No, I’m not talking about Buenos Aires, where of course everything would be in Spanish. I’m talking about the good ole US of A. After being here for a few days, I quickly noticed that almost everything in the stores was in both English and Spanish.
When I left for Buenos Aires in 2008, there were some things in both English and Spanish, but that was the exception. It is now the norm. For example, we were in Home Depot and nearly every product has both English and Spanish labels. The advertising and promotional signs throughout the store are also in both languages. The same went for the grocery store, Wal*Mart, etc.
Obviously this makes a lot of sense for the stores and brands given that the Hispanic population has exploded. Hispanics accounted for more than half of the nation’s population growth over the last decade. (WSJ) It is interesting to have been away for the last year and see this change so vividly though. It was one of the first things I noticed.
It’s funny that when I started writing this blog, a lot of my posts were about the differences between the US and Argentina. Now, I’m writing about the changes in the US over the past couple of years. (And don’t worry, I have a few more good ones coming too…)
Unfortunately, after my nearly three years in Argentina, I still can’t make out all the Spanish on the signs. Yeah, I really need to go back to class…