Christmas is an ideal opportunity to catch up with family and friends. But at times a person feels excluded from the family conversations due to language barrier. Scroll down to read the whole story and share your views on this.
Source: Reddit
My (f35) family is Mexican and we live in TX. Everyone in my family is bilingual and they tend to mix English and Spanish constantly. My siblings spouses have all learned some Spanish, some better, some worse, but they can still participate in all conversations.
I’ve been with my husband for 10 years. He took a few classes but he found it too difficult and decided that he can’t learn a language as it’s his thing just like math isn’t his thing and he dropped it.
Every family gathering (there are a lot of them) he feels left out because everyone switches back and forth and he doesn’t understand them. I have to translate for him and it really must be uncomfortable for him.
This year he said that he’s not coming, he feels excluded and even when he talks with non Mexican spouses, they mix and match languages and he feels it’s to mock him because there’s no need to.
I called my mother and told her that they must promise to not speak Spanish because it’s excluding my husband or they are not coming. My mother was angry, she told me they’re not going to police their speech, that they were accommodating for the first few years but he made no effort and it’s ridiculous that he doesn’t even try. I told her that he did try but she knows it’s difficult for him.
She said that he’s no longer invited and I can come on my own. I was really angry and repeated my ultimatum. This didn’t go down well. My whole family is pissed off, my husband is on my side and I don’t know anymore. AM I A JERK for giving them the ultimatum?
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