General Discussion

When I met Rep. Grijalva’s dad, I never once thought to speak English. I have to assume he was fluent, but didn’t think it necessary to find out. When speaking Castilian (we don’t usually call it “Spanish” in Spain, since it is not the only language spoken there), I naturally revert to a “peninsular” accent, since it is what I spoke when living and going to school there. I can try to approximate a Latin American accent, but first off, there are many distinctive ones, and I’m sure it comes across to native Latin American ears like a Brit making a poor attempt at sounding like a Yank.

It’s the same thing in other places. In Sweden, I’m sometimes told that I need another two years before they can no longer tell that I’m from Norway, and in NL, I’m told that I’ve almost lost my accent, but if they listen closely, they can still hear a trace of the Afrikaans accent that identifies me as someone who grew up in South Africa (a place I have never been).

My favorite misconception is when I’m in Barcelona speaking Catalan, and some people can tell by the way I speak Catalan gives away my identity as someone from Mallorca. I’ve been there, but it was for four days, and that was in 1969. My favorite episode was when I was with a group of Catalan speakers at a conference in Zürich, and one of them said he had assumed I was from Mallorca, and then another guy, who WAS from Mallorca said, “ so did I!”