cowtowntaff

What is the etiquette here? Was dealing with a guy at a garage, him and his mates were all speaking Spanish to each other. After he was done helping me I dropped a friendly 'gracias' at the end. It kind of threw him and he looked at me funny.

Did I commit some sort of cultural/racial faux pas? Or was it just out of the norm? My intention was not to offend ofc, back in Holland I used to stick 'dank u vel' at the end of everything.

Ozzidoc

Nah. What you did was fine. The bloke suddenly realized that you might have understood that he'd been calling you a plonker

avanutria

My guess is he wondered how much Spanish you knew and whether you had been following their conversation, but I don't know what the etiquette is.

I know with American Sign Language that if you know sign and you're watching people sign to each other you're supposed to indicate that you know how to sign, otherwise it's considered eavesdropping, but I don't know how one would indicate that without interrupting them...

SultanOfSwing

That was my thought too

lisa67

Not sure where you are in the US, but being here in Texas a lot of Spanish is spoken and I've never had a problem. People are mostly grateful that you've tried to communicate in their mother tongue

SultanOfSwing

Yep - kind of like when my US mates refer to me as a 'bloody wanker'

Good point though.

lisa67

S Folinsky

Perhaps it was your accent. Did you roll-l-l-l the "r" in gracias and put the accent in the right place.

BTW, here in Los Angeles, many spanish place names have become anglefied in their pronunciation -- including "Los Angeles." Among Latinos, there has been this habit of PC of using spanish pronunciation. It doesn't bother me all that much -- however, one day I was riding the bus and the electronic announcement was "Next stop is Los Feliz and Vermont." Los Feliz was pronounced as "Los feh-LEEZE" rather than the commonly used "Los FEEL-iz."

There is an elderly Federal District Court Judge by the name of Manuel Real in Los Angeles. If you say his name with spanish pronunciation, you are risking a contempt citation. Even anglos in LA pronounce a person's spanish name in spanish -- but Judge "Reel" doesn't care -- his name is not "Ree-ALL."

Bill_S

Don't worry about it.

BTW, "gringo loco" is Spanish for fuel pump, just in case you heard that term.

lisa67

Ray

Run in the garage shouting La Migra... that will get there asses moving

Ridski

Must an LA thing. Over on this side, Hispanic news reporters will give you a full report in a perfect American accent until they have to say their name, when they suddenly all soun' like Inigo Montoya.

scrubbedexpat099

I would use a phrase rather than just a word.

More convincing that you might have understood what they were saying.

coastieexpat

I don't know about the rest of you, but whenever I am around somebody from another country, or culture , I feel compelled to let them know I am British.

A sort of camaraderie I suppose...

Is it just me

yrsammit

I grew up in Houston. I wouldn't bother saying "gracias" if that's the only word you know. Especially if you've already had conversation with the individual in English, no reason to switch to spanish.

If you already know he doesn't speak English, then gracias is OK. If you actually speak spanish, you're free to speak it generally, but maybe make sure you know the individual is an immigrant who speaks spanish as a first language. Someone more educated might not like being automatically spoken to in spanish.

For example, lots of second and later generation hispanics don't know spanish, and if you approach them and start speaking spanish they'll probably look at you like you're crazy.