posted
Mabus, the ñ, in Spanish, is a palatalized "n," made by cleaving your tongue to the roof of your mouth as if you'd just eaten peanut butter and pronouncing "y" and "n" simultaneously.
Hell, no wonder you poor bastards muck it up so much.
Posts: 5663 | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I'm just trying to be sure not to order fuh-JY-tuhs ever again. That really didn't go over well.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I'm glad you don't know my grandparents, David. They pronounce "Pueblo" as "Peblo" (The "Peb" like "pebble"). I don't get it. My Mom taught Spanish for 15 years so she cringes whenever she hears them say it.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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I can do that, David....but it doesn't fit into a word that way. *shakes head* You people make everything so complicated. Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Most foreigners will appreciate someone attempting to speak their language, even if your attempt is pretty lousy. You'll find that merely using the few words you do know, or pronouncing things to the best you can approximate, will often get you off on a friendly foot.
This works everywhere except the touristy parts of Paris. They'll just answer your French question in English and kind fo grumble as they walk away. Don't worry, It's not you - it's the lady before you in the huge sparkly eiffel tower t-shirt who demanded very loudly that she be given a menu in English. "IN ENGLISH," she yelled, "GOT THAT? I DON'T SPEAK ANY FRENCH!"
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
About Los Angeles: what's wrong with giving an English pronounciation to an American city? It would be annoying if we had to switch into a Spanish accent everytime we said "Los Angeles" in the middle of a sentence in English. Even though I can do both Spanish and English accents, switching them within a sentence usually screws over both accents for me. But maybe that's just me. Besides no one says "Las Angeles" or "Los Vegas". It's just a matter of the accent--whether you say "Los" or "Loss".
And personally I think Spanish-speakers screw around English a lot more then we screw around Spanish, though no one points that out because that would be racist and stuff
aunke... I do definately think that it's important to try to get most people at least a little bit bilengual (how the f do you spell that? spanish has seriously messed up my spelling!!!! ) hearing my mom speak spanish makes me laugh, and i'm not even a native speaker.
words i can't spell because i've learned spanish: lemonade/limonada (i spell it limonade) restuarante, restaurante, restaurant, restuarant.... virgin/virgen and more everyday
posted
I agree with you on the switching accents, Soara. I had a friend who always thought it was funny when TV anchors did that. He reasoned that if they'd switch into perfect Spanish to say "Earlier today in... Nicaragua," they should adopt a nice hearty brogue to say, "This morning in Belfast, Narthern Oierland..."
quote:3) Los Ángeles. Yes, well, you spell it more or less correctly, but there's a major issue. You've noticed that Las Vegas has an "a" between the "l" and "s," I assume? Have you ever thought (again, I doubt it), "Gee, why are there two spellings for the same pronunciation?" Well, guess what, bright guy... you're bungling the pronuciation. Try pronouncing that "o" like the one in "ho" and you'll be closer.
Hey, Generalissimo Franco. I don't give a damn who founded Los Angeles originally. It's an American city now, and Americans in America have the right to pronounce the name of an American city in English, which is the language we actually speak here. I'm perfectly aware of how the name is pronounced in Spanish, and yes, I can pronounce it correctly. But if the rest of the sentence in which I mention the city is in English, then I will pronounce the first element to rhyme with "boss", and I'll be damned if I'm going to spill any extra ink over the A or hack up a wad of phlegm to pronounce the G. Not in an English sentence.
I do, however, wish that people would stop saying "habanyero". That's not an Anglicization of a Spanish word. That's a misunderstanding of what the Spanish actually is. Yes, "jalapeno" is written with a tilde over the N*. But "habanero" is not. In English, pronounce as spelled. I hope I don't need to mention by this point that making the H silent is unnecessary in English. It must be silent in Spanish, but you'll be better understood in English if you pronounce it.
*In Spanish, anyway. English does not use diacritics under normal circumstances, so no tilde is necessary when writing in English.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I've had people think my nick is related to quesadillas - it's not!
And, as an exchange student to Germany at the age of 17, I would tell people I was from Iowa, get a blank look, say, "it's near Chicago" and be rewarded with nods and smiles. Yeah.
quote:English-speakers with decent educations seem to do just fine pronouncing their native tongue.
That's debatable, considering the vast differences in pronunciations in just American dialect. I know people from New York, Massachussettes, Georgia, South Dakota, Arizona, and California, and while each of them has an education slightly more than "decent," each of them still have mispronunciations of words, and have no problem pointing out my own as well. Half of the aforementioned have either two masters degrees in different fields or a doctorate. I'd say that qualifies as "decent education," no?
David Bowles, Mexicans can't even pronounce proper Espanol correctly, messing up silly simple things like the "th" sound with an "s" sound. If we're going to demand that people get it right, shouldn't one be getting it right themselves to begin with?
Posts: 1170 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Most foreigners will appreciate someone attempting to speak their language, even if your attempt is pretty lousy. You'll find that merely using the few words you do know, or pronouncing things to the best you can approximate, will often get you off on a friendly foot.
Try that in Paris or Quebec and you might sing a different tune. I and others who have been to both have had horrible experience trying to close the communication gap only to be snapped at for not speaking perfect French.
Posts: 1170 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
To all the grumpy mumblers who've posted on this thread: learn some Spanish, bobos!
