I had the choices of Spanish, French, German,and Russian. My father, 
who by the way was a bigger cinic than Fred, was disappointed that I 
didn't take Russian. He said "it will help to learn your future 
language."  I guess he thought we would eventually lose the Cold War.
It's very funny now when I think back to it. 

-- Herb Brannon <hrbran@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Taking Spanish was, in retrospect, one of the better decisions I have 
made in my life. I went to public school when the public school gave 
a superior education. However, only three languages were offered. 
Those being Latin, French and Spanish. When it came time to put down 
my choice (we HAD to take a language) I thought Latin is for doctors, 
priests, and Roman history professors. I did not want to be any of 
those. French was OK, however, France was really a long way off and I 
did not believe I would ever be travelling to Quebec on a regular 
basis. So, out with the French. But.......Cuba was close, Puerto Rico 
was close, Mexico was the southern border and Chicago, New York, 
Philadelphia, Los Angeles and several other cities Cleveland included 
had Hispanic areas within their limits. That one sounded like the 
right one. I guess it was. Pittsburgh always, for some unknown 
reason, always lacked a Hispanic area.
 
Herb Brannon


----- Original Message ----
From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net>
To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:10:58 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard


All I can add to this series of postings is that Herb is speaking to  
the church choir when he speaks to me.   We are rapidly approaching 
1  
in 5 Americans who speak a foreign language in the home and 1/3 of  
them speak Spanish.  The 2000 census showed 17.8 percent (up from 13  
percent in 1990) spoke a foreign language in the home and about 8.1  
percent could not speak English at all or not well.   The share of  
those whose mother tongue was Spanish or Puerto Rican Spanish was  
approximately two-thirds of the total.   And we'll never solve the  
problem if the Yankee's say we should never learn Spanish and the  
Puerto Ricans say we should not be forced to learn English when we  
are all part of the same country.

It's pretty clear to me that the kid who speaks both English and  
Spanish will have a much better chance of being hired than the 
person  
who doesn't.   Herb has attested to the fact that it helps him.   My  
wife, who taught in a school that where the enrollment was 1/3  
African American - 1/3 Spanish - 1/3 Northern European White would  
tell you exactly the same thing Herb said.   My wife just went back  
to work tutoring children after school in a Boys Club (she misses  
interacting with the kids after ten years of retirement).



http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-29.pdf

On Jan 28, 2007, at 10:02 PM, Mark McGuire wrote:

