How many bigsoccer MLS fans speak fluent Spanish? Many speak Spanish because its their first language or heritage language. Some others learn Spanish because they have a special interest (work or natural interest) and some others because they actually lived in a Latin American country; whichever is your case, please say it.
Well I went to a school that taught Spanish from kindergarten up until 8th grade then took Spanish until college. With that in mind...I'm still not "fluent" sadly, LOL. Although I do understand it more than I can speak/write it...
I am Hungarian/Romanian but after my parents divorced my father married a Spanish woman and I have a Spanish half brother. I have visited there many times, including living there for a year so I learned Spanish. Over the years though here in the US, my Spanish accent has been taken over by more Mexican/Central American influences
I'm surprised with ex MLS player Herculez Gomez's spanish. He was born in LA and raised in Las Vegas, but he speaks perfect Spanish. Even when he first started to play in Mexico his Spanish was very good. I guess his parents did a good job.
I've lived in Mexico and Costa Rica and worked elsewhere in Central America. My Spanish is pretty good, but it usually takes about a week for me to really hit my stride.
Yo solo hablo español : D y me valgo de un traductor para poder escribir en ingles en este foro tan interesante, por eso muchas veces no se entiende lo que quiero decir, ahora bien no tengo tan claro que lo hable bien del todo al español me refiero : D: D
My ability to speak spanish is directly related to my sobriety. With that said, I learned my spanish by dating an Argentine modela years back. Which really made learning spanish from a book a big wash. She also LOVED Boca Jrs. che voludo
I have been living and working in the dom rep since 1993, plus my wife is dominicana, mi español is pretty much perfecto I guess
Grew up in Montreal but Salvadoran by birth and culture. Only spoke Spanish at home. French in school & work and English the rest of the time. I really don't understand why there are so many Latin Americans in the U.S. & Canada who no longer speak Spanish. I understand 3rd or 4th generation Latinos, but 1st generation? I blame lazy parents.
I can write/read it much better than I can speak it. I have no Spanish/Latino background other than a couple of friends who are of Mexican heritage. (Both 3rd generation Mexican-Americans born and raised in California) I try my best to practice around them but the longer I am away from it the worse it gets. This is all from 3 years of Spanish in high school. So yeah, read/write it fairly decent, but when it comes to listening to it, I get lost at how fast the language seems to be spoken.
I'm paying the price with my kids now. They're blaming me and my wife for not teaching them enough Spanish. But, what happened in reality was that when my daughters were 1-5, they only spoke Spanish thanks to us, grandparents and to the the babysitter who was dominican. Things changed when they started to go to school. We are using both languages at the same time, but my kids got used to English. They are able to understand Spanish almost perfectly, but the speaking part is really a big question mark. I really feel bad for this. My advice to all bilingual parents is to only speak Spanish at home, they will learn English in school.
The thing is that for 1st generation families a lot of times speaking a little English at home can help the parents learn faster. Kids that are still school age will learn English in a year or two, but adults can take years especially if they have a low level of education ... maybe illiterate. And of course the sooner the parents can master English, the better the odds of success in society. It's hard to find that balance because I agree with you, speaking too much English at home is not ideal either. Kids can gain a lot by being connected to their culture. Let's face it, these days being bi lingual or tri lingual can have real tangible benefits in career and business.
I was born here in the US to hispanic parents. When I was small my dad would sit me on his lap and we would watch the world cup qualifiers and other games on spanish tv. One of the first words i learned to say was GOL (true story) from hearing the announcers yell it out every time someone scored. =) The rule in my home was spanish at home and english with friends/at school. When i reached high school age my dad sat me down and said " you will take 2 foreign language classes every year. One in spanish so you can learn refined spanish and learn spanish literature authors etc. and th eother will be a real foreign language cause you speak spanish natively!!" So I did and took both spanish and french to the literature levels. I speak, read,and write spanish fluently. Though I watch MLS in english, i always watch the world cup and qualifiers in spanish!!!
It just happens. Usually the kids speak it to their parents, and due to what is nothing more than economy by communication, the parents speak it back. Happens to all the languages here.
I can order beer and food in spanish, not to mention identify lots of things you'd find in kitchens thanks to some of the fine people i worked with in the past.
I hear you. My kids are young and its a struggle to remind them to speak Spanish at home like my parents did with me. And it was easier for them, since they only knew Spanish. But like you mentioned, they will blame me later on if I don't put the effort now. I can't even imagine how hard it will be for their kids.