Bilingual speakers are, apparently, at a loss for when to speak English or Spanish. Life is so complicated:

Cuban-born Maria Carreira, the coauthor of two college Spanish textbooks, can glide easily between her native tongue and English. But in her daily life in Southern California, picking which language to speak can be very complicado.

Oh, see what they did there? Complicado. Haha, you guys make us laugho mucho!

Such as the time when she was at a taco stand where everyone seemed to be ordering and chatting in Spanish. Carreira started placing her order en español, but she quickly switched to English after she got a look at the young employee behind the counter.

“He had the bluest eyes,” Carreira said.

Oh, here it comes.

Carreira, a linguist who teaches at Cal State Long Beach and an expert in the use of Spanish in the United States, acknowledges that she blundered at the taco joint. Though the counterman responded in English, it dawned on her that he had been capably handling orders in Spanish.

Not a very cunning linguist, is she? Unfortunately for her, not everyone is delighted by people who tend to go both ways linguistically:

Some Americans resent the widespread use of Spanish, particularly at government agencies and public schools. “Our government has gone way too far in encouraging people not to learn English,” said Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of Springfield, Va.-based English First, an advocacy group that is working to make English the nation’s official language.

Boulet and other critics also complain that Spanish sometimes is used to exclude, or gossip about, people who speak only English.

Um, el duh. That’s the sole reason some of us still speak Spanish - to isolate gringos. Langage as a means of communication and expression? No guey, duderinos! It’s all about the chismes. That’s Spanish for “cheese.”

Biding their tongues [The Los Angeles Times]