On a worldwide scale, Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world today. In fact, Spanish is spoken in areas of the world that people may have never thought of, such as the Philippines. Focusing on Southern California, Spanish-speaking immigrants have increased the use of Spanish language in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, Orange County inhabits approximately 770, 513 Spanish speakers in Southern California, compared to about 3, 948 Spanish speakers in Kent County, Rhode Island in 2016 (“Language Spoken at Home”). Comparing the West Coast from the East Coast, Spanish speakers retain their language despite the population gap between two separate sites of the U.S. Yet, the integration of Spanish …show more content…
While most schools teach Spanish to its students, the language is also commonly spoken by young generation speakers. However, there are linguistic constraints due to the social environment. When conversing with friends (refer to Figure 3), Areli Martinez states that “[their] default language is to speak in English with some Spanish thrown in here and there,” but “[with her] family [she needs] to speak Spanish” because “[m]ost of them mainly rely on Spanish as their primary language” (Martinez). Therefore, code-switching is popular amongst young age groups. As a Mexican immigrant, Martinez speaks Spanglish, the combination of Spanish and English, to establish a local norm with her friends in the U.S . By speaking like this, young Mexican immigrants conform to a new a identity, known as Chicano. On another note, Martinez speaks fluent Spanish with her parents because they are non-English speakers. Although her parents do not speak English fluently, they may understand some English terms as they are exposed to the English language and conform to the American culture and society. Referring to the email (see Figure 3), Martinez also illuminates that the Spanish language in Southern California is “similar to Mexico...since we do live in a country where English is a primary language and Southern California being really close to Mexico has an effect on that” (Martinez). Taking this into account, there is evidence that Spanish is not only spoken in the U.S., but generally accepted as well due to its close proximity to Mexico. Although immigrants may experience backlash from U.S. citizens, Spanish can be seen in public places like restaurants, shopping centers, and museums. Since California, a former part of Mexico, has cultural and historical influences, the U.S. is a multiethnic country that transforms the languages of immigrants. In that case, the Spanish language is continuously evolving as people
This can be seen by multiple youth interviews through the documentary. An excellent example is the teen girl who talked about her relationship with her mom and her use of Spanglish. When talking to each other, her mom would talk to her in Spanish and she would respond in English, which in turn made her mother angry because she was not using her traditional cultural language. Although having a traditional language is nice, being able to speak multiple languages can be very beneficial to young adults. In the Hispanic culture today, it has become even more common for young adults to use spanglish. Like the B.E.T. star, many teenagers today intertwine English into their Spanish speaking homes so it can help to better their families’ English skills if they are not so great. By the interviews we can conclude that teenagers and young adults are eager and excited to implement the idea of making television shows that include actors using Spanish just like they do in their everyday life. In some cultures, this can be offensive as well because they are changing their ways to try to fit into society better. The documentary is full of evidence that supports this conclusion as each of them tell stories about how they consume culture from English and Spanish networks. With shows available in different languages it allows people from
In his essay, Rodriguez, a Mexican, reasons that when he is learning the new language, English, he faces the difficulty to balance his own native customs with the new culture he’s absorbing, causing him to slowly forget his own Mexican traditions. Since Rodriguez and his family now live in the United States, he decided that he should
The article shows her ideas with a specific focus on the Latino community in English-language country. The writer said “After my first set of lessons, I could function in the present tense. Hola, Paco. De que color es tu cuaderno? El mío es azul”. (Barrientos, Tanya p.64). This is evidence throughout the article that she said such as this sentence and writes some words in Spanish that she don’t know. The writer was born in a Latin American country, and feels like a Latina (the brown-skin) even if she was raised in the United States and does not speak Spanish anymore. In addition, this article also serves as inspiration for people with different backgrounds that suffer from the same problem, helping all the people that face the same problem. I’m also have same experience. I’m growing up in Shandong province, but born in Guangdong province. It is so far from Guangdong to Shandong. And China is an old country, the culture and habit is not similar from place to place. If there are a few mountains between two cities, the language is total different. So every time when I come back to my hometown, the citizen, especially my grandparents, which growing up in tradition, will call me “yuasangia”, which like the writer’s struggles in American. However, the different is that this noun just for others province people who live in or travel to my hometown. Every time when I say my hometown language
When people in todays society code-switch, we enhance our character and overall roundness to ourselves. There are instances where people code-switch to communicate with others in a different language, or we change our tone with certain groups of people. Speaking multiple languages in a household, can lead to a lot of code-switching because you can have that one relative who can’t speak english, so you become a “translator” to help them with daily tasks. Even though code-switching can happen with different languages, the most common code-switching is used when speaking to different groups of people. Talking to an adult would have a different type of tone, rather than speaking to one of your friends. Code-switching is used to help strengthen
While Anzaldúa makes great points about the struggles of a Chicana women in America, her arguments imply that Mexican people are the only people that have to adapt to American culture. While Mexican people should feel free to express their cultures freely, language is a much more complex issue; it is not simply solved by not accommodating to English speakers. English speakers must strive to embrace other cultures and languages, and understand that they do not necessarily have to speak that language to accept
Language is an important value for the nationalistic identity of a nation. Hispanic culture is the way of life of people from Latin America and Spain, and their main identifying factor is the fact that they speak Spanish as their main language. Therefore, Hispanics are not necessarily Spaniards but other groups like Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans who speak Spanish are also part of this group (Shaw and Dennison 207). American culture on the other hand is mainly comprised of the people who speak English as their main dialect. Therefore, the Spaniards have Spanish as their native language while the Americans use Englis...
