Bilingual crap

As we enter a more globalized world, we should learn to expect certain things (one being, I would think, that the globe would already be global as it were, but whatev). Outsourcing jobs, international businesses, a mingling of cultures and technology, all are aspects of life that will probably be tweaked as the world becomes one.

A side effect that I wasn’t anticipating was Spanish spam in my inbox.

Spam. Got to love that stuff. I never knew there were so many thousands of Kenyan bank ministry officials waiting to give me money, so many ways to enhance my “libido,” so many loans I qualified for, etc.

And now I get bogus offers for shady services in languages in which I’m not fluent. Perhaps it’s the worlds way of calling me an ignorant, unilingual bum cover. “Get on the ball, you! Learn you some Espanish.”

I do admit the Spanish spam is much more colorful than the regular deluge of stock tips and offers for other men’s wives. Mirroring vibrant Latino newspapers, I suppose it’s no surprise that spam is the same.

What I don’t get are the people who propagate this stuff. Obviously, this form of marketing works—sort of like those websites advertise in banners that say “Whatever you do, don’t click this button!!!” Sure enough, you click it and it takes you to some peddler, hawking a ware. All it takes is such and such of a percentage to keep it going. I assume spam works on the same principles—if they can snag a certain bit of business from the “Wow, I won an iPhone, I just click here!” then I guess it will continue. So long as there are people looking, it’s working.

But Spanish spam? I guess I’m as likely to speak it as anybody.

Just you wait, you’ll get some soon enough, I’d imagine.

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