# Advice: Learning Spanish



## Mrs Maddie (Mar 28, 2016)

I am an Assistant Speech Language Pathologist Assistant, but every job I look for in North Texas requires a bilingual SLPA. I have a mild grasp of the Spanish language, can understand 60% of what I hear on the radio and 40% of what I read in children's books. But I'm just "not bilingual enough." I want to find work in Mexico that will improve my fluency FAST (10 months max). Any job opportunities or recommendations? :fingerscrossed:


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Teach English with a language school


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

sparks said:


> Teach English with a language school


Not good advice because you'll end up spending your days speaking English, not learning Spanish.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

sparks said:


> Teach English with a language school


There are many language schools where we live. Perhaps once a month I get an email (via the local yahoo users group) from a school with native Spanish speaking students who are looking to establish 'free' Spanish language classes - in exchange for the teachers practicing their English via teaching. I would take them up on the offer if I lived closer.

To the original poster : there is a free website (duolingo.com). It is developed by some ex-google employees. Check it out - it is very good.


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## Mrs Maddie (Mar 28, 2016)

thank you. I already completed all of the levels of Duolingo.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

If your Spanish isn't proficient enough to get some of the jobs you want in the US, it's even less likely proficient enough to get a job in Mexico where you won't be speaking English a good part of your day. So Sparks' idea to teach English as your job (for an income) might work, as long as the rest of your day is lived completely in Spanish. I went from almost no Spanish to fluent in less than a year in Dallas, Texas years ago, because nearly all my social life was in Spanish. My daytime volunteer work included both Spanish and English, but the people I was living with were English speakers, so that balanced it out.

If you taught English for an income, but lived with a Mexican family (non-English speakers), and hung out with Mexican friends, with your current Spanish level you might be able to make that jump to proficiency and fluidity.


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## Howler (Apr 22, 2013)

Like Chuck, I can recommend the idea of taking in a resident Spanish course in any number of college level institutions. A search of the threads will give a few suggestions, including mine for the UNAM CEPE program, located in beautiful Taxco. They can test your starting fluency & work with you all the way to near-native fluency - depending on how much time & tuition you want to put into it. I believe they also have certificate programs for Teaching English and / or Spanish as a Second Language.

The summer session starts the first week in July & runs for 6 weeks. There are regular semester programs, too - and they will help you with placement into a Mexican (native speakers) family for room, board & conversation practice. The tuition was very reasonable - the last I checked it was roughly $500 for the term (including texts) + your other expenses for room, board & entertainment.

Being as this is professionally related, you might be able to find some fellowship or scholarship funding to pay all or part of your program. Again, this is just one program among many down there - do your homework & take the plunge!


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

Another online option is MIT's Open CourseWare initiative. Currently, they offer Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, Spanish IV, Oral Communication in Spanish, Spanish Conversation and Composition, Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition, and Spanish for Bilingual Students. All courses are free, but you don't generally get instructor feedback. They post the syllabus, course schedule, exams, and course materials online, but you work through it all on your own.

There's always formal instruction, as well. As Howler mentioned, UNAM offers an eight-level intensive Spanish language curriculum. Each level takes about six weeks and costs around $500 USD for tuition and course materials. The whole program takes a little over a year, and costs about $4000 USD total. However, you start with an assessment, and if you already have some fluency, you would most certainly start higher than level one. The courses require three to four hours of classroom participation a day, five days a week. This option would obviously depend on your time and budget constraints.

One of my U.S. neighbors here did the entire UNAM program from level one, and achieved sufficient fluency to find employment. My roommate here teaches English to business clients, and also does the UNAM program to improve her fluency. She tested in at level five to start.


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## Howler (Apr 22, 2013)

Chelloveck said:


> One of my U.S. neighbors here did the entire UNAM program from level one, and achieved sufficient fluency to find employment. My roommate here teaches English to business clients, and also does the UNAM program to improve her fluency. She tested in at level five to start.


I failed to mention in my posting that I had gone through the program in Taxco back in the summer of 2003. Even though I tested & was assessed with a near-native fluency, they build a level 5 class around me (only 5 levels then) and I still got a lot out of it.