A large number of people in the Hispanic community whether Hispanics are not able to get the English literacy skills that they need not because they want to keep born in Latin America or the United States, speak Spanish primarily. This is basically because in present day time, Hispanics are more likely to pass Spanish to their kids now than they have done in the past. (Ortiz, P.149) This is seen as a social problem, especially because of the fact that there is an increasing demand that English should only be taught in public school and it should also be spoken within the Spanish community. Even though Hispanics do speak a lot of Spanish most of the time, they still do learn English also, especially the young. But, because of the large flow of immigrants, the use of Spanish is used more often because they are constantly encountering immigrants who speak no English. (Ortiz, P. 150) Before hand there has been said to have been lower achievements when Hispanics make frequent use of the Spanish la...
Another struggle for identity with Latinos is their struggle with the Spanish and English languages. While some Latinos may speak Spanish in their homes, the language may not be conversationally used in their schools. Some Lat...
First, the speakers of this language often use gestures in their conversations with others (USRA, 2010). It is a weakness because not many people are familiar or comfortable with the pattern and, therefore, many people find it difficult to communicate with Hispanic Americans. Secondly, the normal range of their voice pitch is normally narrow, and many usually mistake this for shyness. The pattern of this language always makes the Hispanic Americans believe that others like European Americans are arrogant because they speak loudly, and their voice pitch is not as narrow as the Hispanic Americans. The pattern of communication has made this particular group of people believe that others especially the European Americans are yelling at them and it often make them not comfortable in their conversation with other people who are not Hispanic Americans.
Many people immigrate to the United States from different countries to begin a better life. Once in the American territory, the first step for success is to learn the English language. Richard Rodriguez, the writer of "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" describes the language decisions he faced as a child: "Outside the house was public society; inside the house was private" (16). The English language is the primary language in the United States, and it must be learned to be able to communicate with the public world. The language that we speak at home is considered to be private because it is only used in the presence of the people we feel comfortable with, our family. Families immigrate to the United States from Mexico to find and give their children a better opportunity to succeed. The children of immigrants who have been raised or born in the United States were able to adapt much faster to the English language. The Spanish language, in the case of Mexicans, is part of our origin that most of us inherit from our ancestors although in the United States many, including me, seem to add a new language, which gives us better opportunities.
The Hispanic community represents many nationalities and ethnicities, including Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, 15 Central and South American countries, Spain, and the Dominican Republic (Cattan, 1993). Hispanic group are well known in the workforce, politics, education, social economic and religion. The Spanish culture influences a variety of areas such as music, food, language. Most languages are rooted in Latin. It is always good to learn about other cultures if we expect the same consideration when we visit other countries. Differences are what make life interesting. Majority of the United States is built on immigration, which has made this country the most diverse. And the Hispanic group contributes to that diversity.
Crawford, James. “A nation divided by one language.” Guardian.co.uk. 8 Mar 2001. Web. 11 October 2014
English is common in business settings and by US retirees living in Guanajuato in Chiapas. About 1.2% of people do not speak Spanish at all, and around 7.1% of the people are monolingual or speak several indigenous languages.
There is some linguistic variation across Mexico, with the Spanish spoken in the state of Oaxaca and the Yucatan peninsula is vastly different from the Spanish in cities like Tijuana in the north
Even though the majority of Spanish speakers in California are of Mexican origin there are also many more races that also speak Spanish. Spanish speakers vary from their origins but there is a great majority of them in California which helped me find another native Spanish speaker from another region with ease. I am fluent in Spanish which helped me translate the phrases and help my volunteers whenever they had different phrasing from one another and with translation of words they might not be familiar with. I first encountered subject A when I moved into my new apartment and found out he was my roommate.