Is it Pressure or Embarrasment? Both? Neither?
Currently with the population becoming more Hispanic, English-speaking citizens (white, black & asian) are learning spanish. But the descendants of spanish-speaking families either are speaking "Spanglish" or have decided to reject spanish and speak english only. So pretty soon all of "us" will be speaking spanish and all of "them" will be speaking english haha. I love spanish and think it's a beautiful language. I don't see why anyone born speaking spanish would ever want to reject it. It's a part of who you are and like I mentioned, it's beautiful. My husband is from El Salvador and we are raising our children speaking spanish only as much as possible in our home and when they are school age, they will learn english. It makes me sad to think people are losing touch with who they are. Having a foreign culture and language is exotic and refreshing. If you have that guard it and be proud! "Blending in" isn't worth it! So this brings me to my next question. Do you think "english" society is putting too much pressure on foreigners to speak english or is this simply descendants rejecting who they are because they see it as a set-back? Both?
I really appreciate everyone's posts! But my question is still unanswered! Is society putting too much pressure on speaking english? Or do hispanic descendants feel it's a set back? Or a mix of both?
Most jobs do prefer a bilingual employee in Texas. (English/Spanish speaking)
7 Answers
I agree with Guillermo. We speak Spanish at home. My kid has done a great job picking up very good English at school, from TV, and yakking away with his buddies at school.
Every now and them him and I speak in English for a while, and I make corrections, just as I correct him when his Spanish fails. I am confident that he will grow up to be fully fluent on both languages, without a particularly great effort.
Our kids are not allowed to speak English at home, unless they have friends, but you are right, I see the same as you in the area I live. Not only with Spanish speakers. The same happens with people from India, for example. I think they believe they are more "american" that way. I guess they feel more integrated. They don't realize that they are not helping their kids making them loose the language.
Ron, I do not agree with you. Sadly, in England''s past days of colonialism, (which thankfully are over'!) English people went to conquer new lands and establish English as the predominant language óf that country and they did not speak the language of the country they lived in they expected native people of that land to learn to speak English.
This is not unlike the behaviour of many Expats in such countries as Spain who go to live out there and make little effort to speak the language of the country in which they are living or to integrate with the natives of that country. How do I know you ask?
Well, while on Holiday in Pineda de Mar, near Barcelona, I spoke, in Spanish with a Spanish native girl who used to hire out the beach equipment and she told me that these people were resented by many native people because of their unwillingness to learn to speak their Spanish language ie the language of the country in which they were living. It is no good for USA or British citizens to have one rule for other people and another one for us
I think that we should respect the rights of a different people group to speak their native language provided that they also make an effort to speak the language of the country in which they are living but that goes for all people British people and USA citizens alike!
I think it is good that you are teaching your children to speak Spanish at home, but you are doing them a great dis-service by not teaching them to speak English as well. To wait until they are in school before they learn English makes no sense to me. It will be much harder for them to lean English then. If you are only going to teach them one language then it should be the language of the place you live - America.
Just as an aside to this debate: my mother only spoke Polish when she first arrived at school. She was born here and my grandparents both spoke only Polish for years with a smattering of broken English.
When my mother regales me with the story of showing up at school and that poor little six year old thinking everyone speaks English except her. I pointed out to her that the only kids communicating in the class were the Irish immigrant kids.
My mother said one day she raised her hand, stood up and answered a question in perfect English. She maintains she was completely unaware that she had learned the language. This event took place three months after school started.
On the other hand, my mother married 'out': I am part Irish. My mother never spoke to me in Polish so I understand very little. I was never taught under the guise of not being disrespectful to my father. I have a Polish/Italian friend who asked me, "Do you...?" I didn't even need him to finish the sentence and responded, "No, for the same reason as you." We both regret we were not raised in another language.
My grandmother eventually learned English so well she refused to allow anyone, except a select few (read my grandfather), speak to her in Polish. She was able to read The New York Times from front to back with complete ease.
No insulting remarks about my grandmother, under the cover of jokes. Thanks.
I am attending Spanish IV at a local Community College. What surprised me was all the young english speaking Latinos (raised in America) in the class. At first I couldn't figure it out. Based on what you have said I would say their parents or other relatives are asking them to keep up on their Spanish?
I think it is good that you are teaching your children to speak Spanish at home, but you are doing them a great dis-service by not teaching them to speak English as well. To wait until they are in school before they learn English makes no sense to me. It will be much harder for them to lean English then. If you are only going to teach them one language then it should be the language of the place you live - America .
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They will learn English. No way to prevent that if they live here.
When we came to America in 2002, my kids were 6 and 11 years old. My older already knew some English from elementary school in Argentina. The little one only knew some colors and the numbers from 1 to 10.
By now, both of them speak English and Spanish with no accent in either language. They have more trouble with the Spanish actually, because they only speak it a home ant they don't have a rich vocabulary as they have in English. We encourage them to read Spanish books. That's the only way they will learn the words we don't use in every day's speech.
