In this video, he appears to be fluent in Spanish, but he’s also very…Southern, American Southern. (Ford Quarterman via Youtube)
Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
PEY-ROO — Becoming fluent in a second language (or third or fourth) is always an impressive feat and an amazing skill to have.
Unfortunately, not all of us have the right opportunity or the right gift of language to become fluent. And even if you can become fluent in another language, there’s the second hurdle of sounding like a native speaker.
Then there’s YouTube user Ford Quarterman, who does a second language his own way.
In this video, he appears to be fluent in Spanish, but he’s also very…Southern, American Southern. It’s a fact he certainly doesn’t try to hide or change as he rattles off his own specific brand of Spanish that he calls “Gringo Redneck Spanish.” He gives us a “scientific” tour of a lake in Peru, which he dubs “Gatorade Lagoon,” claiming it’s where the Electric Blue flavor of Gatorade comes from. (How “electric” is a flavor, we may never know. But I digress.)
His uniquely accented Spanish is as fascinating as it is hilarious.
If you’re getting a little hot under the collar, thinking that I’m making fun of a man who is doing his best to speak a foreign language, there is one more thing to tell you—he started it. It turns out it’s so hilarious because it’s a practiced bit he does for the entertainment of the masses. Because sometimes exaggerating stereotypes about yourself is fun.
In real life, Quarterman describes himself as “a gringo who is in love with Latin America.” With that love, he drove from the states to Argentina then returned to Mexico to settle down and live his dream. You can hear him speaking Spanish without the deep American Southern accent in this video, where he describes why he chose Mexico as the place he wants to live and be.
As Quarterman would say, “Adios, mis amigers!”
