Posted on 02/23/2012 4:46:48 PM PST by max americana
Right after lunch, I met up with my Filipino bud whose girlfriend will be working at this Sunday's Oscar's telecast for a local television crew from ABC. We were close to Union station in L.A. and we were talking how much gas it costs to get to Anaheim and I told him there was A train that costs $7 to Anaheim. He didn't believe me so we went to the Metrolink window..
There was a black lady from Metrolink who did not understand the mexican woman who INSISTED that someone there speak spanish to her. The employee looked around and found no one. Then he looked at my pal and asked 'SIR, DO YOU SPEAK SPANISH?"
HIM: Why are you looking at me for?" HER: "I thought.. HIM" I thought what? Because I looked like a mexican? I'm an Asian guy" HER: "Oh so .."
HIM: "oh Ok, I get it. You try to accommodate her because she couldn't speak a word of English but if I spoke to you in Tagalog (Filipino), will you give me the same treatment? Here's a great idea...let's ALL try to speak English here shall we?"
Now at the back, some hispanics resented what he said and I thought I'm gonna be in a brawl...
LATINO GUY: "Hey man, that sounded racist.." HIM: "Dude, why don't you speak Tagalog? Why are the rest of us supposed to pick Spanish? You bitch about MULTI-CULTURALISM..MULTI meaning many. Or maybe multi-cultural meaning Spanish only?.."
Dang, your bud needs to run for public office.
I know Filipino people in the San Diego area who commonly refer to Mexicans as wet backs. The Mexicans in Tijuana refer to the Filipino American U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers as “Chinos”. The Filipinos come here legally and love the USA.
Huh? I know several Philippians who speak Spanish.
Not sure why your friend got mad, I have been in line and the person at the booth had limited English and the attendant will say “anyone speak (whatever)” no one gets mad.
I know for myself when I am asked if I speak Spanish I just say “no” no biggie.
“Actually, since the Phil. are a former Spanish colony, many DO speak Spanish.”
I have a couple of Filipino friends. Against popular myth, even though they were occupied by the Spaniards...they DO NOT speak Spanish. It’s just that 20% of Spanish words entered the Tagalog language eventually but 80% is still distinct. Well, they were also occupied by Americans and the japanese but only for a short time.
The Spanish were kicked out in 1898, so very few Filipinos speak Spanish. Most of them have Spanish surnames, though, which confuses the heck out of marketers in So. Cal. I know a number of Filipinos who are annoyed, big time, at getting robo-calls and junk mail in Spanish.
If I had been the ticket lady, I would have been half tempted to say to the Mexican woman, “You are correct ma’am. If you can wait a minute or so, I will have somebody down in a jiffy who can speak Spanish.”
Then she calls imigration.
There’s one video on Youtube. The guy pulls up in a truck to a group of Mexican day labourers. He drives around a bit and pulls up in front of an immigration office.
You should have seen how fast some Mexicans can run.
I get more incensed every time I hear some dang illegal immigrants speaking Spanish loudly, as if all of us are supposed to conform to his or her language preferences.
It isn’t helped that many businesses have caved to the pressure and have their labels and instruction pamphlets written in Spanish and English. In short, there is no pressure for the Latinos/Hispanics to learn functional English, therefore they will remain in the underclass forever. How are Latino/Hispanic kids going to succeed in the technical careers (where the real money is)if they don’t learn technical English?
Many years ago I was driving to San Diego and saw a car burning by the side of the freeway. I got my fire extinguisher and asked the lady standing by the car if there was anyone in the car. She didn’t speak a single word of English and so I had to get into that car to look. Luckily, nobody was in that car and I didn’t get burned but I was angry as hell that someone would live in the country and never try to learn our language.
This whole thing is shameful and we need leaders worthy of the name that will stop the balkanization of this country before it’s too late.
I was at an auto parts store a while back with a cashier assisting a poor English speaking Mexican. She asked a couple of Hmong who were in line if they spoke Spanish and they became indignant and told here they were Asian.
That’s why when Pacquiao fights in Vegas, there are well-known brawls outside MGM Grand. There is a running joke that Manny Pacquiao is nicknamed “Border Patrol” because he “stops mexicans cold”..so the joke goes.
Tell your friend this Angeleno applauds him and says “bravo.”
LOL, you should have included the URL.
poor English=poor-English.
“Many years ago I was driving to San Diego and saw a car burning by the side of the freeway. I got my fire extinguisher and asked the lady standing by the car if there was anyone in the car. She didn’t speak a single word of English and so I had to get into that car to look. Luckily, nobody was in that car and I didn’t get burned but I was angry as hell that someone would live in the country and never try to learn our language.”
