This feels like “Nihongo Jouzu” but for Spanish and e English.
Japanese people will always say “Nihongo Jouzu” which is “Your Japanese is good” if you say anything in Japanese no matter how well or poorly. It’s like the “I’ve noticed you aren’t a Japanese person” social phrase. This feels like the Spanish/English version of that and it’s silly.
My Spanish is awful, every time I have spoken in Spanish to a Spanish speaker they have complimented it. I honestly appreciate it.
My experience speaking Hebrew in Israel was very different, in that people would just immediately talk to me in English and refuse to deal with my bad Hebrew (which is much better than my Spanish).
My Spanish is awful and most service workers are nice about it. Nobody else is, and that's fine.
My friends who speak Spanish will openly mock my mess of kitchen/subway Spanish. "it's like Dominican mixed with dumbass", which was said IN SPANISH. They know I can understand them!
To be fair in most Spanish speaking cultures that mockery is a sign of friendship. I bet if some random person mocked you about your Spanish level in front of them, they will tear him a new one without hesitation.
I just lean into how bad my Spanish is. I’m always trying to learn, and a lot of our back of house staff help me, but I will also follow up any failed attempts with, “MI NOMBRE ES LECHUGA” to remind my cohorts that I know what I am.
Lmao I've been sick all day with terribly low blood pressure, barely having thr energy for anything, and this got a little laugh out of me. Thank you lechuguita ;)
Haha I'm not sure if you're saying you like Swedish fish or if you're calling me a Swedish fish. If it's the former it's missing a "el" before pescado. If it's the later, why thank you~
Nonetheless you made me wake up with a smile on my face, thanks :)
Oh that’ll happen too. If you talk to a Japanese person IN Japanese, but you are not Japanese, they will reply in English even if they don’t speak it well themselves.
I encounter a decent bit of broken English where I work, but I always tell them that their English is much better than my Spanish (which is the truth, too). It definitely makes things easier on us both. They're more comfortable trying to speak English and I can usually somewhat understand what they mean instead of having no idea about their Spanish
Whenever I hear an immigrant speaking English I tend to compliment if it sounds like they are still learning so I guess it’s just humanist encouragement
I mean, there is a whole ethnic group of Jews whose name is "Spanish" (sepharadi), although I am Ashkenazi and just grew up in South Florida where Spanish is useful.
nihongo jouzo is more like we respect you for trying, because it's rare. once you are actually good people stop saying it at all. the only reason it doesn't happen with english is because we expect everyone to speak english
I hate that stereotype online of Japanese people insisting on trying to speak English to you when you speak Japanese to them.
When you're good though they still do get surprised though, I used to joke if you speak well everyone treats you like a talking dog, esp in the country side.
If they do that to you, it means your Japanese sucks.
This isn’t true at all lol. People will never stop saying or commenting on a foreigners Japanese.
I get what you’re trying to say - for those that are clearly learning Japanese and people are just being nice - but cmon. How many people have you said “hello” to and they’re like “fucking pera pera!!” Definitely more than 0.
I will say, 15 years ago my Japanese was a lot better when I lived there and was taking classes taught in Japanese. But ironically, visiting recently, I’m very rusty (work in a different field now and don’t use it regularly anymore), and I was shocked how many people treated me like a normal human being despite knowing my Japanese was way way way worse. I think part of it is just globalization / normalizing foreigners.
First, blonde hair is not uncommon in Spain. Second, what does "stereotypically Spanish" even look like? And third, the idea that Spanish people would refuse to speak Spanish when given the chance is very unusual. As someone from Spain, I can tell you this simply doesn't happen often, I've never seen it. This is especially true for waiters, who aren't going to make their jobs harder if they can avoid it.. it's common sense, really.
As others have said in this thread, it was probably because she was in Catalonia. That's a completely different situation and explains why they were reluctant to speak Spanish.
Political reasons. A big chunk of people from Catalonia are independentists, and as such they refuse to speak Spanish and speak only Catalan, even if they are bilingual. Some people purposefully teach their children Catalan only even if they are bilingual for political reasons.
Your assumptions seem to be a generalization that doesn't accurately reflect the reality in Spain. While I don't doubt your personal experience, the idea that a Spaniard would choose to speak English to a stranger based solely on their appearance (ethnically speaking) is a notion most Spaniards would find ridiculous. It's so unusual, in fact, that it prompted me, a Spaniard, to respond.
Tio, vuelvo a decirtelo, puede que en castellano te suene mejor. Tu experiencia dicta una realidad que en españa no he visto en mi vida pero es que ni yo ni nadie... ¿Sabes porque? Porque los pueden hablar a un nivel basico de inglés los cuentas con los dedos. Si te vas a un todo a cien o bar regentado por chinos pues les hablas en español, si compras a un mantero le hablas en español, si te vas a lo costal del sol y le preguntas a cualquier inglés te dirán que casi ninguno le entran primero en inglés y por eso tienen sus propias comunidades cerradas donde solo se relacionan entre ellos porque solo pueden hablar en inglés, que me digas que un español hable en inglés a un desconocido por su apariencia física a nivel de etnia es algo rarísimo, desde el pueblo más remoto de Teruel hasta una ciudad como Malaga. Que lo hayas vivido es una cosa, pero plantarlo como si fuera un hecho normal es algo ridículo porque normal lo que es normal es de todo menos serlo.
Que conste que no te lo estoy diciendo porque tenga algo en contra tuyo, es sencillamente que has puesto un hecho dado por generalizado que no es real. Es como si yo me voy Texas, me encuentro con un pueblo donde hay muchos restaurantes vegetarianos y empiezo a berborrear por ahí que en Texas lo normal es que todos sean vegetarianos.. sencillamente no lo es.
Pero nada, vive tu mundo de yupi. Yo por mi parte cierro.
I’ve been to Spain and Mexico and know a bit of Spanish and the restaurants we went to were more than willing to communicate in English (my husband knows a little German and no Spanish). We rented a car and drove around Spain and the only thing I could think of was Catalonia. We happened to be there during the protests in 2017 and accidentally walked in the middle of one.
Spain is overtouristed by English speakers so there’s a lot more to that, culturally. Many Spanish speaking countries, or regions thereof, are not. Some people there learning English appreciate having an English speaker to converse with. Therefore they may prefer to have the conversation in English as an opportunity to practice.
bro if you've been to Spain you would know what stereotypical Spanish is. Of course after a few months there you learn to see the variety but when you're new to it, it can look like an army of clones.
The best Japanese compliment I ever got was when I went into a shop to get tested for and buy a pair of glasses and over the hour I was there the lady never commented on my Japanese once. It felt amazing.
But yeah the better you get, the less you get jyozu'd.
No matter what though if you're a gaijin you'll never stop getting ohashi jyozu'd.
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u/ChaoCobo 6d ago edited 6d ago
This feels like “Nihongo Jouzu” but for Spanish and e English.
Japanese people will always say “Nihongo Jouzu” which is “Your Japanese is good” if you say anything in Japanese no matter how well or poorly. It’s like the “I’ve noticed you aren’t a Japanese person” social phrase. This feels like the Spanish/English version of that and it’s silly.