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Anonymous: I don't want to make the situation worse but the bare naked truth about Spain is that it is a racist culture. I am sorry you had to experience the trash but it is the reality. Your guide may have rainbow coloured the truth, Spaniards know exactly what other nationalities, ethnicity, races & what have you look like, what you experienced is their way of pointing you out to humiliate you,bring you down & degrade you. Refugee camps have been burnt down by Spaniards simply because they hate Latinos.

Cont.: Just look at the YouTube videos that a lot of young Spaniards have created. Videos claiming that they are white and to not dare mistake them for Mexicans or black because they are superior and above all African Americans and Latinos. They go to great lengths to spread this garbage, video after video claiming they are white and have German & Irish blood. So I apologise for the rant, I just hate that the truth about them is never really told. Their hate goes deep, don’t mistake their attention towards you as ignorance, they know exactly what they are doing and the purpose behind it is not nice. My Asian/Australian friend traveled there, no cafe would serve her and she got pushed around in the streets. She left early because she was treated so bad. Please be careful and stay with a group.

Thank you Anon. I’ve been home for a few months now, and although the country is very beautiful, I did learn about the ugly and deeply rooted racism that is all over Spain. I appreciate you reading this blog and taking the time out to address this and confirm what I know now (but what Spaniards and some of my fellow peers made me doubt while I was there).

Unfortunately, there’s more than enough racism in America and as a Black woman I think it’s something I may (unfortunately) face everywhere for the rest of my lifetime, but I did appreciate the experience of traveling and learning new things about myself. I’m really sad to hear about your friend’s experience, but as a person of color who not only cares about everyone, but especially recognizes the struggle of all minorities, I picked up on racism that was directed not only towards Black people, but to Asian people and anyone other than Spaniards or Caucasian Americans. Even their attitudes towards other Spanish speakers (i.e. Dominicans) were very superior, and no matter how much I learned about myself and the country, I can’t really celebrate the experience of one culture if it looks down on my own, or even me as an individual for having the (obviously uncontrollably) racial and ethnic traits of my culture.

One can only hope that if your friend ever decides to give it another chance or if I ever re-visit Valencia or see some of the other cities I didn’t get the opportunity to visit, there will be evident progress (even though we all know that is a VERY slow process) and perhaps we won’t feel as uncomfortable, objectified, rejected, fetishized, etc.

Sorry for my rant of an answer lol, but I feel like going in depth on this topic really makes for honest discussion that future travelers should know. Thanks again for writing in, take care.

the-anomaly:

borednschooled:

The Wretched of the Earth: Helpful Websites To Learn Languages

les-langues-sont-ma-vie:

French

• http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/home - I absolutely love this website. It has everything!
• http://french.speak7.com/ 

German

• http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0„9572,00.html -You have to register, but it’s a great way to learn German
• http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~joyce1/abinitio/index.html 

Italian

• http://www.zapitalian.com/ 
• http://www.learnalanguage.com/learn-italian/

Spanish

• http://www.lingolex.com/spanish.htm
• http://www.123teachme.com/ - Has games, verb conjugations, text translator, grammar, quizzes, and more!
• http://www.studyspanish.com/
• http://spanish.speak7.com/

Chinese

• http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese - What I love about this site is the pinyin to character tool 

Japanese

• http://www.freejapaneselessons.com/
• http://www.learn-japanese.info/
• http://www.learnjapanesefree.com/
• http://www.learnjapanese.com/ - Has slang expressions, grammar, common phrases, vocabulary and more
• http://japanese-phrases.sakura.ne.jp/

Greek

• http://www.kypros.org/cgi-bin/lexicon - Greek to English, English to Greek Dictionary (Modern and Ancient Greek)
• http://www.101languages.net/greek/basics.html

Sign Language

• www.aslpro.com
• www.aslresource.com

Esperanto

• http://en.lernu.net/

Latin

• http://www.cambridgescp.com/Lpage.php?p=clc%5Etop%5Ehome
  
  

General Language Sites

• http://www.fodors.com/language/ - Has Spanish, French, Italian, German, Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese
• http://www.omniglot.com/ - Has basic phrases in almost any language along with idioms and sayings
• http://www.wordreference.com/ - Any language (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, etc.) to English dictionary 
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/ - Basic phrases and vocab in French, Spanish, Greek, Chinese, German, Italian, and Portuguese. 
• http://www.languagehelpers.com/ - Has Chinese, Czech, French, German, Latvian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
• http://www.smartphrase.com/index.shtml -Has Italian, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Dutch, and Portuguese. Random phrase generator 
• http://www.101languages.net/vocabulary/vocabulary.html - Has Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Spanish
• http://www.livemocha.com/ - A few people have suggested this site, and it’s incredible. If you want to learn a language on your own, you need this. And it’s free!

Conjugemos s good too! For French Spanish German … Maybe something else too.

I would give serious money to anyone who could get me magdalenas (breakfast muffins) or arroz cubano (preferably from my señora).

Any takers?