Dammit, it´s OUR election to screw up.
I´m ok with foreigners asking me "Bush or Kerry"? I´m largely ok with foreigners following the election. But it feels really weird to see American cultural critique translated into Danish or Spanish in store windows, or featured prominently on Heathrow shelves.
(Spain is also being flooded with ads right now for the Spanish opening of SuperSize Me, on October 16th. Apparently, while it was indy in the US, it´s getting big play here. WHY? There are not that many McDonalds, and--for that matter--obesity isn´t becoming a serious issue yet. Is this just a "make fun of the Americans" thing?)
Incidently, this relates vaguely to an odd attitude I noticed in the Spanish about language. I´ve mentioned already, I think, that many Spaniards don´t speak English. Two major influences of this is travel and television: most Spanish travellers are from (Spanish-speaking) Latin American and most imported Spanish TV comes from the huge Latin American market.
Which means that they aren´t dosed with English regularly the way that, say, Danes are. (The Danish film and TV industry is strong, but not THAT strong).
Danes seemed rather unsurprised that my Danish was poor. Spaniards seemed stunned that "me hablo pocito espanol". Most Americans seem to travel in packs with a translator who took a few years in high school, and so many Spaniards -- especially outside the almost-exclusively-tourist city of Toledo -- are used to communicating with everyone else in at least broken Spanish.
Indeed, while getting a haircut, I was treated to a substantial (and largely incomprehensible) harnague about those people who just show up not speaking any Spanish and think that they can get around town or get themselves a haicut y no comprende Espanol.
Update: Slightly incoherent paragraph snipped. It was an editing error. Really.
Update 2: I didn't see Shark's Tale. I don't know who logged in under the name Danyel to say they did, but indeed it is showing in Spain. And I feel honored to have an impersonator.
October 6, 2004 01:44 PM | TrackBack | in TravelogueSo how does Castilian linguacentrism compare to the French (and particularly the Parisians)?
Also, it's worth noting that the Americans may actually be the worst linguistic bigots -- where else could you possibly hear a politician declare that if English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for him?
Posted by: Auros at October 6, 2004 02:29 PMIt is good to be the hegemon. Even better to be the hegemon following the hegenomy of a country that spoke the same language.
Posted by: Paul at October 6, 2004 04:08 PMYeah, it's our election to screw up. But given how much the US tends to throw its weight around--for good and for ill--can you blame residents of other countries for taking a deep interest in our elections, trading policies, and business practices?
Don't understand your second "Dammit" paragraph. In the case of "Supersize Me", at least, you *know*, more or less, what's being said.
And I'm not really surprised that Spaniards would be surprised at your lack of Spanish. First, there are an awful lot of people 'round the world that speak Spanish as a first language--about as many as English, according to Wikipedia. Second, although I'm pretty sure that Spanish is not as widely distributed as a second language as English is, I'd guess that it's the second most widely distributed second language. Finally, there are quite a lot of Spanish-speakers in the US. (None of these statements are even remotely true of Danish, of course.) So, from a Spaniard's perspective, it would make a lot of sense for a US citizen to know Spanish, especially considering that you'd lived in SoCal.
A more charitable interpretation, which may or may not be valid: they may simply have been surprised that you had the cojones to wander around Spain by yourself with basically no command of the language; as you pointed out, most tourists (or at least US tourists) travel with someone who runs language interference for them as necessary. So, aside from the example of your hairstylist--whose emotional freighting you might have misinterpreted--the general reaction might have been formed of bemusement more than anything else.
I was pleasantly surprised that my own HS spanish came back pretty well last summer in Mexico (and vastly amused, if not surprised, that it apparently got better when I was drunk).
Posted by: Joshua O'Madadhain at October 6, 2004 05:23 PMTrue, Josh, but then, No one fries their fish like that.
Speakingof fish, Just saw Shark Tale. (Cuento Del Tiburón) A delightfully farcical tale. I was surprised that it was showing; had anyone else heard of Dreamworks plans to release it abroad this early? Oh, well. That's what I get for being my own European correspondant. It stars Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, and my personal Idol: Will Smith. (Who sings a track on the score...think he's working on a new album?)
Posted by: Danyel-impersonator at October 7, 2004 11:32 PM"Danyel-impersonator" indeed. If you were really trying to impersonate me, you should have at least linked to my blog. In addition, my movie reviews are far more erudite and refined than this.
Contrary to popular belief, Shark Tale is a shocking yet poignant roman a clef based on the life of Jesus, as envisioned by the staggering geniuses of Monty Python. The screenwriters, in a triumph of interpretation, make the age-old story accessible to a modern-day audience by...
...oh, wait, that's Life of Brian. My bad.
Posted by: Danyel at October 8, 2004 11:38 AMi thought you were going to wait until you got back for us to watch shark tale. now i'm going to have to go see it alone.
Posted by: t at October 8, 2004 04:13 PMDear 't'
I regret to inform you that while I would love to see Shark Tale with you.... it just can't be the first time. I hope that you can understand that I have Shark Tale experiences in my life that are independant of our interaction. I hope you will see Shark Tale with me when I return.
Posted by: Danyel-impersonator at October 13, 2004 08:41 AM