To those who don't find this humorous: too bad! I don't find you terribly funny, either, with your embarrassingly bad pronunciation of Spanish. Hell, there aren't nearly as many French speakers, but I bet you poseurs knock yourselves out trying to say "croissant" properly, and I'm sure not a one of you says "coffee: Ow, late!" instead of "café au lait." You just hate Spanish, admit it, elitist bastards!
posted
8. The Chevy Nova didn't sell well in Latin American because "no va" means "it doesn't go" in Spanish
Total bunk. The car sold just fine, exceeding expectations. There are tons of problems with the underlying assumptions here, though. Just because one word (Nova) looks like two other words (no va) doesn't mean a damn thing, really ("carpet" ≠ "car pet"). Besides, Spanish *has* the word "nova"! What do you think Spanish speakers call a star blowing up? "El estarro que make-a el boom-o"? Also, nova has the connotation of "new" in Spanish... those of you who've been to Mexico may have noticed there is a brand of gasoline called "Nova," and it sells pretty well.
Leaving all that aside, the stress in "Nova" falls on the penultimate syllable, while in the phrase "no va," the "va" would be stressed. Finally, no one is going to say of a cheap car, "no va" (it doesn't go); they'd say "no funciona/trabaja/jala" (it doesn't work).
Don't be so gullible. And, uh, learn some Spanish!
Posts: 5663 | Registered: Jun 2000
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um.. Spanish as in the language they speak in Spain, or Spanish meaning the language they speak in Mexico? you can't mean both, because they really aren't the same any more than American English is the same as British.
Posts: 494 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
8. The Chevy Nova ...etc I was told that same story when I lived with a Peruvian family--it's not just a gringo invention.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Just learn any dialect you can... anything's better than the massive Spanish ignorance on this board!
Posts: 5663 | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
I've been lurking for a while, and upon seeing this topic I decided to post.
As far a Spanish pronunciations go, nobody gets them right. I recently got back from a half-year exchange program in South America. To be specific, in Paraguay. The intonation and inflection, as well as the very rhythm are drastically different when compared to those of Mexico, Spain, and even neighboring Argentina. Why stress out about it? We're Americans-- we'll pronounce it like Americans.
Los argentinos hablan español como argentinos. La gente de España habla como españoles. Y nosotros yanquis hablamos como norteamericanos.
Plus, we don't butcher it that bad. You should hear non-natives try to speak Guaraní.
posted
I'm amazed by how many people keep saying that certain nationalities don't pronounce their own language correctly. Does nobody here understand the concept of "dialect"?
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Learning spanish is great if we're talking about the name of cities and general conversation between the growing number of hispanics and the countries majority of non-spanish speakers. However, as a caveat to all of this, I think it is much more critical to make sure everyone can speak english. After all, english is the international language of business and technology (then there's Latin, but we won't go into that...)
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
Mothertree, I agree that this thread is quickly heading into dangerous territory. What makes it more unconfortable for me is that a similar thread making fun of hispanics and their pronunciation would quickly be decried as a racist attack, but it's perfectly acceptable to mock the gringo's.
Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote:What makes it more unconfortable for me is that a similar thread making fun of hispanics and their pronunciation would quickly be decried as a racist attack, but it's perfectly acceptable to mock the gringo's.
Exactly. I've been wanting to make a parody thread about how Hispanics in America can't speak English properly, and how they must be clueless because they can't pronounce this or that English word correctly. I'd have pointed out some of the most common errors, such as saying J for Y, or placing a superfluous E in front of an S, and said that these were signs that these clueless Hispanics needed to learn better English.
The reason I haven't made such a thread was the fear that it would not be understood as a parody of this thread, but that it would instead be mistaken for a racist attack against immigrants. Evidently no one is offended by the idea that Americans in America should be forced to learn someone else's language just to live in America. But the slightest suggestion that immigrants should learn our language to live in our country was just too dangerous to play with. That is why this thread is so offensive.
Posts: 1814 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Besides, being "Anglo" or "white" or whatever, I'm the perfect person to make fun of your lousy pronunciation! Limber up those tongues, people, and let's hear you roll your rs!
Posts: 5663 | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
David, I'm glad to hear that your heart breaks for us. We poor gringo's have been ignored and shunned by hispanics for far too long, and all of this lamenting because of a simple misunderstanding. I know you think we don't like you, but if you spoke english better you'd know that we're really just frustrated that we can't tell you how spiffy we think it is that you can fit so many extra syllables in all of your words. Posts: 1480 | Registered: Dec 2004
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quote: Evidently no one is offended by the idea that Americans in America should be forced to learn someone else's language just to live in America. But the slightest suggestion that immigrants should learn our language to live in our country was just too dangerous to play with. That is why this thread is so offensive.
This offended me much more than the thread did but I can't quite put my finger on why.
I think that there's already too much pressure on immigrants to learn the English language and the social consequences are too great for them to not at least try. But this thread is mostly a joke. No one is being forced to learn Spanish or any other language in this country and that's sad, but for most people, there isn't a real need to learn another language. Of course I don't think you need to learn any language other than English if you don't want, but I do think there is some respect involved in trying to pronounce words properly if you're going to adopt them into your everyday language.
Besides, I like to think that immigrants are Americans. They may not be native born but they're here to live and work. So their language is part of "our" language and until the government officially declares the US as an English only country, I'll continue to think that any language spoken in the US counts as one of "our" languages regardless of the dominance of English here and throughout the business world.
I doubt I said anything new there and I'm not even sure I conveyed my ideas clearly...but that statement just rubbed me the wrong way.
With that said, I do find this thread to be offensive but that's for personal reasons. I'm a Mexican-American who's been mostly shunned for not being able to speak Spanish even though I try. But I'll try to keep in mind this is mostly supposed to be a joke. I think.
Posts: 378 | Registered: Aug 2004
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