lost-in-norn-iron replied to your post:  haguenite replied to your post: Whine whine whine…

A bilingual friend of mine who has a very South American accent when speaking Spanish actually gave up on speaking Spanish when traveling in Spain because of the way people would treat him.

Heh, I speak more Dutch with the husband when we are in Spain than when we are home in The Netherlands. And it is exactly for the reason your friend gave up. I sometimes even ask him to ask for stuff in Spanish (which he speaks fluently but with an obvious Northern European accent) so that I do not have to deal with potential bigots.

Fun anecdote: a Catalonian friend of mine took me to visit his family up in the mountains a few years ago. He introduced me to his grandmother, father and mother. Upon hearing my “sudaca” accent, they look at me and do not inquiry about my trip or any niceties. They immediately decide to ask in a semi horrified way “You are not planning to move here, are you?!!”. To which, needless to say, I was offended, but retorted “Why would I give up the comforts of my life in Amsterdam to move to a place where South Americans have to work 12+ hours per day and two jobs to barely make ends meet? A sudaca like me is much better off in Northern Europe than here, after all”. They didn’t like my answer but it shut them up for the rest of the day.

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