My youngest daughter repeated my experience in the summer of 2013 just before her senior year in high school, so I got to see the 8 level program in action, too. She was placed in level 3 or 4 and improved tremendously while enjoying the experience greatly. I should know - I was her high school Spanish teacher in 10th grade! In fact she wants to do it again, taking a higher level - if we can plan to be there for the summer (depending on my recovery from surgery & therapy). I'm always up for another summer in Taxco!!


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## tcreek (Sep 13, 2010)

Some years ago I was sent to Germany by the US Army. After a few months, I a met another who was already there for at least a year, or more. He was into Germany, the culture etc., and would hang out with other Germans in his spare time. He did learn German hanging out with all those Germans, but for the most part they all spoke English to him.

He started dragging me out to German events, where I eventually met a young German girl of about 18, who only knew a few words of English. So I went out and bought a English-German dictionary. After about six months of hanging out with her, I was speaking more German than my friend did after being in the country for now two years.

Now move forward to today, I have forgotten all that German, my friend still lives there speaking it fluently, and I still speak with that formerly a young girl who now speaks English fluently (And wants me to return there to marry her). 

While I speak decent Spanish, I still have trouble with Mexican Spanish. They seem to speak it faster than in other countries, and tend to, in my opinion, mumble their words.

However, a few month ago I had to call a support line, in which I found out later, the call center was located in Argentina. I could not understand a single word they were saying. Maybe too much time with Mexicans?

Anyway the point is , I think immersion is the key.


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## ojosazules11 (Nov 3, 2013)

tcreek said:


> Some years ago I was sent to Germany by the US Army. After a few months, I a met another who was already there for at least a year, or more. He was into Germany, the culture etc., and would hang out with other Germans in his spare time. He did learn German hanging out with all those Germans, but for the most part they all spoke English to him.
> 
> He started dragging me out to German events, where I eventually met a young German girl of about 18, who only knew a few words of English. So I went out and bought a English-German dictionary. After about six months of hanging out with her, I was speaking more German than my friend did after being in the country for now two years.
> 
> ...


 Yes, a major factor for me in learning Spanish in Dallas was a boyfriend who didn't speak English. Maybe all those "falling in love" brain chemicals enhance the language learning centres. I wasn't sure I should suggest that to the original OP given her name is *"Mrs"* Maddie...


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

tcreek said:


> However, a few month ago I had to call a support line, in which I found out later, the call center was located in Argentina. I could not understand a single word they were saying. Maybe too much time with Mexicans?


For me - the hardest part of understanding Spanish is over the phone.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Mrs Maddie said:


> thank you. I already completed all of the levels of Duolingo.


You completed their tree, or you stuck with it through level 25 ?


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chuck846 said:


> For me - the hardest part of understanding Spanish is over the phone.


Me too!


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

chuck846 said:


> For me - the hardest part of understanding Spanish is over the phone.


As should be expected. Most human communication is non-verbal. If you can see someone's facial expressions, body language, and gestures, and understand at least a little of their language, then you can glean a lot of what they're trying to say. But if there is no visual component to the communication, you rely solely on your understanding of the language.

One of my exes was Scottish. We would often visit her brother's house in a rural area of Scotland, and sometimes I would answer the phone. I often couldn't understand what the other person was saying, even though we were both speaking English. They would usually just slow down their speech and politely say something like "Oh, you're the American, aren't you?"


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Isla Verde said:


> Not good advice because you'll end up spending your days speaking English, not learning Spanish.


What other jobs can she look for ?? You have off time, live in a neighborhood and can speak with other Spanish teachers/neighbors.


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

sparks said:


> What other jobs can she look for ?? You have off time, live in a neighborhood and can speak with other Spanish teachers/neighbors.


I think the point Isla Verde was making is that teaching English here is not going to afford the OP the best opportunity to improve her Spanish fluency, since most of the language instruction companies here require that you speak English only to your students during class.

