James29 wrote:...I got a phone call from a Spanish speaker at work this week. Or, at least, I assume he is a Spanish speaker. He had an obviously hispanic name and spoke with a strong accent. After speaking with him for a while in English I had no doubt that this guy was a Spanish speaker. His English was pretty good but his accent was so strong it was somewhat hard to understand him. I decided to launch into Spanish. It was strange because he simply responded in English and did not say a thing. It was almost like he completely ignored my Spanish or did not understand it. I worry sometimes about how to handle this situation. Usually I start in by asking (in Spanish) if they prefer English or Spanish and that works pretty well. ...
Living in the US where English dominates, it's always a conundrum. Some people may feel like switching to Spanish may be commenting on their English skills. Some people want to show that they can handle themselves in English. Some are just too shocked to hear their language spoken by an Anglo. "Anglos just don't speak Spanish beyond the bare bones basics." Where I live, and we are an English-speaking territory, most Spanish-speakers here have this notion of "you don't speak Spanish with Anglos", because, well... basically it's true. Most native English-speakers don't speak anything but English. That and most Spanish-speakers in our society are just not used to hearing their language spoken by a non-native, unlike English-speakers who are quite used to hearing their language spoken by non-natives. So, for me, whether to use Spanish or not is situational. Some people I deal with in my business are happy that I can speak Spanish. Others, for the reasons I gave above, will stay in English. There's a lot of baggage that comes along with being Anglo for second language speakers of Spanish like ourselves in our society relative to Spanish-speakers.
James29 wrote:...One really amazing thing about my French study is that it gives me an appreciation for what I accomplished in Spanish. I am getting a HUGE discount learning French because I already have native English and a high level of Spanish. Nevertheless, learning French is tough! It is going to take a LONG time to get to my French objectives. ...
Absolutely, it is amazing to be able to speak a second language at a high level when you come from a monolingual society with little exposure to other languages! Congratulations on finishing your first French book! Well done! Portuguese was my first language after Spanish. Of course, Portuguese is much more similar to Spanish than French is but it was still a struggle for me and it did take time (it's that 20% that's different), but it wasn't as difficult as learning Spanish from scratch was for me. Haitian Creole was much easier for me because of English, Spanish and Portuguese. Your objective with French is much like my objective with Portuguese was. You know what it takes to get there. You can keep it in the "slow cooker" on the back burner while you improve your Spanish to C2. Once you make a commitment to learn French to a high level, nothing will hold you back and you can take it as far as you want. Another world will open for you.