[masraum]

Most gringos think that Spanish speakers speak really fast, but then I've also heard that non-English speakers think that we speak fast. I did once learn that it's true, the Spanish do speak quickly. To me, it's more like they sometimes run all of the words together and now I have proof.

I was in Spain once when I was younger (dad was in the Navy). I had a summer job while I was there working in one of the restaurants on base. Most of the employees in the kitchen were Spanish nationals, but most spoke more English than I spoke Spanish (which was basically none). One night one of the guys was going to make my dinner, and was asking what I wanted with it bakedpotatofrenchfry. He said it about 5 or 6 times really quickly so it came out as one word. I had no idea what he was saying, but I felt a little vindicated because there was another young guy that worked there who's father had been in the military and married a Spanish woman and retired there. So this guy was perfectly fluent in Spanish and English and even he didn't understand what the guy was saying and had to ask him in Spanish. It was funny, when the young guy finally figured out what I was being asked, and repeated it to me, the guy that had been trying to tell me huffed and nodded his head and said it again as if to say "yeah, that's what I've been saying the whole time."