The goal of the OP, as I understand it, is to find a way to work down here while improving her Spanish fluency at the same time. Isla is simply suggesting that the job alone might not deliver the desired result, and that the OP may have to find an auxiliary method for ramping up her Spanish fluency


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Chelloveck said:


> I think the point Isla Verde was making is that teaching English here is not going to afford the OP the best opportunity to improve her Spanish fluency, since most of the language instruction companies here require that you speak English only to your students during class.
> 
> The goal of the OP, as I understand it, is to find a way to work down here while improving her Spanish fluency at the same time. Isla is simply suggesting that the job alone might not deliver the desired result, and that the OP may have to find an auxiliary method for ramping up her Spanish fluency


I couldn't have said it better myself - thanks for doing it for me!


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

tcreek said:


> He started dragging me out to German events, where I eventually met a young German girl of about 18, who only knew a few words of English. So I went out and bought a English-German dictionary. After about six months of hanging out with her, I was speaking more German than my friend did after being in the country for now two years.
> 
> Anyway the point is , I think immersion is the key.


This and OjosAzules experiences are the only advice I see here that will lead you to Spanish fluency.

I always remember the comment of an Australian language professor who told a crowd of foreigners at a bar that American universities were the only ones in the world that turned out language major graduates who couldn't speak a word of the language they majored in.

Language courses at schools and online won't give you fluency. In my case, I once had a Guatemalan girlfriend and soon was living with her extended family, who had only rudimentary English. I went months speaking only Spanish, until I was thinking in the language and dreaming in the language. I don't have to translate spoken Spanish in my head into English. I just understand it.

While i started off learning Spanish in Spain, I really started at one of the many language schools in the beautiful old Guatemalan capital of Antigua, where I believe costs are 50% less than schools in Mexico. The pattern is four hours to seven hours of one-on-one teaching for five days a week, and living with a Guatemalan family where only Spanish is spoken.

Unfortunately, most students, myself included, wind up spending most free hours in the town's center partying with other students, or going on weekend trips with them. 

I was fortunate enough to fall for a Guatemalan woman during that course. For those young and adventurous enough, that's the way to go. I'd say 90% of Americans truly fluent in another language I've met learned that fluency through a romance. Does the Peace Corps still exist? That's a long way to go, but apparently people who put in their two years did return with fluency.

Being young and getting a local boy or girl friend is the "funnest way," though.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

Like most posters here found, the key to fluency in a language is to dive into it. My experience: a degree in Spanish which prepared me to read and write pretty well, but left me no where near fluency and suffering the typical juxtaposition of textbook español and that which most folks really speak. Lots of extended vacations to non-touristy Latin America put me well on the way, on one of which I found my future wife (zero English) with whom I'm married 25 years and counting. By now her English is up to about 80% while my Spanish, if you permit me to brag, is about as good that of any non-native speaker who learned it as an adult. Our kids, in college, despite the ghastly household mid-sentence Spanglish code switching they were exposed to growing up, eventually learned to separate the two and now are native speakers of both.


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## sparks (Jun 17, 2007)

Chelloveck said:


> The goal of the OP, as I understand it, is to find a way to work down here while improving her Spanish fluency at the same time. Isla is simply suggesting that the job alone might not deliver the desired result, and that the OP may have to find an auxiliary method for ramping up her Spanish fluency


If working is a requirement ... then she needs some suggestions. Sounds to me like working and learning Spanish don't go well together


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

People have remarked that the key to learning is immersion. I think the most important part, the key to the key, so to speak, is *necessity*. What will force you to raise the level of your ability to function in Spanish is _having_ to speak to people who will not communicate in English with you. Either they have even less English than your Spanish, or they have undertaken not to understand anything you say in English.


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## mattoleriver (Oct 21, 2011)

maesonna said:


> People have remarked that the key to learning is immersion. I think the most important part, the key to the key, so to speak, is *necessity*. What will force you to raise the level of your ability to function in Spanish is _having_ to speak to people who will not communicate in English with you. Either they have even less English than your Spanish, or they have undertaken not to understand anything you say in English.


My grandmother came to the U.S. as a 15 year old. She married and raised her family in a community full of people just like herself. When she died 70 years later she still had a very poor command of English. One must have the need.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

mattoleriver said:


> My grandmother came to the U.S. as a 15 year old. She married and raised her family in a community full of people just like herself. When she died 70 years later she still had a very poor command of English. One must have the need.


