Anyone on this board Hispanic but doesn't speak spanish?

[diznygirl]

I swear I must be the only Hispanic person whose "off the boat" grandparents spoke to them in English.

I don't know about that. DH's mom ("off the boat") spoke Spanish, dad (also new to this country) spoke French. Around the house they only spoke English. The grandparents were all still back in the "old country."

People try speaking to him in Spanish all the time and are mightily disappointed.

 

[joyjoy]

I swear I must be the only Hispanic person whose "off the boat" grandparents spoke to them in English.

Nahh, it happens a lot. God bless 'em, they mean well. I grew up in Corpus Christi and San Antonio, TX and have lots of friends whose parents and grandparents are Mexican nationals and they're in your same situation. It is sad, to not have that part of your heritage. It's not too late, though, I bet you'd pick it up easily in the classroom.

Suerte!

 

[vroomagain]

DH is Puerto Rican. His dad is first generation and speaks Spanish all the time with his sibling who also live in the area. However he was raised mainly by his mom who didn't have these connections and who felt like (at the time) that there was no reason for them to know Spanish. I was a little taken aback that he didn't know it- especially bc he stayed in Puerto Rico for 3 months!

 

[CathrynRose]

I swear I must be the only Hispanic person whose "off the boat" grandparents spoke to them in English.

Well, my off-the-boat Greek Grandparents, spoke English to my mom, and her siblings.

I think many immigrants took a lot of pride in knowing ENGLISH, rather than teaching their off spring their home-land language, at that time. KWIM?

And FTR - when I lived in Florida, I was spoken Spanish too more times than I could remember, and I'm not any Hispanic, at all. I would just say "What??!??"

 

[Nik's Mom]

I'm hispanic and don't speak spanish. I took it in college, but I only learned enough to pass the class and I don't really remember much of it. My Mom speaks spanish and english and so did her parents. Both of her parents spoke english in their home. My Mom only learned spanish because her elderly grandmother was not fluent in english. My Dad was from Oklahoma and so were his parents. I don't think any of them ever knew how to speak spanish.

DH is first generation here in the U.S. He is fluent in spanish because his parents speak very little english.

By the way, I know a lot of hispanics who don't speak spanish. I think it depends on when ancestors immigrated here.

 

[traviesojmt]

My DH is 1/2 Cuban. His father came to this country when he was 13. My DH did not learn Spanish. He can understand a few words here or there but not enough to carry a conversation. Apparently my FIL tried to take my DH to a Cuban daycare when he was little and my DH would freak out. He gave up quickly. I find it a little sad. When my DH's grandparents finally got here from Cuba, my DH was really unable to communicate with them. I would have liked our children to grow up speaking two languages, but it was not meant to be.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I asked because I am Hispanic (and look Hispanic) and do not speak Spanish. It is very embarrassing. My parents and grandparents (who were born and raised in the Carribbean) spoke to me in English b/c they believed I should know English. But as an adult, the English-only policy has backfired on me in my working life as well as personal. I feel like when a spanish speaking person asks me for directions I cannot speak to them. It makes me sad. I have tried to learn Spanish many many times but I just don't have enough opportunity to speak it b/c everyone in my family speaks English. Just wanted to know if there were others like me.

This happened to us, too. I'm 2nd/3rd generation. My mom's dad came from Spain & always spoke English since he felt that since he lived in America he would speak English. My mom's mom was born in Laredo, TX, and was bilingual, but loved Spanish, so always spoke in Spanish, though she was fully bilingual. As a result, their kids (my mom & siblings) speak Spanish, but have to search for words, and only the oldest writes it. Of my cousins, there are three of us who speak Spanish fluently. The rest don't.

My dad's mom was born in Mexico & came over when she was a young child. She was also fully bilingual, and spoke Spanish. My dad's dad was 2nd generation and bilingual. They spoke Spanish in the house. My dad & siblings are fluent in both, and can also write in both. Of us cousins (and there are many), some of us grew up speaking Spanish, and some not.