**
My GF is Canadian and the mexican DMV clerk had the gall to ask her if she wants the written test in English or “other”
MY GF’s response was “are you kidding me??”
And the few Filipinos I know are conservative as well.. AND CATHOLIC TOO AND THEY WERE SUPER PISSED OFF WHEN 0BAMA TOLD THEM WHAT TO DO WITH THEIR RELIGION!
I knew about Tagalog, but assumed they also learned Spanish in the schools.
Curiously, the Philippines still have an academy for the Spanish language, an affiliate of Spain's Royal Spanish Academy.
More curiously, so does the US, or at least North America.
I’m on a blackberry, so I can’t copy it.
But when I typed in “racist guy on youtube” in the search engine, it was on top.
They did..but due to “anti colonialism”, the RP govt ordered the schools to stop teaching Spanish in a mandatory capacity UNLESS the schools or colleges adapt it for educational purposes. From what was explained to me, it was around 1986.
You check out their universities, it’s mostly Franciscan or JEsuit universities but it’s not mandatory to teach Spanish.
I can confirm that. I have good Filipino friends in Bonita & Chula Vista, and they hate the illegal migration that has been allowed through that area for 30 or 40 years now.
Their fathers are/were all navy guys who joined during or immediately following WWII and love this country.
>> Huh? I know several Philippians who speak Spanish. <<
I thought Philippians was written in Greek. ;^D
I am claiming predictive spelling on my (not so) smart phone. I am not claiming personal responsibility. (I wish we could edit our posts.) ;-)
Lol this is too funny
You got that right. I AM Filipino and I don’t speak Spanish (even after taking 2 years of it in high school). There are a lot of Spanish words adopted into Tagalog, but speak pure Spanish to a Filipino and they won’t understand you.
Actually, I tried watching a Filipino chick flick at home and my husband got frustrated because the dialog went back and forth between English and Tagalog (or Taglish, as it’s been called) so he couldn’t completely tune it out (He speaks only English). There’s a lot of English spoken in casual conversations between Filipinos, more so than a Spanish word here or there.
BTW, I’m with your buddy. I HATE when people ask me if I speak Spanish and I HATE it when I get asked if I speak English. Oddly enough, I got asked that while I was still living in California. I’ve only been asked that once in my 17 years of living in Arizona. I immigrated here legally when I was 10 years old. I speak English exclusively, and though I can still understand Tagalog, it feels very unnatural for me to speak it.
I insist on being spoken to in Esperanto. I figure if I hear enough, I’ll eventually learn it.
Marcos had the foresight to insist English be taught to everyone in the schools. I think under him it was the, or one of the, national languages. At any rate, they obviously did a good job as most urban Phillipinos speak excellent English ever since he was in power.
That may be part of the problem. It is my understanding that Spanish rule was not well received by the Filipinos.
OTOH there are some words borrowed from Spanish. The Tagalog word for horse is "kabayo". Also, a lot of names look Spanish.
I was on a job in South America. The american guys for the most part didn’t speak spanish, so any local that spoke english was automatically foreman. But then they recruited about a hundred filipinos to come there as techs on the assumption that, since they had spanish surnames, they would speak spanish.
They didn’t, of course. So they would take direction from the american in english, then take the guys outside and deliver the instructions in sign language and pantomime.
But they also started spanish classes among themselves in the evenings, and sure enough within three or four months they were surprisingly able to get by in the language. Their american bosses never knew the difference.
It was funny, but also impressive.
Sort of related -
About 30 years ago some friends and I were partying in the middle of the day.
So - we run out of beer - and go to get more. My friend - sort of Portuguese/American - but whose only Spanish was getting bad grades in High School
So - we go in this liquor store. We are under age - but usually a little bravado, and I could get us through. So - the gal starts talking to my friend in Spanish - assuming - well - we were in kind of hispanic neighborhood, and he looks, well - kind of hispanic - so she thought he was a local. I was paying attention to something else - wasn’t really watching him. And he is sort of standing there - and he looks at me with this terrified face - and starts rubbing his eyes - and acting all weird -
He could not figure out what she was saying! It took me like pause pause - I didn’t really understand what was going on. What the heck is going on - this gal is jabbering in Spanish, and Jim has this weird look on his face ... Then - I’m saying Jim! - Jim! - she’s just speaking Spanish you idiot! He had this crazed look on his face. Priceless!
He thought he was so drunk he couldn’t understand English anymore!
All time classic.
The trouble with your friend is, he LOOKS like he should speak Spanish! ;)
That’s why he grew his hair long. Now in L.A. Latinos shave their heads, grow a stache’ which is stereotypical. He’s pretty much had it to here’ LOL.
