Same for San Francisco, Most of the earlier settlers were from Hong Kong, Macau, Guangdong, All ‘Cantonese’ speaking people. Also, a lot of people were from Shanghai so there was a group who also spoke Shanghainese. Probably other languages were spoken also but they were not as prominent as Cantonese.
Oh! Interesting historical info - There is/was a phrase/verb in the San Francisco Bay Area (They got ‘Shanghaid’) originally meaning to be kidnapped to work on a ship bound for Shanghai, China. Now it generally means they got kidnapped.
Back in the wild ‘Barbary Coast’ days (1849-52) it was NOT safe to be down in the ports when the tide turned because most able-bodied seamen jumped ship and ran off to the goldfields so the captains were short-handed when they were ready to set sail. So they would kidnap likely-looking men, usually drunk, tie them up and stash them below deck until they were beyond swimming distance, then put them to work on deck. Back then the trading ships went between Shanghai China, San Francisco California, and Lima Peru. San Francisco in 1849 didn’t have any infrastructure at that time so everything was imported from China or Peru.
My grandfather spoke Cantonese but we never learned it. He was also fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.
What’s weird is I can understand French spoken in Quebec but I don’t speak French. I never learned French. No one spoke French in my neighborhood. (Yea, I don’t know how that works.) I also speak California ‘Spanglish’. Tagalog, Gaelic, and I’ve been learning Korean for over a year now. (So that I don’t have to wait for subtitles.)_ Even though I grew up in ‘little Azores’, none of us kids spoke Portuguese, just Spanish or English outside the house.
You have gifted ear lol! I wish I could understand languages even if I can’t the language hahaha
But you are a “multicultural languages” melting pot. Sometimes, do you mix the languages when you speak ? It’s something it happens many time for me lol. Sometime I know the french word but only the english one comes to my mind or the japanese or the chinese one. hahaha.
It’s so interesting what you share. Poor fishermen.
Oh, definitely! The San Francisco Bay Area has so many spoken languages. About a third of the population is Hispanic from various countries, The other third are from various countries in Asia and the other third is assorted countries for everyone else. I learned Tagalog, Spanish and English from friends in my neighborhood. Our family had remnant Gaelic words. I’ve been learning Korean for the last year. I also learned words and phrases for a lot of other languages. But I am not fluent in anything. and I DO code switch all the time! Sheesh! There are some syllables in Korean that sound the same as Dakota! (Sioux) so my brain puts in the Dakota meaning. Makes me crazy
Don’t you mix some of the languages that have small differences and are very similar, isn’t Belarussian and Russian pretty similar?
As a Czech speaker I can understand Slovak when it’s written but have a hard time understanding the spoken language… but it was ok understanding spoken Polish but not everything.
I speak French because i live in France. I speak English and French fluently and i can understand khmer really well.
I’m trying to learn korean but i don’t have much time for this.
ok the senior lady INFILTRATING, Y’ALL ARE FANTASTIC!!
so I know some Spanish, some German, I would love to learn more languages, I do know some Korean & Chinese, some French. but not conversational, like hello, thank you, good by, how are you and so on but to speak to someone, not casually, but a nice chat. so I do watch shows with the subs and all, and that’s where I have learned the word is fluently
We are related. Just like English, German and Dutch are both Germanic languages. But there are also big differences.
However, in the past, the English word “Dutch” was used for both German and Dutch, hence the term “Pennsylvania Dutch,” which is actually derived from German (though still somewhat recognizable for us).
I never learned French. No one spoke French in my neighborhood. (Yea, I don’t know how that works.) I also speak California ‘Spanglish’. 
Tagalog, Gaelic, and I’ve been learning Korean for over a year now. (So that I don’t have to wait for subtitles.)_ Even though I grew up in ‘little Azores’, none of us kids spoke Portuguese, just Spanish or English outside the house.
and I DO code switch all the time! Sheesh! There are some syllables in Korean that sound the same as Dakota! (Sioux) so my brain puts in the Dakota meaning. 
Makes me crazy 