Kind of like the Cuban community in Miami.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

sparks said:


> If working is a requirement ... then she needs some suggestions. Sounds to me like working and learning Spanish don't go well together


Working and learning Spanish can go well together, but only if you have a job where everyone speaks Spanish around you. 

When I first came to Mexico, I worked in a government office where everyone else was Mexican. However, the people I dealt with daily all spoke excellent English. So it didn't help my Spanish much.

Practically speaking, Sparks is right. They don't go well together unless you are lucky in the job you get.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> Working and learning Spanish can go well together, but only if you have a job where everyone speaks Spanish around you.
> 
> When I first came to Mexico, I worked in a government office where everyone else was Mexican. However, the people I dealt with daily all spoke excellent English. So it didn't help my Spanish much.
> 
> Practically speaking, Sparks is right. They don't go well together unless you are lucky in the job you get.


Well I'm sure that government office was NOT in Cuernavaca


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

chuck846 said:


> Well I'm sure that government office was NOT in Cuernavaca


I worked in the CONAFOR (Forest Service equivalent) headquarters. It is in Guadalajara, not Mexico City, a little surprising for a national agency.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> I worked in the CONAFOR (Forest Service equivalent) headquarters. It is in Guadalajara, not Mexico City, a little surprising for a national agency.


Were the people working in that office scientists rather than bureaucrats? That could explain why they spoke English so well.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> I worked in the CONAFOR (Forest Service equivalent) headquarters. It is in Guadalajara, not Mexico City, a little surprising for a national agency.


We have made several trips to CONAPLOR in Cuatla. It is like this massive nursery which amalgamates plant material from many many sources. Wonder if that is somehow related or is it that CONA equates to 'plant' ?


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

chuck846 said:


> We have made several trips to CONAPLOR in Cuatla. It is like this massive nursery which amalgamates plant material from many many sources. Wonder if that is somehow related or is it that CONA equates to 'plant' ?


CONAFOR = COmisión NAcional FORestal
CONAPLOR = COncentradora NAcional de PLantas ORnamental


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

chuck846 said:


> We have made several trips to CONAPLOR in Cuatla. It is like this massive nursery which amalgamates plant material from many many sources. Wonder if that is somehow related or is it that CONA equates to 'plant' ?


They're just acronyms.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Isla Verde said:


> Were the people working in that office scientists rather than bureaucrats? That could explain why they spoke English so well.


You guessed it. They were all scientists and technicians. One woman was Argentinian. Her English was not very good and we spoke Spanish some. Two others that I worked with were 30-something Mexicans and both spoke English very well. I would sometimes try to use Spanish, but their English was so much better than my Spanish, that it was just easier to get work done in English.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

TundraGreen said:


> You guessed it. They were all scientists and technicians. One woman was Argentinian. Her English was not very good and we spoke Spanish some. Two others that I worked with were 30-something Mexicans and both spoke English very well. I would sometimes try to use Spanish, but their English was so much better than my Spanish, that it was just easier to get work done in English.


Not sure about technicians, but I know that many Mexican scientists have studied in the US or other English-speaking countries. Also, a great deal of scientific literature is written in English assuring that most scientists have at least a good reading knowledge of the language.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> You guessed it. They were all scientists and technicians. One woman was Argentinian. Her English was not very good and we spoke Spanish some. Two others that I worked with were 30-something Mexicans and both spoke English very well. I would sometimes try to use Spanish, but their English was so much better than my Spanish, that it was just easier to get work done in English.


As a science major as undergrad (40 years ago) I had to take 2 years of language and chose German. I think now-a-days folks probably choose Mandarin. But I'd bet you that English is losing some of its allure.


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> Also, a great deal of scientific literature is written in English assuring that most scientists have at least a good reading knowledge of the language.


Well, English is the _lingua franca_ of science.

Now, if we could just drag the United States kicking and screaming into the previous century by officially adopting the metric system, the whole world would speak the same scientific language and use the same measurement system and we wouldn't have to wonder why U.S. students lag so far behind in science.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chuck846 said:


> As a science major as undergrad (40 years ago) I had to take 2 years of language and chose German. I think now-a-days folks probably choose Mandarin. But I'd bet you that English is losing some of its allure.


