Here´s a conversation we had with a teacher the other day:
Translated from Spanish:
Teacher: Do you speak French?
Isaac: No, sorry.
Teacher: Do you know anyone who does?
Kirstie: No, but we know four volunteers from Spain at the other school in town. It´s possible that they speak French.
Teacher: No, Spaniards don´t speak French; they speak Spanish like Ecuadorians do.
And here are some ponderings:
The weird part about this conversation is that we don´t know the teacher, so she was assuming that because we are obviously not from Ecuador, there is a greater likelihood of us knowing French. But why didn`t that assumption apply to the girls from Spain? (PS Spain is closer to France than the US is. Also, for those who learned "gringo" from a Mexican - the word doesn´t have the same negative connotation in Ecuador as it does in Mexico...)
..Isaac and Kirstie..
This post is part of the Language and Culture Series.
Translated from Spanish:
Teacher: Do you speak French?
Isaac: No, sorry.
Teacher: Do you know anyone who does?
Kirstie: No, but we know four volunteers from Spain at the other school in town. It´s possible that they speak French.
Teacher: No, Spaniards don´t speak French; they speak Spanish like Ecuadorians do.
And here are some ponderings:
The weird part about this conversation is that we don´t know the teacher, so she was assuming that because we are obviously not from Ecuador, there is a greater likelihood of us knowing French. But why didn`t that assumption apply to the girls from Spain? (PS Spain is closer to France than the US is. Also, for those who learned "gringo" from a Mexican - the word doesn´t have the same negative connotation in Ecuador as it does in Mexico...)
..Isaac and Kirstie..
Take it from someone who lives in Spain: it's because Spaniards rarely speak ANY language other than Spanish. They are definitely worse than Americans in this area.
ReplyDelete"Gringo" also doesn't mean anything in Spain as far as I have found. The few times I used it in the begining, I just got blank looks.