Yes. 50 kw HJED, which was directional in a north-south pattern, boomed in from its lovely Westinghouse transmitter!
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Abba: The lost factor.
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
When I was a boy, back in the 50's, lots of families from AZ, NM, TX and CA used to visit Mexico frequently (mostly for shopping or visiting family). Since the rise of the cartels, corruption and highwaymen that has come to almost a complete halt. Lots of Mexicans visit the USA (again, mostly for shopping) but it's not the other way around. My family quit going down there in the mid-80's because of the crime. My uncle and his family actually had a shoot out on the beach south of Puerto Penasco. My old desert racing club used to gather food and clothes for the border communities around Christmas each year but that's been discontinued for many years now.
My sister-in-law has a home near Rosarito in Baja California, but has not been there since the pandemic started as Baja has the highest incidence of COVID cases of any state in Mexico. But she has no fear of going there otherwise because the crime related to the drug cartels is very limited to specific areas. Just as there are places in any large city which one might want to avoid, that is the case in Mexico or in Burkina Faso, for that matter.
Still, my point is that even in border areas, the non-Hispanic Americans just don't learn Spanish.
With a reminder that 2020 was abbreviated by COVID, I’ll just leave this here…
www.statista.com
(Anecdotal evidence is not evidence at all. Or, as Yogi Berra said: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”)
Travel: US tourism to Mexico 2025| Statista
The number of United States citizens traveling to Mexico amounted to **** million in 2025.
www.statista.com
(Anecdotal evidence is not evidence at all. Or, as Yogi Berra said: “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”)
Tagalog borrows a good number of English words as I recall. When I was working for a travel marketing agency, we a had a client that had the same name as a resort in the Phillipines. We were getting their Facebook messages that were a mix of English and something else.
RE: Language: One reason most Americans do not learn another language is they simply do not need to. It's a huge country, and English is the language we all have in common -- even Latinos learn and speak English, because there are so many people from other parts of the world here.
I myself can't speak any other languages aside from a few phrases here and there, but I have reading comprehension of at least 3 other languages aside from English (Spanish being one of them), and I continue trying to learn them because I think it helps keep your mind sharp. Some Spanish language programming on the radio I can pick out a lot of the words -- other times it's a chore. It depends a lot on the accent. When Heraldo Radio on 1700 (XEPE) goes from music to talk in the morning, I surprisingly can understand at least half the words. You get some of the programs on other stations and either the speed, or the accents, throw me off.
I myself can't speak any other languages aside from a few phrases here and there, but I have reading comprehension of at least 3 other languages aside from English (Spanish being one of them), and I continue trying to learn them because I think it helps keep your mind sharp. Some Spanish language programming on the radio I can pick out a lot of the words -- other times it's a chore. It depends a lot on the accent. When Heraldo Radio on 1700 (XEPE) goes from music to talk in the morning, I surprisingly can understand at least half the words. You get some of the programs on other stations and either the speed, or the accents, throw me off.
Remember, the Philippines were a US Terrritory from 1898 until WW II. The first radios stations there were licensed by the FCC!
As such, Tagalog borrows from both Spanish and English. And, while the largest and one of the official ones, it's only one of a number of languages used there... Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicolano, Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Maranao, Maguindanao, Zamboangueño Chavacano and Tausug are among those, with Spanish being a "protected" language.
"Need" is a byproduct of two centuries of American imperialism in its treatment of other nations. That has produced enormous hatred and resentment, which the Chinese are using to be "your friend in need" today while economically taking over Latin America and much of Africa.
The image of the "Ugly American" is robust. One of the characteristics is not speaking local languages. In broadcasting, U.S. TV equipment makers almost totally lost the Latin American market because the US companies did not even have manuals in Spanish or Portuguese. The Asian manufacturers did, and had phone support in those languages.
Today, nearly no US gear is sold in radio, either. The only North American company with good sales is Canadian, because those folks are used to multiple languages and have adapted.
