Before You Read: Scanning for Main Ideas

Take two minutes and skim the following selection. Then look at the following list of ideas. Choose the ideas that are discussed in the reading. Then read the passage all the way through.

Read

¡Oye! Do You Speak Spanglish?

The cover of this month's Latina magazine shows a tanned model in a bustier. The headline reads "Belleza from head to toe." The magazine's Web site includes topics such as "Mujeres on the Move," "Welcome to la jungla," and "For your ojos only." (The last two phrases adapted from the English phrases Welcome to the jungle and For your eyes only.) Targeted at young women born in Spanish-dominant households but living in an English-dominant United States, Latina sums up the Spanglish phenomenon in just one page. Spanglish is many things, and therefore hard to capture with a simple definition. At the most basic level, it is a "language" which is a hybrid of English and Spanish. The hybridization occurs in a variety of ways. It can be a mix of the two languages in a single sentence or conversation, as seen in the quotes from Latina magazine. It can be the outright adoption of English terms, such as e-mail, marketing, or sexy. It can be the fusion of Spanish grammatical structure with English roots (this happens especially with verbs), for instance, tipear for type (Spanish would be escribir a máquina) or likear for leak (the Spanish would be gotear). Finally, in many cases, English cognates are adopted for their English, not Spanish, meaning. For instance, carpeta is used to mean "carpet" when in actuality it means "folder" or "file"; remover is used to say "remove" when it in fact means "stir." In the Unites States, Spanglish is recognized as a relatively common form of communication, especially among first generation Americans of Spanish-speaking parents and Latinos living in Spanish-speaking areas of the U.S. Purists in Spain and Latin America, however, also use the term Spanglish to refer to the anglicisms that have crept into Spanish in those countries, especially in areas of technology, business, and teenage slang.

Many who use Spanglish recognize that it can be useful when the word in question doesn't have a good equivalent in one language or the other. For instance, while driving through the Central Valley of California in November, I heard a radio show host ask, "¿Y que van hacer ustedes este Thanksgiving?" (And what are you going to do this Thanksgiving?). Why say día acción de gracias when Thanksgiving slides so neatly off the tongue? Spanish can be similarly employed when English doesn't seem to do the trick. To say, "I can't stand living with my roommate. She has so many manias," is easier to say than "I can't stand living with my roommate. She has so many quirky and obsessive habits." For those who understand both English and Spanish, Spanglish is often employed as a shortcut, a linguistic allusion.

Problems arise when those who employ Spanglish can't functionally speak one language or the other, and this is where the critics come in. Critics of Spanglish, Latinos and Anglos alike, feel that the "language" limits its users. Many talk about the "bastardization" of both languages. Spanish purists feel that the Spanish language in the United States and abroad will not be able to recover from this corruption and are unable to recognize that language is a living, changing thing. Others worry that since English is the primary and often most functional language in the United States, those who opt for Spanglish over English are doing themselves a disservice, especially in the professional realm.

Another thing that irks Spanglish critics and linguistic purists alike is the variety of Spanglish out there. One has to ask, if Puerto Rican/Bronx Spanglish is different from Mexican/Phoenix Spanglish is different from Cuban/Miami Spanglish, can it really be considered a language? Can everyone who speaks it be mutually understood? Probably not, as each brand of Spanglish employs colloquialisms from an infinite variety of local Spanish and English usages. For them, the fact that Spanglish does not follow a consistent set of rules means that it cannot be classified as a language.

Supporters of Spanglish recognize that it represents the mélange of cultures that makes up the Latino identity in the United States. Spanglish, a way of speaking which straddles two languages, helps forge an identity for those whose identity bridges two or more cultures. Spanglish speakers complain that they are attacked on all sides: by English-speaking Americans who look down on them for not speaking pure English, and by native Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, etc. for selling out, for being disloyal to their cultural roots. This cultural conundrum would be hard for anyone to handle. Pocho Magazine, and its affiliate Web site, Pocho.com, have decided to approach the predicament with a bit of satire and humor. Pocho is a derogatory term used by Mexicans to describe their fellow Chicanos (Mexican-Americans). The term literally means "cut off," "faded," or "rotton." An editor's note remarks:

Supposedly not authentic enough to be a Mexican in Mexico OR the U.S., the "pocho" and "pocha" (his sister) are actually superior beings, able to straddle two worlds while enjoying the benefits of being bi-lingual, bi-cultural, and sometimes bi-ignorant.

Pocho.com's name and comments are very tongue-in-cheek, but they deftly point out the difficulties many Spanglish speakers in the U.S. face.

The critics and supporters may never be able to agree on the validity of Spanglish as a form of communication, but as the Latino population in the U.S. grows at an exponential rate, it is a topic that will definitely become prevalent in the coming years.


1	Choose the ideas that are discussed in the reading.
		A)	Examples of Spanglish
		B)	Descriptions of Spanglish
		C)	Examples of other language hybrids
		D)	Criticisms of Spanglish
		E)	Support for Spanglish
		F)	Use of Spanglish in the classroom

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