As I mentioned in my above post, most scientific literature is still written in English, not in Mandarin. I doubt if many science majors are studying Mandarin, either in Mexico or in the US. If anyone has information to the contrary, I'd be interested in hearing about it.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Chelloveck said:


> Well, English is the _lingua franca_ of science.
> 
> Now, if we could just drag the United States kicking and screaming into the previous century by officially adopting the metric system, the whole world would speak the same scientific language and use the same measurement system and we wouldn't have to wonder why U.S. students lag so far behind in science.


I doubt that the adoption of the metric system is the solution to US students lagging behind in science, but I'd love to hear why you think that is the case.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> As I mentioned in my above post, most scientific literature is still written in English, not in Mandarin. I doubt if many science majors are studying Mandarin, either in Mexico or in the US. If anyone has information to the contrary, I'd be interested in hearing about it.


Well I suspect that most computer science majors are !

edit : I should correct that - as an English speaking computer programmer - you would be doing your career a world of good if you had a command of Mandarin.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chuck846 said:


> Well I suspect that most computer science majors are !


Why is that? Will they be looking for jobs with Chinese companies?


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

Isla Verde said:


> I doubt that the adoption of the metric system is the solution to US students lagging behind in science, but I'd love to hear why you think that is the case.


Because for a society to be scientifically literate, they have to understand the basic units of measurement that the whole world uses when publishing scientific research.

U.S. students have to convert metric measurements in their head, or with the help of a calculator, and this extra effort causes them to reject science as "too hard."

The U.S., Liberia, and Myanmar are the only countries that aren't metric.

So, great. Scientifically, we're right up there with Liberia and Myanmar.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> Why is that? Will they be looking for jobs with Chinese companies?


No - US companies with large percentages of their workforce overseas. First hand knowledge. Last US based job - large S&P 100 tech company. Perhaps 33% US based (if that) / 33% Indian based / 33 % China based. 

The Indians speak perfect English. The Chinese less so.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chuck846 said:


> No - US companies with large percentages of their workforce overseas. First hand knowledge. Last US based job - large S&P 100 tech company. Perhaps 33% US based (if that) / 33% Indian based / 33 % China based.
> 
> The Indians speak perfect English. The Chinese less so.


Well, then, the Chinese should learn to speak better English!


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Chelloveck said:


> Because for a society to be scientifically literate, they have to understand the basic units of measurement that the whole world uses when publishing scientific research.
> 
> U.S. students have to convert metric measurements in their head, or with the help of a calculator, and this extra effort causes them to reject science as "too hard."
> 
> ...


Utter arrogance.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Isla Verde said:


> Well, then, the Chinese should learn to speak better English!


Another example of arrogance. How many of them are there ? How many English speaking folks. My point was - if you want to get ahead - today - in tech - study Mandarin - you will be set.

Edit : another thread destined to the chat area....


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

chuck846 said:


> Another example of arrogance. How many of them are there ? How many English speaking folks. My point was - if you want to get ahead - today - in tech - study Mandarin - you will be set.


Arrogance - moi? It looks like you missed the "wink" icon I attached to my message.

I would be interested in knowing how many IT majors in the US are studying Mandarin.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

chuck846 said:


> Well I suspect that most computer science majors are !
> 
> edit : I should correct that - as an English speaking computer programmer - you would be doing your career a world of good if you had a command of Mandarin.


I don't think so. English is a standard for computer scientists and programmers. All of the languages, Java, Javascript, Python, Php, Perl, Shell, Bash, Swift, Fortran etc use English words for their constructs, like real, float, string, etc. Comments in programs are supposed to be written in English, no matter where the programmer is from. I worked with a Mexican programmer a couple of years ago. He wrote code in English.

A command of Mandarin would help an English speaking computer programmer if he was looking for jobs in China.


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

But if the U.S. adopts the metric system, we'll make it more difficult to communicate and trade with Myanmar and Liberia....fellow nations who are the only other ones that still haven't gone metric.:noidea:


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Chelloveck said:


> Because for a society to be scientifically literate, they have to understand the basic units of measurement that the whole world uses when publishing scientific research.
> 
> U.S. students have to convert metric measurements in their head, or with the help of a calculator, and this extra effort causes them to reject science as "too hard."
> 
> ...





chuck846 said:


> Utter arrogance.


