Mr Spielberg go back to history class please.
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QuetZAL7 — 20 years ago(January 04, 2006 03:32 AM)
You know, I was wondering why he was speaking Spanish. I just thought maybe, MAYBE, he was speaking it as a courtesy to the people around him.
Another thing that bothered me was that we never once heard the Queen of Spain speak in Spanish she sure practiced a lot of English, didn't she? Oooh wait she says, "Que bonita!" once at the end. There it is. I'm convinced. -
cuyaya — 20 years ago(January 06, 2006 04:48 PM)
Mr. Conran: your comment is a typical text-book case in American ignorance (sorry to generalize, but most Americans know nothing of that which is outside of the U.S.'s borders).
Portuguese and Spanish are closeley related, but are nonetheless separate and independent languages. The blatantly inaccurate comparison to North American and British English can be more correctly compared to the differences between the way Spanish is spoken in Spain and the Americas. Also, every Spanish speaking country in the Americas has its own different accent (some less distingushable than others) so just as English in the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia and Jamaica is different from country to country, so is the case with Spanish from Spain, Argentina, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, etc. (by which I also mean that we are not all Mexicans if we speak Spanish).
Commenting on something said before, Portuguese and Galego (or Galician, language spoken co-oficially in Spain's Galicia region) are indeed very closeley related and Galicians and Portuguese can understand each other with a high level of accuracy.
I will never forget this comment from an American girl: "oh, the Dominican Republic. Where is that, California?". -
cuyaya — 20 years ago(January 12, 2006 11:27 AM)
Well, thats your friends. How bout you? Do you know about geography?
Since you seem to be so much of a Seinfeld fan, do you remember the episode where Kramer wants to set up a cigar making gig? Did you even know what he was talking about in the end when he says " theyre not even Cubans. Theyre Dominicans!" -
raattbbooyy — 20 years ago(January 13, 2006 09:30 AM)
Well, thats your friends. How bout you? Do you know about geography?
The answer was implied by the comment. Perhaps I should have written, "most of my 'typical text-book case' American friends and I are well versed in geography."
Since you seem to be so much of a Seinfeld fan, do you remember the episode where Kramer wants to set up a cigar making gig?
Yes, I remember it well, seeing Lloyd Bridges in a Seinfeld episode was an unexpected surprise. -
in2broze — 20 years ago(February 04, 2006 07:19 PM)
"Cuyaya," let's not be ignorant, okay? You say that all Americans are ignorant, but by making those insulting stereotypes about people in a whole other country, YOU'RE being just as ignorant as the people you're stereotyping. Then you say "sorry to generalize" when you're obviously not sorry at all.
You don't know all Americans, not all Americans know you, so nobody here had any right to pass judgment at anybody else. Just leave it at that.
That being said, let me mention that Spanish and Portuguese are two different languages. Period. I know that they ARE similar (because I speak Spanish), but they're not interchangeable for one anotheryou can't just speak Spanish in a movie and pretend it's Portugueseand the producers should have known that.
Still, it was an incredible movie. -
gribfritz2 — 13 years ago(December 31, 2012 11:33 PM)
American's don't need to summer in France or travel to other countries for a different climate. It's all contained in United States borders. Do you know what a snowbird is in American culture? Probably not if you're not from the United States. I'd guess anyone over, say, 30 in the United States has heard the term and knows what a snowbird is though.
I've been to Ireland and have seen the two versions: city and country. I didn't notice much change in the scenery in Western Ireland vs. Eastern Ireland, which makes sense given the size of the country. So if the Irish want to travel, they likely go to "the continent," I would assume. In the United States, you can remain in the same country and entering another part of the same country is a completely different experience. That may explain some of the United States lack of information. I didn't get a passport until I was 27 or so. I imagine many in smaller countries get passports quite early.
Knowing information about 50 states is like knowing information about 50 countries. Granted, many in the United States don't even know about the United States itself (each generation does get dumber), but some do, so let's not generalize. I know the capital of Iceland, Ukraine, and Mongolia. Hooray for me. So do YOU know the capital of Kentucky? Did you even know Kentucky was a state in the United States? Iowa? Their main crop?
We can talk about famous places to gamble. You can tell me about Monte Carlo. All I know about it is it's in Monaco, bordering France. I can't tell you if it's north, south, east, west of France (I could cheat and Google it, but I'm honest). Actually, I just Googled it and now I've learned. There are two famous gambling locations in the United States, you know. Can you name them? One is West Coast and the other is East Coast. Were you aware? Do you know the states they are in? If you do, that's cool. I would guess you don't and that's fine.
Are you aware there's a South Dakota and North Dakota? I can't imagine anyone across an ocean would have any idea there is a West Virginia. And if they somehow knew, they would assume there is an East Virginia, which there is not.
I can top your American girl talking about the Dominican Republic:
"George Harrison died."
"Who's that?"
Umm..he was one of the Beatles."
"What's that?"
This seriously happened. The woman was about 30. I was probably about 18 and was floored. Hey, I just realized it's another female. Maybe THEY'RE the dumb and ignorant ones. Let's generalize in a non-PC direction now. Maybe they're both the same race and we can get REALLY non-PC. Or we can stick with bashing Americans because that's cool. -
Asur18 — 20 years ago(January 16, 2006 02:55 AM)
Wrong. US english is to UK english as portuguese (from portugal) is to portuguese from brasil or angola. It's different languages. Portuguese and spanish can understand (more or less) each other because we're latins
Oh, and if your friend could understand a portuguese, that's probably because he was speaking spanish
"Look at usI'm frozen, you're deadAnd I love you!"