> Wow. I just now got to your reply Herb. I took it for granted that
> you ran into alot of Spanish speaking people due to your job.
>
> -- Herb Brannon <hrbran@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I wish I were more fluent in Spanish. Then, however, I do like the
> way a customer (on the bus) breaks into a big smile and their eyes
> light up when I answer their question in Spanish. This after they
> have tried their best in broken English to get the question across 
to
> me. I should think that perhaps my answer to them, albeit
> understandable, was in just as broken a fashion. However, no matter
> how poor the English or Spanish, communication has taken place. You
> can't imagine how much grief this knowledge of another language has
> prevented when I work routes in some pretty rough neighborhoods. I
> never have a problem, even with the gang member guys. Today's 
transit
> workers have a much, much different job than did the PRCo operators
> in the past.
> Anyway, what I asked you was, "How much is a round-trip ticket to
> Puerto Rico?" Of course, the right-side-up question mark at the
> beginning of the sentence should have been an upsidedown question
> mark. For now.......Adios, hasta la vista.
>
> Herb Brannon
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net>
> To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org
> Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 8:13:12 AM
> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard
>
>
> No, Herb.   I stumble through German.   I've taken that over and
> over
> three or four times.    I can read a French menu and can read the
> essential signs in French.   I've taken the French language in high
> school and again two semester's as a course at York College over
> lunch hour about 15 years ago.  About all I can do in Spanish is
> find
> the men's room.   I'll let you translate it into English.
>
> I truly admire those people who are natural linguists and take to
> multiple languages like ducks to water.   I wish I could.   If I
> could, I'd be speaking German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
> and Hindi by now.
>
> I remember I chap I met on a streetcar one night in Warsaw, Poland,
> who wanted to talk to me.  He started in what he thought was the
> right language and progressed through several until he got to
> English.   Turns out he had learned a half dozen tongues fluently
> under the communist regime (a government that really didn't support
> him) simply by reading books.   When he finally got to English, it
> was almost flawless.
>
> On Jan 27, 2007, at 9:07 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>
>> I will look for that book. There are two stores in Tower City
>> (Terminal Tower) which always have many Cleveland history books
> and
>> also Wings Hobby Shop carries about everything on Cleveland 
history.
>> Did you figure out the question at the end of my original email?
>>
>> Herb Brannon
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net>
>> To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org
>> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:47:49 PM
>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard
>>
>>
>> A lot of this nation is Hispanic today, Herb and I have no
>> objection.   The difference between then and now is who the current
>> immigrants are or where they came from or to be more blunt, who it
> is
>> we feel we must hate in this decade.    And I for one don't believe
>> in hate.   I like diversity.   We are the nation that we are 
because
>> we have people who came from everywhere ... Polish, Italian, 
German,
>> English, Scotish, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Iraqi,
>> Arabic ... oh yes and Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian,
>> Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim ... and White, Black, Asian, Native
>> American.   The only shame is that we need laws to protect people
>> instead of doing it out of care and love for others.
>>
>> By the way, I just found and purchased a nice book today in the
>> Baltimore Streetcar Museum book store: Cleveland's Towering
> Treasure,
>> A Landmark Turns 75, by James A Thoman and Daniel J. Cook, 
published
>> by Cleveland Landmarks Press, Inc.,  13610 Shsker Blvd., Suite 503,
>> Cleveland, Ohio 44120-1592, ISBN 0-936760-230-6, price $18.50.
>> Copyright date is 2005 so it apparently has been around for at 
least
>> a year.   It is the story of the Cleveland Terminal Tower and
>> associated buildings on Public Square.    Very few pictures of
>> trains ... a Nickel Plate passenger train with Alco PAs, a NYC
>> Niagara on a clearance test run, the usual picture of a CUT 
electric
>> motor, and a poor head-on picture of the streamlined NYC Pacific on
>> the Mercury.   And there are a few pictures of Cleveland trolleys.
>> But a lot of pictures of the terminal under construction and 
through
>> the years and several of the Van Swerigen brothers.   If you are 
out
>> to buy everything ... like I do ... go ahead and buy it.   Seems
>> pretty well done.   Pefect binding.
>>
>> I should have said, Herb, that the rapid transit equipment in San
>> Juan is absolutely spotless ... I watched car cleaners coming
> through
>> after every trip.   But then, the people who ride the line are the
>> upper crust of the that area and the west end of the line serves 
and
>> area which is probably to San Juan as Shaker Heights would have 
been
>> to Cleveland in the old days.
>>
>> I want to go back ... not to spend more time on transit.   It's my
>> hobby and you all know that but only one of many interests.   I've
>> done that now and you can only spend so much time photographing an 
8
>> mile (my guess) heavy rail line.     But I would like to spend a
> full
>> week just looking at San Juan, Ponce, and driving around the 
island.
>>
>> On Jan 27, 2007, at 7:33 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:
>>
>>> WARNING WARNING The word Cleveland is used in this email.
>>>
>>> The link to Caribbean Natl Park was very good. Thanks for that. 
One
>>> of my buddies at work, originally from Puerto Rico, always wants 
me
>>> to go there. He is also into rail transit and says I would
>>> appreciate the new rail transit system. Maybe now I will take him
>>> up on the offer.
>>>
>>> As far as the speaking Spanish goes.....I'm glad I took two years
>>> of it in school, kept up on it, and lived in Florida and Texas.
>>> Here I use Spanish frequently. Just today in fact on the 79-
Fulton.
>>> The near westside of (WARNING bad word ahead!!!!) Cleveland is
>>> Hispanic. This includes advertising signs in Spanish on stores,
>>> billboards, and on RTA buses inside and out. It seems to be the
>>> 'second language' of the U.S. now.
>>>
>>> ?Cuanto cuesta un boleto de ida y vuelta a Puerto Rico?
>>>
>>> Herb Brannon
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----
>>> From: Fred Schneider <fwschneider@comcast.net>
>>> To: pittsburgh-railways@dementia.org
>>> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 11:36:47 AM
>>> Subject: [PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard
>>>
>>>
>>> Enjoyed Puerto Rico ... want to go back!  The city is clearly a 
mix
>>> of well-to-do and those of lesser means.
>>>
>>> I found the territory rather curious.   Of course many Americans
> like
>>> to consider them not part of us in spite of the fact that Teddy
>>> Roosevelt took Puerto Rico from Spain in the Spanish American War
> in
>>> 1898.   It's a rather curious place with Spanish as the primary
>>> language but with many corporate names in English ... with Waste
>>> Management trucks with admonitions warning you that the back
>>> frequently in English, with familiar stores ... Ponderosa,
> Wal*Mart,
>>> Walgreens, Holiday Inn, Hilton, and thousands more and English
> words
>>> peppering the language like muffler.   .   It's just
>>> the part of us or U.S. that speaks Spanish.
>>>
>>> They have some of the same problems we have.   Just like the 
people
>>> up here don't want to speak Spanish, they have people whose pride
>>> causes them not to want to learn English.   There is stubbornness
>>> everywhere!
>>>
>>> .   We rented a car and drove east along
>>> the beaches.   Fantastic azure water with nothing built along them
>>> for miles.   Then we drove up into the Caribbean National
> Forest ...
>>>
>>
>
>
>