I am not sure what was supposed to be "utter arrogance". I agree with Chelloveck that the US would be better off if metric measurements were accepted in every day life. They are just a lot easier to deal with. In practice the US and Mexico use a mixture. You have to deal with bolts and nuts in both systems, lumber comes in inch and feet sizes. Cars are built with mostly metric parts these days. But lots of things still use US sized bolts. It is a mess.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> I don't think so. English is a standard for computer scientists and programmers. All of the languages, Java, Javascript, Python, Php, Perl, Shell, Bash, Swift, Fortran etc use English words for their constructs, like real, float, string, etc. Comments in programs are supposed to be written in English, no matter where the programmer is from. I worked with a Mexican programmer a couple of years ago. He wrote code in English.
> 
> A command of Mandarin would help an English speaking computer programmer if he was looking for jobs in China.


Code is written in the high-level computer language. Comments (which help a person understand the code) are written in the native language of the author. As is the choice to use for variables (which the compiler could care less about - but you reading the code would be clueless about). Most of the large S&P 100 tech companies (Microsoft / Dell / HP / Honeywell / ... ) have HUGE presences/employment bases outside the US. Conference calls/ even personal calls are not held in computer language...


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

perropedorro said:


> But if the U.S. adopts the metric system, we'll make it more difficult to communicate and trade with Myanmar and Liberia....fellow nations who are the only other ones that still haven't gone metric.:noidea:


I know, right? If the U.S. goes metric, how am I going to call in my orders for short tons of iron ore from Liberia?


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Chelloveck said:


> I know, right? If the U.S. goes metric, how am I going to call in my orders for short tons of iron ore from Liberia?


No worries - you will be retired before that ever becomes an issue. Unless of course the 'current' administration somehow gets another four years...


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

chuck846 said:


> No worries - you will be retired before that ever becomes an issue. Unless of course the 'current' administration somehow gets another four years...


I'm semi-retired now. That's why I live in Mexico.

All I do is write code (with English comments, when I bother to include comments) and live my life, and try to be a little less embarrassing every time I speak Spanish.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Chelloveck said:


> I'm semi-retired now. That's why I live in Mexico.
> 
> All I do is write code (with English comments, when I bother to include comments) and live my life, and try to be a little less embarrassing every time I speak Spanish.


I hear you. All I did for close to 30 years was write code - and attend meetings. I worked for VERY large companies / VERY small companies and very small companies that became larger.

Have you worked for a multi-national company ? That was my focus at whatever point in this thread the concept of 'English is King' arose. 

If I were 28 years old and had a child today in Mexico - we would speak English at home - he/she would speak Spanish locally - and I would suggest he/she study Mandarin at school. That was my point.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

chuck846 said:


> Code is written in the high-level computer language. Comments (which help a person understand the code) are written in the native language of the author. As is the choice to use for variables (which the compiler could care less about - but you reading the code would be clueless about). Most of the large S&P 100 tech companies (Microsoft / Dell / HP / Honeywell / ... ) have HUGE presences/employment bases outside the US. Conference calls/ even personal calls are not held in computer language...


Aren't all those conference calls in English. I help out with an English conversation club and many of the participants are there to practice their English because they have to participate in international conference calls that are held in English. I took a short course in Switzerland once. The course was given in English even though I was the only native English speaker in the room. The Swedes and Germans and maybe some others all had to speak English. 

I am a big proponent of speaking other languages. I continue to work to improve my Spanish and would like to improve my minimal German as well. But the fact is that English is currently the international language and that is not likely to change anytime soon. Those of us with the good fortune to be raised speaking English have a great advantage in some ways.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> Aren't all those conference calls in English. I help out with an English conversation club and many of the participants are there to practice their English because they have to participate in international conference calls that are held in English. I took a short course in Switzerland once. The course was given in English even though I was the only native English speaker in the room. The Swedes and Germans and maybe some others all had to speak English.
> 
> I am a big proponent of speaking other languages. I continue to work to improve my Spanish and would like to improve my minimal German as well. But the fact is that English is currently the international language and that is not likely to change anytime soon. Those of us with the good fortune to be raised speaking English have a great advantage in some ways.


