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San Diego is a beautiful place. Would love to spend some time there, once I retire. (It will be a while) I realize that all Spanish speaking communities are not the same, and I know that So Cal has had more than its share of problems with the Mexican immigrants there. The Mexican community in GA is much different, and similar to the Puerto Rican community where I grew up. The old community is still there, but the kids are completely American.

Sadly, I didn’t realize that Welsh was even a language. I have known several people of Welsh decent, but no one ever told me that they had a unique language. Learn something new everyday.

You can check out the BBC Welsh language pages here. They have news and videos. Mostly of it is the south Wales dialect. My family spoke the dialect of the mid-valleys. There is also a northern dialect. Mountains and rough terrain make for the necessary isolation for such dialects to diverge from the original language. Germany has many dialects as well. My German teacher grew up in Karlsruhe. When I traveled to Frankfurt am Main to work with Lufthansa in May 1998, the people in the office immediately noticed that I spoke German with inflections typical of Karlsruhe.

When I traveled to Birmingham, AL, I chose to have dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. I speak just enough Spanish to avoid embarrassing myself in a restaurant. Good thing, as they spoke no English. I ordered a big bowl of menudo. It was excellent and apparently the favorite of nearly everyone at that restaurant. As a social setting, it seemed much calmer compared to the brash experiences in San Diego.

It is really difficult to "choose wisely" when it comes to a community area in San Diego. The violence, gangs and graffiti of the barrio is moving northward at a steady pace. The leading edge moved from Imperial Beach/San Ysidro in the early 80's to Mira Mesa by 2000. Just about 1 mile per year.