How the conquistadors taught people Spanish
‘Photo Friday’ is a weekly series showcasing pictures from around the world.
While walking in Mérida’s tourist centre, I saw a bunch of such plaques at street intersections. Along with street names, there were these signs with pictures of animals, people and other subjects and their Spanish names.
Apparently, this was one of the ways employed by the Spanish colonialists to teach/impose their language on the native population in Mexico. I think its a cool idea to learn few foreign words this way, and now these plaques are a tourist attraction. 
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It’s also how a lot of Canadian learn some basic French: just look at the other side of your cereal box!
aha, yes its funny how many French words I learned without knowing it.
[...] at the street corners, there are these signs that were installed by the Spanish rulers to teach people Spanish to the native [...]
[...] “What don’t you understand? why can’t you guys speak English?” When I hear a foreigner yelling that to a Mexican ticket agent, I find it obnoxious. Time and again, I encountered the worst kinds of tourists in Merida. However the city itself is lovely. Being on the weekend, the downtown area was closed, there was a huge Sunday market and also some “cultural shows” on every street corner. [...]
when i first went to europe, I too wondered why people cant speak English..even in germany, it used to be german mostly in public places ..guess for them, English is just another language -only we have the colonial hangover
Lakshmi, that’s true. But if it wasn’t English, I wonder which language would bind India together. Possibly Hindi, but its too controversial!