My dad experienced discrimination, and he did not want us to have that, so our names are in English (my parents are in Spanish), accents are pretty American, etc. I had an interest to learn Spanish (1-to understand my parents, 2-to understand my Texas cousins' jokes, and 3-I wanted to meet my cousins in Spain) so I learned it. My brother had no interest in any of the above, so can speak some broken Spanish, but that's it.

I swear I must be the only Hispanic person whose "off the boat" grandparents spoke to them in English.

As I said earlier, my grandfather came from Spain, and spoke English pretty much all the time.

It was years later that I understood his expression of surprise "Jeee- mah- NEE" to be Jiminy (as in Jiminy Cricket). ha ha

 

[DarthKTrava]

I'm about a quarter Hispanic and don't speak Spanish. Not even after 3 years of it in high school.

 

[scottishduffy]

I swear I must be the only Hispanic person whose "off the boat" grandparents spoke to them in English.

Nope, both my grandparents spoke fluent english. Since my brother and I were english speakers they spoke to us in English. They would have loved for us to learn, but didn't push the issue.

I have a spanish first and middle name. I originally had a very american last name, so it wasn't a big problem. Since getting married I now have a spanish last name and even though I do not look hispanic people see my name badge and assume I *must* speak spanish. I know enough to explain that I married into the name.

DH and his family even refer to me as the american one. Although everyone knows I'm hispanic, even though the aunties are best buddies with my cuban Abuela, my family is apparently cuban and I am not. I am the little american one!

 

[Desnik]

I am Puerto Rican. My mother is 100% Puerto Rican, can speak, read and write in spanish. She was born here but lived in P.R. for a few years in her childhood. My father is half Puerto Rican and half Italian. He can also speak, read and write in spanish and was also born here. He also lived in P.R. for a few years in his childhood. All of my grandparents speak spanish(including my Italian grandfather!). I have grown up hearing everyone around me speak spanish. I even took spanish for 4 years in H.S. I can't speak it at all!! I know I should be ashamed.
My kids don't speak or understand the language either.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

I swear I must be the only Hispanic person whose "off the boat" grandparents spoke to them in English.

Please please don't feel this way!! You are in the same situation as my hubby. His parents are from California. Mom is 1/2 Apache 1/2 Spaniard, Dad is 1/2 Apache 1/2 Mexican. They both grew up in households that only spoke Spanish. However, they felt that in the 70's in Southern California, there was a stigma around the Spanish accent. They deliberately did not teach any of their kids Spanish to avoid that. So they have 4 kids that all look VERY Spanish, and none of them speak it.......at all. I am ASSUMING from your name that you are in NY, with the variety of Spanish ancestry there it must be difficult.

I am in NC, which is probably worse. Our hispanic community has grown quite a bit over the last 10 years, and they all assume that hubby is from somewhere else and transplanted here. He is also tall for his family ( a little over 6 feet) and takes a lot of his features from the Apache side. Our kids however.....ARE GORGEOUS!!!

I have Irish ancestry, so they truly have 2 totally different sides. My son is the fairest skinned of the kids, but he has dark eyes and thick wavy hair. He DOES NOT look Spanish, but his name is Angel. People stare when he is with my husband. DH wants to get a Tshirt that says "The white one is with me"

At any rate, the last incident we had was at Chick-Fil-A. (For those of you that don't have a Chick-Fil-A in your town, I am soooo sorry!) We ordered our meals.....in English........ and drove to pick up. The lady at the window immediately started speaking to my DH in Spanish! It was awkward!!

Remember, there are lots of you out there. If you get lonely, come down here and you and hubby can go bowling and then for lunch at Chick-fil-A!

 

[dzneprincess]

sadly, I am. Being an army brat I was not raised around my family in New Mexico. We would visit in between new assignments...my parents when I was younger would use Spanish to keep things from me...when they wanted to teach me I had no interest. I regret that now.

 

[PatriciaH]

My dad was born in Colombia and his family came to the US when he was 12 years old. He says he tried teaching me Spanish (Colombians speak beautiful proper Spanish too) when I was little but he was not really home enough-worked too much. I am trying to teach myself. My mom is Irish. DH speaks much more Spanish than I do and he is German, Scottish, English, French and American Indian