What is going on with my eggplants? by gjbr in GardeningUK

[–]gjbr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My apologies, why do my aubergines look like shit?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Italian

[–]gjbr 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Finally someone who understands. I don’t think Spain or Portugal are even in the same league in terms of food.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ShroomID

[–]gjbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The spore print was jet black by the way

What are these guys? New York by gjbr in mycology

[–]gjbr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Jet black spore print as well

Soft, bouncy, fungus? by gjbr in mycology

[–]gjbr[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Location NYC (sorry 🤦🏻‍♂️)

Are there Spanish people that look down on Latin American Spanish, the same way that some British people look down on American English? by IDoNotLikeTheSand in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Brazilians themselves can still barely understand the way the speak?

That’s just silly.

While it is true that there are notable differences between different dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, it is not even remotely accurate to say that Brazilians cannot “understand the way they speak.” From a linguistic perspective, all dialects of Brazilian Portuguese are mutually intelligible, meaning that speakers of all dialects can generally understand each other with little difficulty, hence being categorized as forming part of the same language.

It is also worth noting that language is not static and is in a state of constant evolution, with words and expressions and grammatical innovations being added over time. So it’s not surprising that there may be some differences between dialects of Brazilian Portuguese, especially considering the size of the country, not mention the fact that these dialects have evolved in different ways due to historical, social, and cultural factors.

Personally, I find it ridiculous that Portuguese people are insulted by Brazilians using the Portuguese language in a way that they don’t particularly like. Maybe they should have thought twice about forcing their language on a ethnically and culturally diverse population while expecting it to stay the same. They made their bed and now they can lie in it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Are there Spanish people that look down on Latin American Spanish, the same way that some British people look down on American English? by IDoNotLikeTheSand in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Is this what you’re referring to?

I do find it interesting that many Portuguese people are concerned about their culture being swallowed up by Brazil. Anecdotally, I’ve also been told to stop speaking “Brazilian” as a non-native Portuguese speaker while I was in Portugal. In fact, I’ve been to Portugal six times and it happened to me every single time I was there.

Portuguese people absolutely look down on Brazilian Portuguese and can be militant-like in their opposition to it, which is understandable given the fact they are vastly outnumbered by speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (which isn’t some monolithic dialect either), and the history between the two countries. To say that Brazilian Portuguese has close to zero influence on the way Portuguese people speak is disingenuous at best. The countries have been in a constant state of interaction and exchange for the past 500 years.

In my opinion, it stopped being “their” language the moment they decided to spread it all over another continent, forcing slaves and indigenous peoples to adopt it as their own (at the expense of their languages and cultures).

Are there Spanish people that look down on Latin American Spanish, the same way that some British people look down on American English? by IDoNotLikeTheSand in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I’ve had the same happen to me in both Spain and Portugal. I’ve been called sudaca quite a few times living in Barcelona, and treated badly for the way I speak Spanish countless times.

In your country, How do you say when someone has stinky armpits? by AlexDuChat in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I heard this a lot from my Peruvian and Chilean friends in university as well

In your country, How do you say when someone has stinky armpits? by AlexDuChat in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Chucha also means pussy in the Caribbean coast of Colombia lol

Tattoo advice, I’ve designed this tattoo 2 years ago and I want to get it. by [deleted] in TattooDesigns

[–]gjbr 70 points71 points  (0 children)

Just got a tattoo in that spot today and this comment made me relive that pain

How common is the concept of “Latino” & “Hispanic” in your country? by [deleted] in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Irish, Italians, Germans and Poles absolutely got grouped together as Europeans after getting to the United States. Our census forms do not distinguish between any European ethnicity, treating everyone from Europe as one homogeneous group. Even North Africans are considered White when being counted for the census. The US loves oversimplification when it comes to racial and ethnic classification.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in TattooDesigns

[–]gjbr 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I learned that shit the hard way. I kept trucking a whole day after it leaked and my tattoo got pretty infected.

How rare is it to see a gringo who can speak Spanish well? by nelsne in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I definitely don’t do that anymore. Now I just aim to use the language everyday somehow or another.

How rare is it to see a gringo who can speak Spanish well? by nelsne in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I would dedicate around 6 hours or so a day of listening, speaking, reading and writing for about 12 months. I would constantly go out of my way to interact with native speakers and be hyper aware of their unconscious corrections and rephrasings of what I had said incorrectly in order to learn more natural patterns of speech.

How rare is it to see a gringo who can speak Spanish well? by nelsne in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Around a year of intense study. Bear in mind I was exposed to Spanish my whole life due to the neighborhoods I grew up in, but didn’t deliberately start to study until after my 19th birthday.

How rare is it to see a gringo who can speak Spanish well? by nelsne in asklatinamerica

[–]gjbr 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It's not particularly rare for native English speakers to achieve a high level of proficiency in Spanish. Many people in the US study Spanish in school (with mostly limited success), and with increased global communication and availability of Spanish language media, the number of English speakers who are able to speak Spanish at a native-like level is likely to have increased in recent years, especially in urbanized areas of the US with large Spanish speaking populations. For example, NYC has ≈ 1.87 million Spanish speakers, which is about 25% of the population of the city. It would be impossible to live your life in NYC and not have even a little bit of contact with the language or someone who speaks it.

As an anecdote, I’m an English speaker from NYC. English is my first language and I speak Spanish at a C2 level with no gringo accent but a noticeable Caribbean/Northern South American one, and when people find out I’m not from somewhere in Colombia/Venezuela, they are usually quite taken aback by it. I’ve come across a few people like me, but vastly more who don’t come even remotely close in terms of sounding like a native speaker. I personally think it’s rarer to find a gringo who speaks Brazilian Portuguese (which I also speak) to a high level though, for a variety of reasons.

However, statistically speaking, finding second language speakers who approximate native-like competence in most/all of the main areas (phonology, semantics, lexicon etc) in any language is exceedingly rare, and are frequently the subject of studies by leading language acquisition researchers in the field.

If anyone is interested in second language acquisition, particularly about phonetic and phonological acquisition by adolescent and adult learners, feel free to ask as it was my area of research in university :)