Bilingual ? Good Or Bad

skyhook

Learning Spanish yet ?

English is the International language.

Spanish and Italian are similar sounding so why not learn them both?

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Cdat

Why bother? I learn the language that makes me money. American.

Trim40

When I move to Spain or Italy, then I'll learn the language.

SC sawdaddy

No need to learn another language as long as I live in the USA.
Someone can't understand me, let them figure it out.

English Roofer

Faced with someone who doesnt speak English, just take a deep breath and say it again, just Louder and slower!
Works for me!
Cheer
Dave

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' I can resist anything but temptation' Oscar Wilde

www.drroofing.co.uk

Framer53

DBBII

When my daughter asked me what language she should take in high school, I told her: This is Florida -- take Spanish!!

HSConstruction

I read a statistic that said we, white and english speaking, will be the minority in only few short years.

Get your english to spanish dictionaries ready.

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abacab

It also helps to speak it with an accent, and it doesn't matter what accent. American Indian or japanese is ok.

HSConstruction

there it is
http://www.america.gov/st/diversity-...0.1078106.html

Although it does not mention language spoken you know it will be much much more spanish. Look at Miami 60% spanish speaking now.

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Cdat

Now that you've brought up the topic, I've sat down and tried to remember how many times in the last year or two, I ran into a language issue. You know what? Twice and both times, it wasn't Spanish. Don't ask me what the heck they were babbling but it wasn't Spanish. Both times, it was at some cheap, hole-in-the-wall dive and neither place is open today.

ChainsawCharlie

You're in Michigan-it must have been either Canadian or Terrorist.

izzy

I have found the universal language is money. I have worked with subs before that didn't seem to understand but if money was involved or if you sorted there check, they seemed to catch on pretty quick.

skyhook

Spent some time in the hospital the past few days.
Not to learn it and understand it is to get trampled by it.

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concretemasonry

If you do not have a second language you are operating with a handicap.

More and more people in the U.S. speak Spanish, so this makes Spanish the logical choice.

The reason I say you are at a disadvantage is that the Spanish speaking people have two languages to speak in OR understand. Many customers may appreciate that you have some ability to recognize their language. You can also understand what any employees may be saying in Spanish, although many employers do not tip them off to understanding unless it is necessary. With only one language you can only hear part of what is said or meant, while a person with two languages has a big leg up on you from a selling or supervising/management standpoint.

It is not expensive to learn conversational languages. There are great cheap programs that allow you to listen and talk to an interactive program (usually less than $100 per language including headphones/microphone that also work for listening to music). You go it alone at your pace, so if you are not motivated, you can drag it out. You hear the language, find out what it means and then try it yourself. No memorizing (really). I have found that doing it for 15 minutes every day or two makes it easier than going heavy one day a week and forgetting about what you absorbed from a week ago. You also will get some very familiar words that quickly stick in your mind and even make it easy to wade through. Rosetta stone is good and you can get deals on it. I used Transparent Russian, Transparent Chinese, Transparent German and Transparent Spanish. I am nor fluent in any of those, but I could get by and find a toilet, but I did have a better idea of what was going on.

I traveled in 37 countries and found it very valuable to know (closely) what the locals were saying in their language. Often it is used instead of whispering in English (or American). I only tried to speak the language when absolutely necessary, unless I knew the people that I was with quite well.

India is not a problem, since most people speak English (not American), so it take a while to get comfortable. The official language in Hindi, but very often speak people do not speak that, so they got to the Queen's English.

It is always entertaining to visit a job site and have an idea of what everyone was saying in their language.

India is not a problem, since most people speak English (not American), so it take a while to get comfortable. The official language in Hindi, but very often speak people do not speak that, so they got to the Queen's English.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

Brickie

Depends on where you're at. On Monday, I was at a HD on the N. side of Chicago. Mostly white contractors around but they weren't speaking English.

The majority were speaking Russian and the rest Polish.

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“Ron Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.” – Ronald Reagan

Willie T

Dick,
Not a lot of us construction types are that forward thinking.

I'll bet you've even read (and grasped the significance of) this story....

http://ee.sharif.edu/~commi/Comm1_fi...edMyCheese.pdf

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"True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and only that which is."
François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
Bill Everett - St. Petersburg, FL

stuart45

Most Europeans speak at least 2 languages, whereas most people in the UK only speak one. Because you can get by in most countries with English few of us ever bother to learn another. There is also the problem of which other one is the most usefull.
A lot of us worked on sites in Germany in the 70's and most bricklayers never learnt a word of German, apart from how to order the beer.

concretemasonry

In Germany and the rest of Europe (especially eastern Europe), you look for the youngest person around. He speaks and understands more languages that you probably do. It always helps to have someone that you can talk to, but I can always order beer, wine and food and find a toilet there.

I am not forward thinking, but I ahd to travel or meet with others, so it just made everything easier including my job.

Russian and China are the most difficult because they use a different alphabet. For some reason, Chinese seems to be easier for me in some ways because it seems more logical. - I still got muskrat when I ordered dessert once.

In the SW U.S. a little understanding of Spanish is very valuable and really necessary to compete equally.

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Dick

Engineer, designer and consultant recently active domestically and internationally on construction and design in about 35 countries.

Wolfgang

Let's see, I speak English and German fluently, have rudmentary understandings of Russian and Chinese, and now I'm asked to learn Spanish? Is this so I can better understand the illegal aliens and undocumented workers? I'm having a helluva time just trying to keep up with ghetto slang anymore....