You win.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

chuck846 said:


> You win.


I thought we were having a discussion. Apparently, it felt more like a contest. My apologies.


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## Chelloveck (Sep 21, 2013)

chuck846 said:


> Have you worked for a multi-national company ? That was my focus at whatever point in this thread the concept of 'English is King' arose.
> 
> If I were 28 years old and had a child today in Mexico - we would speak English at home - he/she would speak Spanish locally - and I would suggest he/she study Mandarin at school. That was my point.


I've worked for big companies and small companies. The biggest companies I worked for were AT&T, Prudential, and General Dynamics.

I used to work for a lot of small defense contractors (beltway bandits, if you're familiar with the term).

Code is code. But if you want to publish research, English is the language you need to know.

But being a polyglot is a skill in itself. I'm not even effectively bilingual, much less multi-lingual. If the United States really wants to prepare its children for the best possible future, they will switch to the metric system, and teach art, music, and foreign languages to children when they are very young.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

Chelloveck said:


> I've worked for big companies and small companies. The biggest companies I worked for were AT&T, Prudential, and General Dynamics.
> 
> I used to work for a lot of small defense contractors (beltway bandits, if you're familiar with the term).
> 
> ...


Just to adjust - I do have five US patents. Some of which I am more proud of than others. I may not be the smartest person on earth - but I am not an idiot.

Not sure I agree with 'code is code'. Average code is average code. And regarding 'bandits' - I did a stint with a 'SOES bandits' cousin (you will need to google that).

On metric system - in today's world of shock 'media ?' - they should simply announce that as of 1/1/2017 the US is going metric - kind of like the year 2000 phenomenon.

Saludos.


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## coondawg (May 1, 2014)

TundraGreen said:


> I thought we were having a discussion. Apparently, it felt more like a contest. My apologies.


That, TG, is one of our major problems here, IMHO: unable to determine the tone of the poster. Which, sadly, often takes some of us into areas that were not intended by posters. If we could all just try a little harder to not be offended, not assume we are being attacked and put down, accept the comments more of a poster as his feelings (whether they are right, wrong, or differ from ours). We get ourselves into trouble when people make comments about their personal experiences and someone takes them as a personal attack about Mexico, and then comparisons start about NOB and before we know it, people are at each other throats. To be quite honest, my personal feelings are that comparisons of Mexico to NOB, both good and bad, rarely serve any purpose except lead us to points we are not wanting to go. If we all worked on those little things and kept the NOB politics out of this Forum, things would be a LOT better, IMHO.


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## Cristobal (Nov 25, 2014)

TundraGreen said:


> ...... lumber comes in inch and feet sizes. Cars are built with mostly metric parts these days. But lots of things still use US sized bolts. It is a mess.


Milled lumber is bought and sold as board feet and measured using the Imperial system in order to calculate the amount. But documents issued by SEMARNAT for the transportation of either milled lumber or raw logs is done in cubic meters.


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## chuck846 (Jan 15, 2016)

coondawg said:


> That, TG, is one of our major problems here, IMHO: unable to determine the tone of the poster. Which, sadly, often takes some of us into areas that were not intended by posters. If we could all just try a little harder to not be offended, not assume we are being attacked and put down, accept the comments more of a poster as his feelings (whether they are right, wrong, or differ from ours). We get ourselves into trouble when people make comments about their personal experiences and someone takes them as a personal attack about Mexico, and then comparisons start about NOB and before we know it, people are at each other throats. To be quite honest, my personal feelings are that comparisons of Mexico to NOB, both good and bad, rarely serve any purpose except lead us to points we are not wanting to go. If we all worked on those little things and kept the NOB politics out of this Forum, things would be a LOT better, IMHO.


You are a good man CoonDawg. Buena suerte !


