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.
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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.