Photo credit: JD Hancock
“If you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language.”
–Gloria Anzaldúa (Scholar of Chicano Cultural Theory)
“We don’t use Tex-Mex here.” —Those were the words that were uttered to me (and Sabrina) at one of the pre-school centers I was checking out for next fall. As the woman continued to tell me about their wonderful school and the taught curriculum I couldn’t stop thinking to myself, “How can she say that? She doesn’t even know me. What if I speak Tex-Mex? What does she even consider Tex-Mex?”
As I continue to look for language immersion schools in Austin I realize that the clientele is also important to me. I started to wonder and seriously consider this because if this lady felt the need to mention that they don’t speak Tex-Mex, without any inquiry from me as to the type of Spanish they teach, then that indicates to me that maybe it’s a common question?
I have been looking for Spanish immersion schools that also offer a third language such as French, but in addition share an open-minded philosophy about learning all kinds languages in general. I’m beginning to wonder if the kind of school I am looking for exists? Of course I want Sabrina to be as fluent in Spanish as she will be in English, but at what expense? I don’t want her growing up learning that other kinds of Spanish are wrong or bad. Why? Well because language, in my opinion, is tied to an individual’s identity AND if she is taught that Tex-Mex is wrong or bad, then she may see individuals (and there are many in Texas) as bad or even worse as inferior to those who speak a standard form of Spanish.
To put it simply I want her to learn in which context to use troca, camión (with Spanish accent), camion (with French accent), or truck and with whom! After all isn’t it better that she have 4 different ways rather than 3 in her repertoire of words for naming one single item? I think so!
Wow… misconceptions (prejudices?) about language are everywhere. I’d be curious to know what school this is…
Good luck in your search!
{Applause!} I’ve never understood the disdain some have for one dialect over another. Language is like ice cream – in my opinion, the more flavors to choose from the better!
Cheris-Ill send you an email
Tracy-whats amazing is that children know with whom to speak what language or dialect etc etc… language it totally contextualized in my opinion.
Reading this upset me that these prejudices still exist and that language, or it’s variations, are being used as a judgment tool.
I do hope none of our children are ever exposed to prejudice remarks due to their language, dialect or accent.
I hope you and Sabrina find the right school for your needs!
Thanks, Ana. We are still looking. This topic of language and how others perceive it certainly fascinates me…I plan on exploring it a little further.
Wow!!! This posting really hit home for me too.
When I was a little girl we were taught not to “talk Briar” (Briar is a regional word for ourselves, what most people call “Hillbillies”) and we were supposed to use “proper English” at school. As an adult I am glad to have had the opportunity to learn how to speak and write English in a way that I am understood by people anywhere in the world, and I use that every day in my job. But I do not share the disdain for words like “ain’t” which has been part of the English language for a very long time and surely qualify as a “real word”. It strikes me that the perception of a dialect gets all caught up in people’s prejudices about the socioeconomic group who speak it.
I know some people look down at “Tex-Mex” or “Spanglish” but for me it is just the evolution of language and culture. Ask my in-laws in Mexico, who have no particular desire to speak English or anything like it, and have never travelled anywhere English is spoken. They eat Nachos and Jotdogs, and say “parquear el carro” (along with a host of other Spanglish words). Yes, they know & understand “estacionar el coche.” They choose not to say that. For what reason? I don’t know, but I respect their choice, and I know that is how language evolves. All languages are always changing.
The key for me is that SOME bilingual people do not have a firm handle on one of their languages (the minority language) and this does cause difficulty for them when they try to communicate in it. However, this is because they did not get enough opportunities to completely learn the minority language, not because mixing is inevitable or unavoidable. Just from my own observation I really think this has a lot to do with education levels in general. Parents who are more educated are better able to arrange for their children to have continuing advanced-level inputs in the minority language as the kids grow older and the school system is pushing the majority language only. All I have to do is listen to my sister-in-law struggle to explain the difference between a carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore to her son, because she never got that far in school. She speaks only Spanish, but she just does not know how to say these things. There is a world of vocabulary in Spanish that my nephew is not hearing as he’s growing. My stepdaughter invents the word “chitear” because she is not hearing anyone in school saying the Spanish word for “cheating” and it is not something that happens much at home. My husband and I are intentional about encouraging “full-on” Spanish but not everyone is. It’s a real struggle because my stepkids’ mom actually speaks to them in incorrect English rather than in Spanish, and English is being pushed in the public schools.
When people look down at Tex-Mex I think that is what they are talking about. If a child doesn’t have somebody at home able or willing to keep the minority language advancing and growing, it withers. Unfortunately even in our own family, some think they need to push English with their children, not understanding how to raise them bilingual or how it would benefit them.
Maybe the teacher was trying to express that they do provide a model of Castilian or European Spanish to the children. I would agree those words are probably not going to be something kids would hear much on the radio or around town. But I would really question the wisdom of prohibiting “Tex-Mex” in the school entirely. Back home in Ohio my father went to Kindergarten in 1945 speaking no English. These people had been in the USA since the 1830′s continuing to speak a dialect of German (Plattdeutsch) which has almost disappeared in Germany itself today. When WWII was ending the community realized their feelings of pride and support about Hitler, based on their reading only German newspapers, had been wrong. They decided to push English with their children. When he started school my dad got his knuckles rapped with a ruler for every word of German a teacher heard — including on the playground. At home his mother would literally tell something to one of the older sisters and have them translate into English to the younger children. My father really lost his German. It was deliberately and very effectively wiped out in one generation along with most other aspects of a special, unique sub-culture of America. It makes me cringe when I hear someone tell a child “no eres mexicano, eres americano”. But I know it can be difficult for the adults to understand when they struggle with the prejudice against immigrants every day. We just have to keep working to let people know their children learn languages differently than adults, they CAN be bilingual and there are so many benefits.
Kudos to you Suzanne for teaching your daughter to respect ALL types of different peoples’ cultures!
Wow Beth! Thank you for the thoughtful response! I enjoyed hearing about your familys background and experiences with language.
If you really want to delude yourself, please continue to think that your language is so genuine and pure! The most bastardized language on the planet is Spanish. True genuine Spanish is best taught and learned as Castiano — This is the most beautiful, lyrical and colorful base for speaking this language. The Latin American language if one wants to call it that is a homogenized or I should say, is blended with colloquialisms and idioms from all sorts of countries — Salvadorian, Ecuadorian, Panamanian, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban — SPanish today is a mish mash language that doesnt sound anything today like the beautiful Spanish that my father spoke in the 1940 -1950′s . When we moved to California in the 1960′s even my Pop started speaking differently — There is nothing beautiful about the horrible language that I hear spoken in Los Angeles — A hideously sounding collection of pachuco street speak shaken and not stirred together with mal palabras and out and out ugly words. We font speak Tex Mex is right!! No one speaks any proper Spanish in the USA anymore. And just by the way – it is great to be bi-lingual but remember English is the language spoken in America. Screw multiculturalism and divisive diversity.
Castilliano