How Cleaning the Bathroom Improved My Spanish

It's no secret that I don't like to speak Spanish. In fact, if you ask me if I can speak it, I will say no. I know that I can speak it if I absolutely have to, but other than that, I'd prefer not to. Does passive bilingualism ringing a bell for anyone?

Anyway, I have just discovered the reason for this.

Deep down I knew that it was my inhibitions holding me back, but I never really realized that until I had a situation where inhibition went out the window.

Press 1 For English...Press 2 If You Are Upset

I'm not political, so don't even go there with me. But I did find myself shaking my head in agreement with this quote from a few years ago. (Emphasis mine)

"Understand this: instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English—they’ll learn English!—you need to make sure that your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual. We should have every child speaking more than one language. Yo! It’s embarrassing… it’s embarrassing when… when… uh, Europeans come over here. they all speak English. They speak French. They speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and… and all we’s can say is “Merci beaucoup.”- Barack Obama  (Video)

I live in my own little world and march to the beat of my own drum so in general, I surround myself with people who are supportive of language learning. But every so often, I get a nasty whiff of the "This is America, learn English" crowd.

Are People As Critical In Real Life?

I have a confession to make. I can't roll my r's. I also can't whistle so maybe that has something to do with why my r's will never trickle off my tongue.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, it seems to me that people online are extremely critical of Spanish accents. I understand that if you are going to speak a language, you should learn how to speak it properly. No one wants to sound like this. But sheesh, the way some people criticize online it makes you afraid to say anything.

But I don't think people are like that in real life. If you speak English with an accent no one is going to bother you as long as they can understand what you are saying. Now some people are jerks, but for the most part people don't go around critiquing people's accents when English is their second language.

Likewise, from my experience in a Spanish-speaking country; no one was rude about my obvious accent. Everyone was just so happy that I was trying to learn and communicate with them. They didn't have time to critique me on that. BUT ironically, I did get some criticisms on my English. That bothered me, and it still annoys me when I think about it.

For instance, someone pointed to something and asked me how to say it in English. I said "trash can". She said, "no, that's not how you say it." I was confused. Later on she remembered the word and told me, "that is a [something I don't remember because that's not what we call it in the US]". It was like they wouldn't say anything about my Spanish, but they surely did try to tell me how to speak English. I understand that they learn English from an early age in that country; but please...let's not get besides ourselves.

I digress...

So what's up with people being so harsh online? Do people need to be criticized on every single vowel they mispronounce and r they can't roll? Why is that a reason to make fun of someone?