both so all can provide feedback.

Answer 1

To me there are two possibilities:

a) They're ashamed of speaking it with foreginers or learners of the language or to anyone outside of their family circles because they know their level of Spanish could be better, since they're from Hispanic background and grew up speaking Spanish and yet are still being assimilated into Anglo-American culture.

b) They're like me, and can't bring themselves to speak the language to any NON native-speaker or at least to someone they consider to be fluent. I can barely ever bring myself to speak German or Spanish to a non native-speaker, or even English or French, unless they're someone I've been speaking in that language with for a long time or that I know they're fluent enough to hold a conversation with me. If I were teaching it would be different, but if someone just comes along and asks me to speak Spanish or German with them so they can ''practice'' what they know, I just get stuck. If a native-speaker comes along, I have no problem whatsoever.

It's all about perspective.

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Yo veo dos posibilidades:

1º - Les da vergüenza hablar su lengua materna con extranjeros o con aquellos que lo aprenden o mejor con cualquier persona que esté fuera de círculo familiar, porque les parece que podrían hablar con más soltura, ya que son hispanohablantes y que han siempre hablado español desde su niñez, pero sin embargo siguen estando asimilados en la cultura angloamericana.

2º - Otra posibilidad es que son como yo, es decir que no logran hablar español con alguien que no es hablanto nativo. Casi nunca puedo hablar o bien español o alemán, aún francés o inglés, con alguien que no lo habla con soltura, a menos que sean personas con quiénes lo hablo desde hace mucho tiempo o que yo sepa que su nivel de lengua es bastante alto. Si diera clases, sería ya diferente pero si alguien se viene y me pregunta que hable español o alemán con él para practicar, por una razón u otra me resulta imposible. Pero si fuera un hablante nativo, no habría problema ninguno.

Es una cuestión de perspectivas.

Answer 2

maybe they don't want to be rude to others around you? at work i sit around girls that speak spanish and its so rude cause none of us understand what they are saying, yet we all know english. ya know? you can tell  when they are talking about us too...

or maybe they are ashamed? i dont know why they would be ashamed???

hmm, i don't know then. thats kind of weird. maybe you should just politely ask them? ya know? i am not sure exactly how to word that though.

Man, I wish I was even bilingual. I know very little Spanish.

i live in Dallas so we are not close to the border...

Answer 3

Are you a Habs fan because you're from Montreal, or just because they rule? If you're from Montreal you have to understand that one way or another, you must have a weird opinion about the politics of language. (Don't get me wrong, I do as well, no doubt a different one. My husband's is different still...) They probably associate Spanish with people of their background, and are used to speaking English with everyone else.  Nothing more complicated than that.

Answer 4

Believe it or not, many mexican parents refuse to teach their child spanish by speaking it at home. They don't want their children to be stereotyped anymore. There are quite a bit of Mexicans where I lived that didn't speak a word of Spanish even though their parents were native speakers.

My friend Amy and her family are all from San Antonio, Texas. All she can say is "tía." She literally can't speak or understand Spanish. Her mother is an American, also born in Texas, but her mother learned Spanish first and I guess her mom didn't want to teach her children Spanish.

If they don't want to speak Spanish, they don't have to. It doesn't matter if they're fluent or not.

And gringo is a white person in general: British, French, German, Russian. Gringo "language" isn't English.  Many Argentines are guera and we look gringa.

I think you are stereotyping the Mexicans there when in actuality, not all of them speak Spanish.

Answer 5

im from India, well i was born here parents born in India, i get offended when people talk to me in Hindi or something, first i dont know any thing but English (i know very bad) and second its embarrassing, its really bad when i go to 7-11 and they start talking to me in Pakistani

some people get offended if you start talking to them in different languages  

like me