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

coondawg said:


> That, TG, is one of our major problems here, IMHO: unable to determine the tone of the poster. Which, sadly, often takes some of us into areas that were not intended by posters. If we could all just try a little harder to not be offended, not assume we are being attacked and put down, accept the comments more of a poster as his feelings (whether they are right, wrong, or differ from ours). We get ourselves into trouble when people make comments about their personal experiences and someone takes them as a personal attack about Mexico, and then comparisons start about NOB and before we know it, people are at each other throats. To be quite honest, my personal feelings are that comparisons of Mexico to NOB, both good and bad, rarely serve any purpose except lead us to points we are not wanting to go. If we all worked on those little things and kept the NOB politics out of this Forum, things would be a LOT better, IMHO.


Words of wisdom from coondawg. If they were to be followed, then TG and I would have a much easier time of it.


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## tcreek (Sep 13, 2010)

Chelloveck said:


> They're just acronyms.


But, acronyms usually become words

Radar - RAdio Detection And Ranging

Laser - Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Mrs Maddie said:


> I am an Assistant Speech Language Pathologist Assistant, but every job I look for in North Texas requires a bilingual SLPA. I have a mild grasp of the Spanish language, can understand 60% of what I hear on the radio and 40% of what I read in children's books. But I'm just "not bilingual enough." I want to find work in Mexico that will improve my fluency FAST (10 months max). Any job opportunities or recommendations? :fingers crossed:


Where in Mexico would you be working? There are some places, mainly border towns, where Spanish is no good at all.

I really don't think there is a job in Mexico where you can quickly learn Spanish at the same time in 10 months 
Probably, if it is a job where everyone speaks nothing but Spanish and the coworkers are willing to explain what you need, you will end up improve some of your Spanish skills. This would also need for you to study Spanish after work.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> Where in Mexico would you be working? There are some places, mainly border towns, where Spanish is no good at all.
> 
> I really don't think there is a job in Mexico where you can quickly learn Spanish at the same time in 10 months
> Probably, if it is a job where everyone speaks nothing but Spanish and the coworkers are willing to explain what you need, you will end up improve some of your Spanish skills. This would also need for you to study Spanish after work.


"There are some places, mainly border towns, where Spanish is no good at all." Explain please.

10 months no. 10 years yes. :heh:


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

AlanMexicali said:


> "There are some places, mainly border towns, where Spanish is no good at all." Explain please.
> 
> 10 months no. 10 years yes. :heh:


Border towns usually speak like hell, mixed Spanish with English and slang. ( Yo te llamo pa' tras; I call you back)
Some other places, they have too many "modismos", slang, accents, that are not really proper Spanish or are understandable everywhere. Eg. Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, etc.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

GARYJ65 said:


> Border towns usually speak like hell, mixed Spanish with English and slang. ( Yo te llamo pa' tras; I call you back)
> Some other places, they have too many "modismos", slang, accents, that are not really proper Spanish or are understandable everywhere. Eg. Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, etc.


The locals, except gángsteres and the uneducated, where I used to live all speak excellent Spanish on the California - Mexico border. Very few spoke passable English and some who used to when younger forgot most of it 10 years later from non use. When in some parts of town or at large las tianguis I did hear what you describe sometimes from a few. But in businesses and small shops or tienditas not usually except in TJ where there are more gángsteres.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

AlanMexicali said:


> The locals, except gángsteres and the uneducated, where I used to live all speak excellent Spanish on the California - Mexico border. Very few spoke passable English and some who used to when younger forgot most of it 10 years later from non use. When in some parts of town or at large las tianguis I did hear what you describe sometimes from a few. But in businesses and small shops or tienditas not usually except in TJ where there are more gángsteres.


Also, the poster should define "which" Spanish he wants to learn, as said, it will not be too much for 10 months while working


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## perropedorro (Mar 19, 2016)

GARYJ65 said:


> Border towns usually speak like hell, mixed Spanish with English and slang.


Same in L.A. where I put in a career. Nothing wrong with EastLos Spanglish in social situations, same with Ebonics, gangsta' rap and a variety of other socio-ethnic dialects....in the proper environment. OTOH it's not so good for a job interview, or most jobs for that matter, and if that's all you know you're stuck at the low end for life. I've great respect for educated millenials, like my kids, who have a good command of standard English and Spanish, but also are conversant in street slang and know which language tool is situationally appropriate.


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