Thread: Looking into Mexican culture

I agree, there used to be and some still maintain that stereotype of Americans who have a Southern drawl as being either ignorant or backwards. No one which is true, but yet has persisted to this day in some peoples minds.

This maintenance guy, and his family, are the nicest people I have come across in this complex so far. Each Thursday evening they have a chruch meeting in their unit with their pastor. This same pastor makes his rounds with his 4 or 5 year old son (such an extremely well behaved little boy, all dressed up and not whining!!) once a week to all the Spanish speaking households.

I was impressed with the maintenance guy right away, simply because he was so decent and respectful, as well as no trouble at all.

However, the cultural clash of this mans culture/language and that of most Mexicans explains why he NEVER comes out to confront these people when they are partying and making trouble. I was dismayed at first that he seemed to not care, but maybe it has something to do with being raised under this "burden" of being low on the totem pole down in Mexico?

BTW, y'all down south, I like the accent. I always thought that it was a signature of America. I have lived in Oregon all of my life, and I was told by a Romanian woman who said up here we all sound basically like "cowboys". I said, "oh no, you're thinking of a southern accent", she said no, that it was different than that. I really never thought we had one up here, but maybe to an outsider like her, we do. Do we?

Originally Posted by AmericanElizabeth

I agree, there used to be and some still maintain that stereotype of Americans who have a Southern drawl as being either ignorant or backwards. No one which is true, but yet has persisted to this day in some peoples minds.

This maintenance guy, and his family, are the nicest people I have come across in this complex so far. Each Thursday evening they have a chruch meeting in their unit with their pastor. This same pastor makes his rounds with his 4 or 5 year old son (such an extremely well behaved little boy, all dressed up and not whining!!) once a week to all the Spanish speaking households.

I was impressed with the maintenance guy right away, simply because he was so decent and respectful, as well as no trouble at all.

However, the cultural clash of this mans culture/language and that of most Mexicans explains why he NEVER comes out to confront these people when they are partying and making trouble. I was dismayed at first that he seemed to not care, but maybe it has something to do with being raised under this "burden" of being low on the totem pole down in Mexico?

BTW, y'all down south, I like the accent. I always thought that it was a signature of America. I have lived in Oregon all of my life, and I was told by a Romanian woman who said up here we all sound basically like "cowboys". I said, "oh no, you're thinking of a southern accent", she said no, that it was different than that. I really never thought we had one up here, but maybe to an outsider like her, we do. Do we?

DO WE?? I've heard we do to. I also like the southern drawl and my sister lives in Texas and sounds real cute to. But I have always wondered how we can all come from the same country and our speech though English, sound so different!! Does anyone have the answer to that one????

We say accent, but it is really a dialect.

I read an article a little while ago in The Oregonian about how the Northeast has their distinct dialect/accent, and how the south does, and also the midwest, but no one has ever thought that in the Northwest that we had an accent or dialect difference. It was labeled more as "speech patterns".

However Sad, think about the way we say the word "bag"......this linguist said up here when we say it, it sounds more like "beg". Which he said is a sign we have our own accent/dialect. The more common way to say it, the "a" sounds more "nasaly", but with us it is coming from the back of the mouth and right off of the back of the tongue.

It is still a study in progress. I also know something about people in my parents generation from the Northwest. Whenever my father, mother, grandmother and such would talk, and the conversation went like this, "well back in 1925, why, everyone had a garden". Do you see what I mean? The word "why" up here replaces "well" a lot. I even find myself doing it as habit because of my upbringing.

My husband, Chicago born, asked me about this when we had been together a couple of years, he had noticed it in my family.

Another example is the pronunciation of words like "either", "neither". My husband (Chicago) says "neether" or "eether", when I say "nither" or "ither".

So many examples, but unless you marry out of your "region" or talk to someone who does not come from here, you simply do not know there is a difference.

BTW, my father did talk a bit like John Wayne, although my father had almost never gotten on a horse!!

AmericanE, that was very interesting had never really thought about it, what usually catches my attention is things like, "what say you" definitely English, I guess most of it is probably brought with our ancestors and handed down through the generations. Like for example, maybe mostly scotts started say this town and alot of their dialet was passed down though generations and picked up by newcomers as they moved into those areas.