People assumed because he’s not white, he’s automatically a Democrat. Well..that’s another story I can post as he basically shamed this white liberal once who had an anti-Bush shirt. The lib just did not have any comebacks while I was sneering beside him...
But not all of them do and those that speak Spanish often speak it because the Spanish forced their ancestors to speak it and forced their Spanish culture on the native Filipino culture. Which adds to the irony that a native Spanish speaker would proclaim that spekaing Spanish represents cultural liberation while for others the Spanish language could also be seen as a symbol of oppression and injustice. A kind of irony that miraculously manages to escape those whose goal is to be aperpetual victim.
*speaking Spanish
Do you know of posters here or close friends and acquaintances from Spanish Speakin countries, or whose families were from Spanish Speaking countries, who do consider themselves fiscally conservative and support restrictions on illegal immigration and who understand that the Arizona laws were not really designed for ethnic cleansing ?
“Actually, since the Phil. are a former Spanish colony, many DO speak Spanish.”
________________________________________
I live on Cebu, and have yet to find anyone that speaks Spanish. I will have to ask if they even teach Spanish in the schools. I doubt it.
Tagalog, from what I am told, is no longer the main language.
There are many different dialects throughout the Philippines.
Cebu is in Visayas, and the prominent language here is Visayan.
Everyone in the Philippines, however, seem to understand
each other.
Are some of those words curse words?
My late father used to tell a story about when he was stationed in the Phillipines. They were doing what they thought was road construction, when some Filipino guys came by and started ragging on the soldiers for being slave labor building a private driveway for MacArthur. My father spent his first 9 years in Argentina and said that even though the Spanish sounded different, it was understandable enough.
That story ended with dad confronting his Lt,saying he wasn’t there to benefit the General, throwing a punch and ending up in the stockade.
Are some of those words curse words?
My late father used to tell a story about when he was stationed in the Phillipines. They were doing what they thought was road construction, when some Filipino guys came by and started ragging on the soldiers for being slave labor building a private driveway for MacArthur. My father spent his first 9 years in Argentina and said that even though the Spanish sounded different, it was understandable enough.
That story ended with dad confronting his Lt,saying he wasn’t there to benefit the General, throwing a punch and ending up in the stockade.
Well, I guess you learn something new every day!
I sued to work with Filipinos at the downtown Hyatt Regency Sundry shop in Chicago in the mid-80s.
English was good, but to me it sounded like a Spanish accent.
I figured more would have rubbed off during a 300 year colonization as it did in most of Latin America.
Thanks for the gentle corrections, Freepers.
If he actually was drunk he should have understood the lady.
Given that Portuguese is sometimes called 'drunken Spanish.'
≤}B^)
Some Filipinos know Spanish ~ but under American occupation they easily switched to English. This infatuation with Tagalog is of a piece with other Malay language initiatives in Malaysia and Indonesia.
There's nothing going to hurt anybody learning Bhassa but it's better to also know English, and in that region, Mandarin!
His name is Ari Shaffir. He goes by the name “The Amazing Racist” on youtube. I am suprised he hasn’t been shot or stabbed. LOL. Here is the URL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc6uhfeIYDg
She usually gets in a tizzy’ when she has to press 1 for English here. In Canada, you press 1 for English BECAUSE press 2 is French (automatically), and are the 2 mandated national languages. She cannot understand why this country has to kowtow to the illegals out of pc-ness.
LOL that is damn hilarious! Thanks for the link
Haha!! I saw that video, that was a hoot!
Filipinos also come to Canada and love it, I was there last fall and the people are fantastic.
I’m going to marry myself one:)
Actually, the Philippines teach English from elementary school through high school. All Philippine laws are mandated to be written in English. All professionals, (doctors, lawyers etc.), attend colleges where English is the language of instruction and all the textbooks are written in English for college students.
One of the reasons that many call centers are located in the Philippines is due to the fact that Filipinos are taught English from the day they enter elementary school. Unfortunately, the quality of the teachers English abilities are lacking in a lot of schools which means that many Filipino children do not learn proper English.
And Philipinoes are willing to do all the work nobody will, legally. They don’t mind coming to Canada or the US work 60 hours a week, pay all the taxes and such, just so they send home a couple hundred a month.
When I ran a convenience store, I couldn’t keep Canadian kids for the life of me. I did everything possible to make it a nice workplace and a positive experience. But if you so much asked a young Canadian to so much as pick up a broom, they were out the door and I’m not exaggerating.
If I had the authority to have hired some Philipinoes, I would have done so immediately.
There was Filipino lady that I wasn’t getting along with, despite my trying.
So, after giving up trying to get along with her, I would start singing songs I knew in English, but I would make up sounds that sounded like Tagalog, just to bug her.
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