I chuckled when I read that because I've spent time in Quebec. The locals there don't willingly speak English, except when they curse.
But they do speak English, just not happily. For the same reason, in France I never speak English. They are receptive to Spanish, but English not so much.
The word you're looking for is grudgingly.
Not really. Like the French in the motherland, they believe their culture is superior and that English is vulgar. Speaking English is to step down.
Years ago, the PD of CJMS, at that time the leading station in Montreal, explained that one of the things they did on the air to keep listeners from going to CFOX, the English language Montreal Top 40 station, was to emphasize that listening to Gilbert Becaud, Francois Hardy and Johnny Hallyday on CJMS was far more sophisticated. Obviously, they did this quite subtly, but they made the point that CJMS was Montreal, CJMS was Quebec and CJMS was "your language" quite effectively.
Canadians speak English, but they have their secret words. In all good fun...
captioning.com
10 Words Canadians Use That Americans Don’t Understand
10 Things Canadians Say That Americans Don’t Understand While Canadians and Americans can sound very much alike (depending which province you are from), there are certain terms that po…
captioning.com
Which is why they speak it grudgingly.
For Sale: Genuine French army rifles. Just dropped once.
You are too quick to dismiss the poster’s point about the U.S. being a big country and not having exposure to other languages.
in Europe, for example, you can drive 750 miles and experience numerous national languages and cultures, all within an area much smaller than the U.S.
I’m in Houston. I can drive 750 miles, and not only am I still in the U.S., I’m still in Texas. Completely different geographic scale.
Americans are frequently ridiculed for their low percentage of passport holdings and subsequent lack of international travel. However there are historical economic reasons for this—up until about 40 or 50 years ago international travel was incredibly expensive, and most people couldn’t afford it. That has fortunately changed in recent years, but increasing anti-Americanism in many countries makes some people think twice about overseas travel. I have heard quite a few (mostly older) people make the comment “Why should I visit some place where everybody hates us?”
Let’s also not forget that multilingual people tend to be part of an educated elite that has the means and support that enables travel and exposure to other languages and cultures. The average working class schlub in most countries is quite likely to be monolingual.
Having said all that, I will fully agree that proficiency in several languages is a huge advantage, personally, professionally, and spiritually.
Very offensive, untrue and definitely does not recognize the French underground and the work De Gaulle and the Free French did to help the allies.
I had a dear friend in Ecuador who had owned a radio factory in France before the war. The Nazis seized it and sent his family to a camp; his family was Jewish. He joined the underground and fought for several years. On one occasion, he rode on the back of a motorcycle as it was driven up the steps and into the Gestapo HQ in Paris, firing a machine gun all the way. Soon after, he escaped and ended up in Quito where he was my consulting engineer and ran a radio and TV servicing shop. He also worked to try to find Martin Bormann, believed to be in the eastern jungle at the time.
The actions of the Free French in the northern Africa desert went beyond heroism.
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Yes, on a visit to CFOX, the English language Top 40, in Montreal on one occasion I was told how they were warned to stop adding French words and phrases to DJ chatter. French names and terms were only allowed in newscasts and advertising, but not allowed to be mixed in DJ talk.
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In Ecuador, I had quite a few bilingual staff members... they spoke both Spanish and Quechua. Even in what may be the poorest nation of the world, Haiti, folks speak both Kreyol and French.
Movies in India are often produced in multiple languages, and many people at all levels speak English and one of the major Indian languages. On one island in the Caribbean, half the territory speaks Dutch and half speak French, but everyone knows both, irrespective of their education and income.
There are lots of places in the world where blue collar workers speak more than one language, and there are many nations where there is more than one official language. In fact, in two parts of the US, New Mexico and Puerto Rico, English and Spanish are both official languages. Many native Americans in the US who live on reservations speak the tribal language as well as English, too. And there is Cajun Creole in a fairly significant part of Louisiana.
The biggest advantage is being able to see society from more than one perspective.
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