Thread: Well done Cotto for learning English so well!

Originally Posted by TitoFan

Originally Posted by generalbulldog

Originally Posted by Gandalf

This is something that I observe quite closely in fighters who pursue their career overseas. I look at someone like Manny and you can see that his English is at the same basic level it always seems to have been. Cotto on the other hand was someone who clearly didn't know very much beyond 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in his fight promotions and yet is now able to converse and put together fairly well constructed sentences and express himself with a great degree of clarity. You can see the progression over a few years and it always pleases me to see fighters make these kinds of linguistic progressions. On the other hand you get fighters like Mayorga who have never given a hoot about the whole process and that is fair enough too. However, I like to see a fighter make an attempt to become more mainstream by broadening their linguistic palate to some degree.

Cotto speaks better English than Roger Mayweather which says a lot. So, well done Cotto!

If I'm not mistaken Puerto Ricans by default are American citizens. So shouldn't an American citizen be fluent in the English language?

The issue of U.S. citizenship has nothing to do with the native language of Puerto Rico, which happens to be Spanish. Spanish has been spoken here since the island was first colonized by Spain. Given our current ties to the U.S. and our citizen status, yes... there are many Puerto Ricans who can speak and write English fluently, and English is taught in all schools.

Thanks for clearing this part up.

Originally Posted by generalbulldog

Originally Posted by TitoFan

Originally Posted by generalbulldog

Originally Posted by Gandalf

This is something that I observe quite closely in fighters who pursue their career overseas. I look at someone like Manny and you can see that his English is at the same basic level it always seems to have been. Cotto on the other hand was someone who clearly didn't know very much beyond 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in his fight promotions and yet is now able to converse and put together fairly well constructed sentences and express himself with a great degree of clarity. You can see the progression over a few years and it always pleases me to see fighters make these kinds of linguistic progressions. On the other hand you get fighters like Mayorga who have never given a hoot about the whole process and that is fair enough too. However, I like to see a fighter make an attempt to become more mainstream by broadening their linguistic palate to some degree.

Cotto speaks better English than Roger Mayweather which says a lot. So, well done Cotto!

If I'm not mistaken Puerto Ricans by default are American citizens. So shouldn't an American citizen be fluent in the English language?

The issue of U.S. citizenship has nothing to do with the native language of Puerto Rico, which happens to be Spanish. Spanish has been spoken here since the island was first colonized by Spain. Given our current ties to the U.S. and our citizen status, yes... there are many Puerto Ricans who can speak and write English fluently, and English is taught in all schools.

Thanks for clearing this part up.

No prob, bro.

Even though English is taught in all schools doesn't make it all that commonplace for them to know the language, necessarily. Spanish is taught at all schools in the States, I think. We don't have that great a population of spanish speaking Americans that aren't hispanic.

Good point.