Dominicans who like to sound illustrious

Why is it that most Dominicans want to sound more educated than they really are? Hearing some of these people express themselves on tv, you would think they graduated from the University of Salamanca, but it is such an attempt to sound important and proper that makes it so humorous. I love to watch Dominican news on public tv here in Miami.

It goes something like this... "Queridos y estimadisimos televidentes ETAMOS TRANMITIENDOS desde la sede mundial de esa honorable y venerable institucion que es el canal 17. Aqui desde nuestra QUISQUELLAS, esa joya caribena...asiento de la cultura Iberoamericana desde esta gran isla donde nuestro descubridor y padre Cristobal Colon quiso morir feliz y CONTENTOS... By this time I'm roaring with laughter, does everyone speak like that in the DR, or is it just the uneducated wealthy few who want to impress others? That stuff don't fly outside of the DR.

P.S- What's the deal with all the S's?

The people that work on television in the Dominican Republic speak a good spanish. The thing is that these Dominicans that you see on TV in Miami are amateur people who get a space in the Public access cable. Most of the times, these people only want to be in TV for fun or because they want to show their creativities, but it doesn't mean that they are professional.

I really think that not only Dominicans use the kind of language that make you laugh. Several times, I have watched people from other countries use the same kind of language (with different alteretion, depending from what country they are from).

I Hope that you continue having fun of the way other people speak.

I got quite a laugh outta that! Come on! A campesino from Mexico, Guatemala or Ecuador makes the same attempts to correct what he or she perceives to be their lack of education.
The language of the Caribbean (Spanish, that is) is generally accepted to be with out "s". Just a fact of linguistic life, my friend. Dezi Arnez made a fortune out of that! Jose Jimenez and Paul Rodriguez(??) have made careers as stand up comics based on the nuances of their hispanic backgrounds.
Excellent Spanish is spoken in Bogota and Cali, perhaps the nicest to my ears. But it doesn't make it "better" or worse.
My father, guatemalan to the core, looked at me with distain when I unloaded some of my dominican-style Spanish on him: "you sound like a damned Cuban!" was his comment. So much for parental approval of my linguistic skills!! But what the heck, everyone I talk to or lecture to at the university understands me, with or without "s"

In fact, the Dominican population decided our late president was a homosexual, based solely on the fact that he spoke very correctly, and properly placed his "s" in all the right places!! And, he used big words correctly!!

And, while I can agree with you on the fact that people trying to presume to intellectual prowess, without the substance, are hilarious, I can't see it being necessary to place them in ridicule. Go easy on them. At least they are trying...
HB

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Which late President are you talking about? Jacobo or Guzman, the rest are still alive aren't they? Leonel is an ex-president.

Guys, if you watch the news (Noti5) in canal5 Telemicro, on national dominican TV, the journalists are using a very correct carribean-spanish. Of course, they are well trained, and most of the others who don't get to have this training are trying hard to put S where they can, mostly at the wrong place.
But then, spanish, just like english, french or portuguese, has changed a lot in the american hemisphere... Just watch TVE, the spanish tv from Spain, and it almost seems like another language, it's the same difference between us english and british english, Quebec's french and France's french, Portugal and Brazil...
I guess the dominican way of speaking is just part of the culture, and we'll have to go with the flow and accept it... For sure it would be strange to ear Dan Rather trying to speak like the Queen of England !
But you guys are right about that : it is a "macho-thing" down here to speak like a campesino or a tigre from the barrios...

Addressed to us permanent Gringo residents & to Dominicans in foreign countries:
What do you estimate the actual literacy rate in Spanish, of course, is in the DR? "Literacy" being defined [by me] as being able to read 4 paragraphs from LISTIN DIARIO [anything but the sports pages], then being able to explain, or paraphrase, what ha been read. Opinions?

From what I know, people are considered literate if they can sign their name for official government statistics. When I worked in Sosua we offered solar energy services to rural families and probably 10% of the clients signed the contract with an X. It was mostly with people over 40 years old. Half of the employees didn't graduate from High School and were attending night school in Sosua. They had to pay the teacher off to get a seat for the pruebas nationales and from what I hear, a chivo will get you a passing grade any time. This makes it really difficult to develop a solid education system. It is a totaly different situation in the larger urban areas and the quality of education is much better. Only a half day of school is also another draw back for the system in the DR.

I also work for the Board of Education in NYC and some 25% of the Dominican students come into the school system in the US not able to read and write Spanish. These are high school aged students here in the US and only made it to 3-5 grade in the DR. Usually if the student made it to at least the seventh grade in the DR they were able to get the work done and eventually learn how to read and write in English within four years. Unfortuately the school system is not dealing appropriately with these illiterate students and almost all eventually drop out and are never able to pass the regents tests needed for graduation.