Please, my beloved Dem candidates, *don't* do the speaking Spanish thing.

[UTUSN]

Talking to Beto, Corey, & never-mind-Julian (who barely speaks it despite being Hispanic himself). Doesn't this count as gentrification?!

At least DE BLASIO comes from the totally diverse NYC and is comfortable with diversity.

Amy and Elizabeth aren't going near it and are doing fine!

#1 Hispanic *VOTERS* are US Citizens who don't need to be translated to.

#2 Hearing well-meaning dudes massacre-ing the Spanish language *GRATES* on the ears of Spanish speakers (probably to any other language speakers of their other languages). I don't know which was worse, Beto speaking it well but BORINGLY or Cory chopping it to pieces.

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended.

We speak French and English at home. If you are not fluent in French, please address me in English.

[Gothmog]

47. Beto helped to increase Hispanic voter turnout in Texas in 2018

Link to tweet

[oldsoftie]

2. I approve of this statement.

[Iliyah]

3. At least they tried and it was

welcomed.

[UTUSN]

9. Welcomed by groups of fans in the hall? Probably the voters at large aren't watching.

Multi-generational peeps feel condescended-to.

[IluvPitties]

14. As a Spanish speaker, I appreciated it.

[UTUSN]

17. Fine.

[lanlady]

4. Interesting about Julian Castro

The one native Spanish speaker up there (if I'm not mistaken) is not the one giving answers in Spanish!

[TexasTowelie]

6. Castro is not fluent in Spanish. nt

[lanlady]

13. thanks for setting me straight on that!

n/t

[Gothmog]

48. That is what I heard from the State Party

[grantcart]

40. Like many children of Hispanic parents he was raised with English

at home to speed assimilation, not uncommon, but his Spanish is limited.

[Gothmog]

46. I have met both Castro brothers

Julian was not Hillary's VP in part due to poor spanish skills.

[TexasTowelie]

5. I think it was okay for the immigration question,

but they need to stick to English otherwise.

[Iliyah]

29. I don't speak

Spanish, but that person who does and hopes, broken Spanish is welcome.

[Gothmog]

49. 2018 saw great increases in Hispanic voter turnout

Link to tweet

[UniteFightBack]

7. The Telemundo guy is there. nt

[UTUSN]

10. Cuban exile (will check on it). EDIT, did the checking, yip

ON EDIT: from Wiki "Díaz-Balart is the son of Rafael Díaz-Balart y Gutiérrez (a former Cuban politician) and of Hilda Caballero Brunet. He has three brothers, Rafael Diaz-Balart (a banker), Mario Diaz-Balart (a U.S. representative) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (a former U.S. representative). His aunt, Mirta Diaz-Balart, was Fidel Castro’s first wife and therefore Fidel Castro is his uncle through marriage, and the late Fidel Castro Jr. (Fidelito) was his first cousin. His uncle, Waldo Diaz-Balart, is a Cuban painter. He is married and has two daughters.[citation needed]"

[customerserviceguy]

8. It may alienate swing voters

Lots of people have compassion for the migrant situation, but they are not eager to have to press 2 for English some day.

[UTUSN]

11. Thank you, again.

[IluvPitties]

12. Many Puerto Ricans, who are US citizens, don't speak English.

My parents are two of them, and they are watching the debate.

[UTUSN]

19. So... did they understand Corey?

[grantcart]

41. His Spanish may be the best, he underwent an immersion program in Ecuador

Beto learned it as a second language and Castro didn't speak it at home.

Above from a CNN article after the debate.

Both Booker and Beto made some errors but they seemed to give Booker the edge.

[jberryhill]

22. Yeah I didn't understand that either

To become a naturalized citizen, one must speak English.

But there are plenty of US citizens by birth who do not speak English, and not just in Puerto Rico.

[grantcart]

43. Applicants over 50 are largely exempted from the language requirement

and can take a personal translator to the civics test.

[RainCaster]

15. There is a time limit here - just one language please

[Midnightwalk]

16. One quibble

Don’t massacre any language while posturing.

Try to speak, even if you masscre another language, when in another country. It’s the only way you’ll learn. Some people will help you, some will switch to English.

[UTUSN]

18. Yea, but we're not in another country.

[Midnightwalk]

21. Xactly. Nt

[ValidateThis]

20. Wait you excuse Deblasio

because NYC is diverse?

Booker is from Newark, which is just as diverse. And Castro abd Beto are from TEXAS, where a sizable portion of the population speaks Spanish natively.

Consistency is good.

[UTUSN]

28. No. As you say both NYC & Newark are diverse, but the two dudes are different in their ease. And

the other two's being from Texas is similarly not a relevant argument. We're talking presentation skills.

[ValidateThis]

35. You said it was ok for DeBlasio

to speak Spanish because he was from “diverse” NYC.

I pointed out the other Spanish speakers are from diverse cities (Booker) or Texas (Tejas!) And then you changed the subject to “presentation skills.”

[UTUSN]

36. Let's say nighty night. For one thing I have no memory of de BLASIO speaking Spanish tonight.

Last edited Thu Jun 27, 2019, 03:13 PM - Edit history (1)

And, again, I stand by the "ease" and NON BUTCHERING of the language, or in Beto's case the dead delivery or in Julian's case the ABSENCE of the language except in the closing memorized two sentences. My contention is that what you "pointed out" about diverse cities or "Tejas!" is totally irrelevant. Things that are KNOWN don't need to be pointed out.

Look, it's clear to me (let me point it out) that you and I will never communicate and language has nothing to do with it.

[BannonsLiver]

23. What a silly OP

[UTUSN]

25. Nice.

[ecstatic]

24. For me, it was a "trying too hard" moment

for both men. They could have used that time to connect with voters.

[UTUSN]

26. Thank you.

[cwydro]

44. I agree.

Looked forced. Beto looked like he was giving his first book report in Spanish class.

[blogslut]

27. I think being multilingual is a good thing

[UTUSN]

31. Yep. Prolly way down the list in an American election!1

[blogslut]

32. Really?

Aren't you from Texas?

[UTUSN]

33. We're speaking about "multi-lingual" as a personal development, aren't we?

I know you to be a sophisticated person and don't think you and I would disagree about the U.S.A. as being parochial, not worldly, in cultural outlook.

[UTUSN]

30. That said (what I said/O.P.), almost all of our Dems are light years better than any Repuke. Tyvm.

[Raine]

34. Agree nt

[djacq]

37. A discussion about a de facto national language among 430 languages in the U.S.

Go bold! Go Bilingual!

[MarcA]

38. Not sure. As long as the intended recipients don't consider it patronizing

then o.k. On the one hand the Telemundo network was there but on the other
time was limited. Just handle with care. The drumph types, if any were watching,
are going to hate on it anyway.

[Rstrstx]

39. I agree, if they were native speakers it would be different

As it is it sounds worse than Melania's English and reminds me too much of Jeb!. I hope Mayor Pete doesn't give it a go tomorrow.

[SixString]

42. And stay away from that abuela crap.

[Gothmog]

45. In Texas and Florida, we need to motivate Hispanic voters

I did not mind having these candidates use Spanish last night Beto helped increased Hispanic voter turnout a great deal in 2018

Link to tweet