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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5139 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 1 of 8 24 May 2012 at 12:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Pizza Patron's free deal for Spanish orders raises eyebrows
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| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6713 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 2 of 8 24 May 2012 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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RE: "Pizza Patrón".
Isn't is weird how the Spanish word patrón means employer or boss while the English word patron means the customer? Edited by translator2 on 24 May 2012 at 1:00am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5139 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 3 of 8 24 May 2012 at 1:08am | IP Logged | ||
According to this and this the etymology of both words is the same. The sense of supporting and being responsible for is common to both, in one case from authority, and in the other by supplying essential business. "The customer is always right." So is the boss. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4416 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 4 of 8 24 May 2012 at 10:02am | IP Logged | ||
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patron-patrón
I never thought about that before. Actually in English the word can be used in both senses, although the customer sense is much more common. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6497 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 8 24 May 2012 at 12:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wouldn't mind such offers here where I live. I would even find out how to order a pizza in Urdu or Turkish or Chinese if that was necessary.
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| Rykketid Diglot Groupie Italy Joined 4627 days ago 88 posts - 146 votes Speaks: Italian*, English Studies: French | Message 6 of 8 16 July 2012 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Strangely enough I agree with a conservative: it seems like a punishment for non Spanish
speakers, I think that if that thing had happened in France they would have gone bankrupt two days later. The only thing that I can find in defense of this marketing promotion is that English is not the US offiacial language but it is only de facto, but it's still a very weak argument in my opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4985 days ago 245 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 7 of 8 17 July 2012 at 8:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I say more power to Pizza Patron and their latest publicity stunt. Who cares what a conservative group of bigots thinks or what the English-only (see their website) Hispanic Marketing Group thinks? They don't make the rules and don't get to dictate what America is about. What next? Eliminate Spanish language newspapers because this somehow puts gringos at a disadvantage? There are 39 million Spanish speakers in the US and more than 50 million people of Latino ancestry. Why shouldn't a store or restaurant provide a service that helps Spanish speakers feel more comfortable, especially if it fosters customer loyalty and repeat business? Establishments that have Spanish speaking staff attract more Spanish speaking customers. Duh. That's capitalism. And to contrast: the Latino population of the US is larger than the senior population (over age 65). Plenty of stores offer all sorts of special discounts to seniors, yet there is no outcry from political or business groups. I smell hypocrisy.
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| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4432 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 8 17 July 2012 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it was an interesting move, and I personally don't understand why there are so many people who dislike it and making it seem more controversial than it should be.
Yes, this is the United States, and English is the de facto language. Yes, I strongly agree that every immigrant should make a solid attempt at learning English. However, Pizza Patron is not asking for fluent Spanish, not even conversational Spanish. It can be a broken, possibly miserable attempt. Is it seriously that difficult to say "Buenas nochas, kero uno pizza?" It's not really a punishment, IMO. If they were asking for excellent pronunciation and an eloquent request for pizza, then yes, it would be rather extreme. But it wasn't that extreme. It wasn't even an ongoing free deal. I'm all for English being the main language for official matters and most spoken matters, but I think it's saddening that some people are disturbed when individuals are speaking something other than English to one another. While I see why it's controversial, I don't think there's really much fuel for controversy. But I suppose there is. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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