Probably due to my natural slowness (dropped on my head as a child) it has taken numerous extended visits to California for me to notice just how much Spanish (Mexican) there is around me. I'm sure it is all meant to make life easier but it does give the impression to a humble Brit that perhaps times are a changing in the golden state.In Britain local authorities have for years translated official leaflets into Urdu,goblin,orkish and pikey to stop the poor souls from electrocuting, poisoning and gassing themselves and also to facilitate the raiding of the public purse. Our cheery politicians have gone as far as labeling road signs in the gibberish that masquerades as welsh in an attempt to keep the taffies happy in the illusion they live in a separate country (have I annoyed enough people yet?) but by and large we conduct life in the queens English. Now I know the Queens English may be a bit of a stretch for Americans (me too truth be told) but could California not pretend to still be part of the United States? If I wanted to live in a Latin country (Latino? whats that about?) I could have moved to Marbella with all the other dodgy chancers.
Tuesday 13 July 2010
Que pasa?
Probably due to my natural slowness (dropped on my head as a child) it has taken numerous extended visits to California for me to notice just how much Spanish (Mexican) there is around me. I'm sure it is all meant to make life easier but it does give the impression to a humble Brit that perhaps times are a changing in the golden state.In Britain local authorities have for years translated official leaflets into Urdu,goblin,orkish and pikey to stop the poor souls from electrocuting, poisoning and gassing themselves and also to facilitate the raiding of the public purse. Our cheery politicians have gone as far as labeling road signs in the gibberish that masquerades as welsh in an attempt to keep the taffies happy in the illusion they live in a separate country (have I annoyed enough people yet?) but by and large we conduct life in the queens English. Now I know the Queens English may be a bit of a stretch for Americans (me too truth be told) but could California not pretend to still be part of the United States? If I wanted to live in a Latin country (Latino? whats that about?) I could have moved to Marbella with all the other dodgy chancers.
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7 comments:
I doubt you could find work as a Gardner at all without knowing Spanish Mexican - and if you're not Mexican you probably can't even get that work if you wanted to - they kinda run all the job-hiring and stuff as far as agricultural work goes - apart from the few College Kids in the wine biz. At least that's my impression from the Santa Cruz appellation.
DC. in my part of England all work dirty or otherwise is done by the locals (myself included). I'm not sure about a society that doesn't feel willing to do its own dirty work(southern England too).
Funny you should say that.On the celebrations footage of the Spanish team ;the team bus had the words."Impossible is Nothing".OK maybe it shoudda read "Nothing is Impossible" but why the Engo Lingo?I also heard Spanish players shouting "come on" to their crowd.Strange,haven't they got a language of their own?
Have any signs in Scouse been put up to celebrate Liverpool's gift to the spoken word? A few years ago this roadsign was put up in the Black Country (no, but Lenny Henry was born there) by a council desperate to buy friends with other people's money.
We have so many status-bound class-oriented intellectuals to whom work means: pen, brush and poetry "organizing for solidarity against the oppressive regime" in the language of agitprop. Seriously this is a high-density hotbed of trust-fund babies who feel guilty about their past and mostly (and often purposely, academically) mistake what it really is or was.
It's a problem.
It's on the increase too.
I wouldn't be too black/white about it. California was a state of Mexico until relatively recently. Mexico was twice its current size until 1846.
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