What languages do you speak?

[brickell]

Miami is an international mishmash of culture and languages. How well are you able to get buy and what do you speak?

Top 14 in order of their use...

[brickell]

I'm all English with a smattering of German and Spanish. It's impossible to live here without picking up some spanish on the way.

[south florida dave]

english. i speak & understand a little spanish, but i'm far from fluent. sad part is i'm half cuban. really wish i was forced to speak spanish growing up, but for whatever reason i wasn't.

[streetscapeer]

I speak English and Creole fluently. I'm semi-fluent in French!

[BHK25]

Spanish, English, and some Portuguese. Not very fluent on the last one.

[havok100]

English, Some Spanish, and some Potuguese.

[Bobdreamz]

Fluent in English, Spanish....I can communicate in Creole, French, Italian and Portuguese (falo Portuguese?)

SFDave you're half cuban and can't speak Spanish?....lol you are like my nephew!
Knowing Spanish you can understand Italian, French/Creole and Portuguese to a certain degree.

Brickell ...German is such a hard language to learn...would you agree?

[south florida dave]

yeah, that's me, bob. it sucks cause i have family i've never been able to communicate with. not very well, anyway.

[Bobdreamz]

I'm not picking on you Dave so I hope I wasn't being offensive...I basically had no choice but to be able to communicate in another language simply because business and family dictates it.

[streetscapeer]

sak pase, bob

you can speak Creole?

[Dale]

English with a *smattered* smattering of French and Spanish (although I'm picking up more and more of the latter since about 60% of my clientele is Hispanic).

[Aessotariq]

Fluent in English and Spanish... semi-fluent in French, Portuguese, and American Sign Language. Bits and pieces of other languages, but not fluent (German, Italian, Japanese). I've also been picking up some Creole lately, though I can understand much of what is said if there are a few words that that have French roots in them.

[south florida dave]

oh, not at all, bob. it never crossed my mind that you'd be picking on me or something to that effect. i'm used to people being shocked that i'm half cuban, grew up in & live in miami but don't speak much spanish. hell, it's strange to me.

the funniest part is that no one ever believes me when i tell them i'm half cuban because i look like a total whiteboy, which i get from my midwestern mother. ethnicity can be a funny thing.

[Aessotariq]

^ I get the same perplexed look whenever I speak Spanish... I'm half Dominican (from my mom's side) and I look about as "gringo" as you can get.

Ethnicity in Miami takes on a whole new meaning. The diversity creates a blur that I find fascinating.

[south florida dave]

your last sentence is right on, aessotariq. miami's diversity is very interesting. just look at the responses we've gotten in this thread.

[Bobdreamz]

^ this is truly interesting since my older brother was born in Cuba yet he is blonde haired & blue eyed....people freak out the minute he opens his mouth and starts speaking Spanish.

[nimbyhater]

im ur typical cuban... english and my spanish isnt perfect, but pretty darn good

Originally Posted by south florida dave

oh, not at all, bob. it never crossed my mind that you'd be picking on me or something to that effect. i'm used to people being shocked that i'm half cuban, grew up in & live in miami but don't speak much spanish. hell, it's strange to me.

the funniest part is that no one ever believes me when i tell them i'm half cuban because i look like a total whiteboy, which i get from my midwestern mother. ethnicity can be a funny thing.

cubans are, to put it roughly, mutts... we come in as many varieties as there are colors of m&m's (those of you that have been to fao schweetz have seen wat i mean) ... ive got black hair, brown eyes, and brown skin... my brothers got brown hair, white skin, and green eyes, and lotsa freckles... i've got cousins that r white, red hair, blue eyes and ive got cousins that are so dark most people think theyre black...

lotsa cuban "whiteboys" out there street, don't feel alone, lol

[rider_of_rohan]

aessotariq I too am conversational in American Sign Language, and I also know a some spanish which I hope to expand upon as there is getting to be a large Mexican population in southern Minnesota. I find it interesting that so many of Cuban heritage arent fluent in Spanish (please dont be offended) its just that it is so often used in Miami that I would think people would know it better. Oh well I never learned it when I lived there.

[ChuckScraperMiami#1]

well Jason knows I'm an Alien , and I'm from Mars, so I speak Marsian, " Yeeechie Creoanes !!! " which means Go Cranes !!!

[brickell]

Originally Posted by Bobdreamz

Brickell ...German is such a hard language to learn...would you agree?

2 years in high school and 4 semesters in college and I still don't have a clue. I'm bad with languages. I'm becoming increasingly suprised by how much spanish I'm picking up though. Most of the time I don't have a clue, but there's occasional moments of clarity where I can piece together the important parts of a conversation.

Funny thing with me is that German and Spanish is stored in the same place of my brain. When I try to think in one, parts of both usually come out.

Would that be Sperman or Ganish?

I remember reading an article a couple of years ago now, that was complaining about the lack of good bi-lingual workers in South Florida. A lot of people speak English and Spanish but very few speak both of them well.