But I don't know anyone from any where in the world that has a southern drawl !! Maybe it came about from a foreign language when they were learning to speak English and just stuck! OH my this is getting deep!

Actually I have no idea how the different areas got their accents but that is one thing that makes me so mad about this illegal immigration problem-the fact that in the future my children won't have the fun of guessing where someone is from in the US.Which to me is so wonderful that we all had different ways and speech patterns but were all from the same place really.

I know I'm going a bit off subject but at my last job I sat in front of a lady from Mass. and behind a lady from Brooklyn with me sandwiched in the middle,I asked if this was an experiment.I'm sure it was funny to customers to hear the word "car" spoken three different ways.Mass. says-cahhh,Brooklyn=Cahr,me=cawr.

This is pretty funny.... Mexicans (Mestizos) are from European roots which like us Americans.... These people you speak of Copala Triqui are I guess Native Indians to that region and are ridiculed by the "invaders" LOL I just laugh at typing this because it sounds like to me that these Mexicans want the world but are to lazy to lift a finger to get it, they just want us to hand it to them!!! Sorry thats not the way it works, thats why our founding fathers fought so hard to make this country what it is today, and whining illegals shouldn't and won't be getting anything!!!

There were a lot of gaelic speaking Scots in the south for a long time so this could have something to do with the drawl, gaelic words are often blended into the next word and has a very soft sound to it.
Ciamar a tha thu sounds like ciamar a hawu. it means , how are you?
The rebel yell comes from the Scottish highlanders as well.

BorderLegionairre, to my understanding, they all are "native" yet, this group has clung to their native language and their old ways, and still live relatively similar to their original ways.

This is the reason for their scorn I beleive. Yet, I agree, the other Mexicans want everyone to accomodate them and their ways, in both countries, they scream racism over here is they do not get what they want here, and in their home country, they practise racism againt another group of their own, who simply want to be left to live in their own culture, within their OWN country.

It is all very childish on their part. "You are in my house, you have to do it MY way, and when I'm at your house, I am a guest and get to have things my way too!". This is what it reminds me of.

Mountaindog, this is likely true. There was a lot of Scotts-Irish who settled down in the south, as well as many French. I always thought the southern accent was from a mix of the two.

And there are lots of different southern dialects. Georgia is different from South Carolina (especially in Charleston with the Gullah influence) which is different from Kentucky which is different from Texas. etc.

My late husband lived in Charleston most of his professional life and he had a very different accent from his brother, who lived in Charlotte, NC all of his. They both were born in Greenville, SC, which is 200 miles inland.

When I lived in Pittsburgh, I noticed a lot of "the car needs rinsed (which was pronounced renched). In the upper Midwest, soft drinks are Pop and not Soda. In the deep south, it's Co-Cola, regardless of brand. Or "gimme a RC an a Moon Pah." In Fargo, ND they say, "oh, fer cute!" when they mean adorable or precious or cute.

I now live in Oregon, and, American Elizabeth, I can assure you, Oregonians do not have Southern accents!

I love the diversity and richness of our country. (don't burst my momentary bubble.)

No, not a southern accent. This woman, who was from Romania and had done a little traveling, said up in the Northwest, we sounded to her sort of like "cowboys", more the "western drawl", she said to her it basically sounded a bit more like the old westerns she had seen. Maybe not as dramatic as Hollywood made that accent out to be.

Then, I was also told basically the same thing by my 24 year old daughters high school friend who was Russian.

Then again, maybe it is their mentallity about what they felt Americans had come from and felt that was who we sounded like? Anyways, definitely not a southern drawl.

BTW, I have an uncle (married my maternal aunt) who was from Arkansas. Slowest talker I have ever come across, but always loved his drawl. I always though HE sounded like a cowboy. He say's "yes, sir/ma'am" a lot when he is referring to something positive to you.

Up here, I think it is more the speech patterns I stated before, where the word "why" is used in abundance, as sort of a moment of pause in a sentence and such. Maybe that was why this Romanian woman felt we sounded like cowboys, how they'd say "why I'll be darned"!!!!LOLOLOL