Why do we treat Spanish like a dirty language and make a big fuss over French, German, Japanese, and Chinese?

Question

I am not hispanic, but I have noticed that folk act as if learning Spanish is not important. Often times when questions are asked about what languages would you prefer to learn, Spanish seldom is mentioned. When I tell others that I would love to become bilingual in Spanish, I get a nonchalant nod. If I had said French or German, the conversation would have gone on for infinity.

I live in El Paso, so you would think someone would say that I am doing a great thing. Do we see it as the dirty language? Please tell me, so I will know. IT IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO HEAR FROM BLACKS, WHITES, AND OTHERS. I assume that hispnics support me in my endeavor.

Answer 1

Have you been living under a rock??? Spanish is available everywhere and no one treats it like a dirty language. yes, It is more commonly spoken in the US after English. But it's not a dirty language.

Answer 2

I am an American who lives in Valencia (my wife is Spanish).Spain has five languages,Valenciano,Castillan,Catalan,Gallego,and Vasc.Valenciano and Catalan have a lot of French words mixed in.Spanish is a romance language,not a technical language.The official language of Spain is Castillian.Spanish is probably spoken in more countries than any other language in the world.During the Franco era (which ended with the death of Franco in 1975) Castillan was the only language allowed to be spoken in Public because Franco was afraid that people were plotting against him if they were speaking one of the other languages.I think Spanish and English are the most important languages in the world today.If you speak Spanish or English,you can get by in almost any part of the western world.This not true about French,German,or any of the other languages.I think Spanish is one of the most beautiful languages in the world.You would be surprised at how many people (even in the mid western parts of the U.S.) that speak at least a little Spanish.If you want to learn another language,learn Spanish.

Answer 3

I would be happy if I could speak Spanish. I had 2 years of it in high school, but I've forgotten most of it because I never had a chance or reason to speak it. I now am fluent in German, after being here in Germany for 13 years. Learning any foreign language should be considered an accomplishment. Not many people, especially Americans, make the effort to learn a foreign language.

Answer 4

I am Australian and I have been teaching myself Spanish on and off for 2 years now, I love the Spanish language and culture. I am learning Castelliano Spanish (which is the language they speak in Spain). I have never noticed that anyone acts like Spainish is a dirty language.

Answer 5

I guess it has nothing to do with the language itself more with the people who use it in your area - the ones who clean your pools and houses, the gardeners - people with you maybe think why learn their language - if they come here they should learn to speak English.
It's the same here in Austria but with different languages - if you tell anyone that you are learning Spanish you will treated with respect, if you tell them you learn Turkish (Austria has a large Turkish community) people would say. "What for? In the tourist places there they speak German anyway and those here should learn to speak German if they want to live here."

I'm sure that if you told people that you learn Spanish as you want to import wine from Spain and you will certainly get better prices if you can negotiate with the sellers there in their language or that you can find those rare quality wines from small vineyards where no one speaks English they will surely consider you a very clever person.

So as I said before it's not about the language.

Answer 6

I am not "Hispanic" and I do not live in the United States; I do, however, speak Spanish fluently and have enjoyed travelling extensively in both Spain and Latin America. The apparent paranoia in some sections of US society about Spanish and Spanish-speakers in general has me quite bewildered and depressed.

Spanish is not a dirty language, it is a beautiful and expressive language, and far more logical than English is. My horizons and lifestyle have been vastly enriched by knowing Spanish and I am proud of my son's Peruvian partner and delighted at the links their liaison has forged betyween our families. And before anyone jumps to conclusions, I am not a hippy or some kind of latter-day Che Guevara, I am a middle-aged patriotic Englishman in government employment.

Answer 7

I don't know where you got that from. I haven't heard anyone here or anywhere else, treating Spanish like a dirty language.
Just the opposite, when people ask for advice on what language to learn, most times people say Spanish.

I think you got it all wrong. The American people don't want illegal immigration, but it has NOTHING to do with the language.

People like you, who get it all wrong, are the ones that have screwed it up: Illegal immigrants = Mexicans = Spanish (!!) It's totally senseless.

The Americans don't want their language -English- to be replaced by a foreign language, and anybody can understand that. Nobody would like that to happen in their countries.

It's very nice of you to want to learn Spanish. But it would be much better if immigrants learned English.

Edited: You didn't take long to give me thumbs down, did you... whoever you are. Come on!!.. do something productive. Grow up!!
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Answer 8

I'm Asian, I speak Indonesian as my native language, English as second language and I also speak Japanese (since I live in the country) and next I wanna learn Spanish bcoz I think it's interesting. I've never heard and never thought myself that it's a dirty language tough.

Answer 9

I love Spanish and speak it pretty well. That's one of my majors at university. No one treats it as a dirty language, on the contrary, students are much more eager to learn it rather than German.

Answer 10

Hi, I'm Spanish, and I think it's not a problem with the language on itself, but with the inmigration, most people think (and in my opinion with all the reason) that if so much inmigrants go to work to the US, they should learn English and adapt themselves to US culture and not the contrary and that causes a kind of hate to all related to this.

So, here in Spain we have a lot of inmigration of Romania and Arabic countries, so they should learn Spanish because they want to live here, I don't have to learn Romanian (if I don't want it of course).

The problem is that when you're in your own country and in most part of time you don't understand what people around you is saying, you may begin to learn the language or begin to hate it.

PS. I've started to learn Romanian... :D