¡Sí se puede!

In the Barbie movie someone said, ¡Sí se puede! and it was quickly followed by “Hey, you can't say that!”I believe somebody else said, “That is cultural appropriation!” (but not certain - suspect that was a poke at “Dads” learning Spanish as they get older - running gag in the movie and I am guilty as charged). My daughter (he is advanced intermeditate in Spanish) and I both could not figure out why someone thougth you could not say it. Any thoughts? Not looking to get political back and forth here, just looking to understand the reference. 

Thanks for the history lesson, always interesting.  That seems so remote in history I wonder how it is connected to a current reference which make sense to most people seeing this movie today.  

I'll stay out of the politics of it.

Hi All

Wow! That is quite the history lesson. Know very little American history, as South African schools never touched American history other than the World Wars. Hated history at school, as was absolutely terrified of our history teacher, so skipped that subject as soon as I could. As an adult history just facinates me. 

So all your info was really interesting

Maxie

Hi Scott

This not not a related subject, but when in Germany in Meinz and the Rhine and Mossel river thought of your time there. We had an awesome holiday there and it delighted me to speak German. We spent a lot of our time around Dresden, so many people did not speak English. I was told by someone that the older generation didn't learn English, but Russian. So I got a really good workout speaking German. Even chit chat was fine. I thouight it was going to be really hard, but it was suprisingly easy.  I am hoping my Spanish will get there eventually

Maxie

Maxie

Congrats on the German working out so well!  There is definitely a generational gap as far as English goes. Now it is required to graduate high school (although they have a two track system and the “blue collar” track doesn't have a strong English requirement), so we found it rare to find someone who couldn't speak any. Our landlord though was a late 50s/early 60s dairy farmer and he spoke a bit but tried really hard not to. I paid rent each month in cash (a widely used German tax evasion thing) and he would always invite me in and we would have drinks for an hour or so. I spoke some German (was taking classes), so we would speak in German and when I got stuck on a word, he would often give it to me after I asked him. So I think he spoke more than he let on, but I appreciated the opportunity to work on my German. That is now long gone, but I do find occasionally as I am speaking in Spanish, I think of the German word rather than the Spanish word.

Not sure if I told this story, but the accents are obviously very different across Germany. One time in Munich I asked for something in pretty good Eifel German and the worker asked me, “Ish, ish, vas ist ish!?” She then called me a farmer. Apparently the Eifel accent is the German equivalent of a very southern accent where as the people in Munich think they speak “proper” German.

Hi Scott

It's all about location. My friend lives near Hanover and they speak high German, so she is quite scathing about Bavarian German. Made me smile. She also told me that the Area around Dresden is quite difficult to understand. Our property manager didn't speak any English. When he came around to check that we were all okay, my kids went into a panic, as none of them speak any German. Made me laugh! He told me he was born in Siberia, has lived in Germany forever and we had quite the discussion about trivia as well as the house we were in. Was quite delighted as I said. 

We also went to Bavaria and I had no problem with Bavarian German either. I would love to spend 3 months in German to hone my language skills. I fnd learning several languages I want to add all sorts of words from other languages. The irony in Germany  was that I was even struggling to think of English words, as was so invested in thinking in German. Once I got home to Canada I had no problem thinking in English. Just weird. 

I hold a EU Portuguese passport, so easy to travel around Europe. My South African passport is a real pain, as one needs visas for everywhere in the world.

Ciao

Maxie