Son has something against learning Spanish (English speaker)?
August 29th, 2010 | 
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sariff asked:
My son has an interest in learning another language. He seems to be really interested in Japanese and/or German. I listed other ones, such as Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, etc. and he seemed willing to give them a try as well. But when I got to Spanish he immediately wondered why on earth I would suggest that.
My son has an interest in learning another language. He seems to be really interested in Japanese and/or German. I listed other ones, such as Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, etc. and he seemed willing to give them a try as well. But when I got to Spanish he immediately wondered why on earth I would suggest that.
We live in an area where there are plenty of Spanish speakers and I think it would be best for him to learn that language vs. Japanese or German. What could be his problem with Spanish?
Picture: Could be a factor (but many people speak Mandarin..and Japanese and German are stark contrasts from one another). I listed the other languages though and he was completely put off from learning or even hearing the word ‘Spanish’.
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Posted in Learning Spanish
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Many people speak spanish, its not a very hard language. Plus to him it probably sounds cooler to speak differently. Japanese/German is very diffrent.
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It’s a really hard language to learn
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he probably wants to be unique. but in the future he most likely wont use japanese or german.
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i don’t know. its odd that he would be against learning Spanish. he’s not racist, is he? maybe he just thinks that everyone is learning Spanish these days so he shoudl learn one of the atypical foreign languages. maybe he thinks its too easy. i don’t know.
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I had a similar situation with my 13 yo cousin. I asked him if he was learning Spanish in high school to which he responded, “No way, I **** Spanish! I’m studying French.”
Having studied it extensively myself, and having enjoyed it, I had to know why. So I asked him.
His answer…”I don’t like Mexicans.” I was quite taken back by this. He does lead a somewhat sheltered life, but jeez! I finally found out that he is against illegal immigration, and he thought all illegal immigrants were from Mexico! I tried and tried to explain that Spanish is not only spoke by A) Illegal Immigrants, and B) has many practical application in the States. I told him I studied in Spain, where they also speak Spanish.
So, perhaps your son has some resentment towards Spanish speakers here?
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You’re right–practical purposes are more important than showing off. I learned English because of my job, even though English isn’t spoken in my area. And I’m learning Guarani because it’s my parents’ native language (along with Spanish) and a widely spoken language in the state of Argentina where I live. I also speak Portuguese because my area is near to Brazil. I like Japanese, which in some way resembles Guarani, and German, too, but so far there’s nothing indicating that I should learn these languages on a professional basis. If I moved to an area where either Japanese, Chinese, Arabic or German is spoken, I’d have to learn these languages anyway.
On the other hand, I don’t agree with those who believe all Mexican immigrants are illegal. And as far as the illegal is concerned, many people from the US have an uncaring, even ****** attitude towards them because most people born in the US don’t know what is being unemployed and desperate to get something better for their family, which often happen to be children. Many immigrants’ sole crime is entering the country illegaly to find a job, and they often do jobs other people don’t want or view as menial work. It’s sad to hear prejudiced comments such as “Mexican are illegal” and “Colombians are drug traffickers”, as though there weren’t local people who actually do these things. I’m not justifying anyone, my point is that there’s no culture where there aren’t any people who break the laws. All cultures have their “good” and “bad” guys, including US’ and Spain’s. Talking about crime as typical of a specific ethnic group is unfair, immature, even offensive.
Finally, people from the US always forget that theirs is a country made of immigrants. If they actually want ALL IMMIGRANTS out of the country, they should all move and let it to the Indian Americans!
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Good question.
I think he is not that interested in learning Spanish because of any of the following:
1. He gets to hear people speak Spanish around, so he thinks it’s a pretty common language. Maybe he wants to be more “unique” in that he will speak a language that not many people around speak (around in the place he lives).
2. He has anti-ethnic feelings towards people who speak Spanish so he doesn’t want to learn Spanish because he sees himself as adapting to an ethnic group he just doesn’t like or feel comfortable being with (e.g. LatinAmericans)
3. He doesn’t understand the value of speaking Spanish in the place where he lives because he thinks it’s not necessary.
I think Spanish is one of the most useful languages to learn. Just try to explain to him from a geographical point of view: if he speaks Spanish he will be able to travel to basically anywhere in the Americas because he will be able to speak English in Canada, USA and Spanish in most of the countries South of the USA, except for Brazil, but even in Brazil Spanish will be of great help as it is very similar to Portuguese.
Asian or European languages will only be of value to him if he ends up going to Asia or Europe (not Spain) to study or work. Still, in Europe, almost every country has its own language so, unless he goes to the country where they speak the national language (e.g. Germany for German or Russia for Russian) he will end up having to learn the local language or just speak English anyway.
Asian languages pose an additional difficulty: writing. The alphabets are pictograms so it is extremely difficult for us, romance alphabet users) to learn all the symbols of Asian languages. Even if he learns the words with their equivalent in romance alphabet the task will not be easy. Again, if he’s planning to study or work in China or Japan then he should definitely give it a try, but if he just wants to learn a language to differentiate himself from the rest I think it’s not worth it.
Languages are tools. Tools are supposed to help us make our lives easier and more practical, or add value to our lives. Spanish could be of great help if he’s planning to stay in the US because he will be able to make contacts in many countries of LatinAmerica and that is always a plus for US-based companies that do business in LatinAmerica. Spanish is the 3rd most-spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English, yet people do not see the value of it.
French is a good option too, but they only speak it in France, Belgium and some countries in Africa. Unless he’s planning to go there I think French is just a language that “sounds nice” but it’s of less practical value in the U.S. Maybe in Canada French would be of great help, but then again, from the geographic point of view, if you know Spanish then about 80% of the Americas territory is an open door. If you know French perhaps 20% of the Americas territory is yours. I would definitely go for Spanish. In terms of difficulty, French and Spanish are very similar, they both have gender differentiation, verb conjugation complexities and pronounciation challenges, yet Spanish is a little bit easier to learn because all vowels are pronounced the same, whereas French has several variations for different vowels.
Not sure how old you son is but here’s a major incentive for him to learn Spanish: Latin American girls are beautiful (not to say that American girls or European girls or Chinese girls are not, each ethnic group has its own attractive features), but, it is well known that Latin girls are very ****… how about learning Spanish so he can have a nice Latin girlfriend???
Cheers!