Ver este TED Talk sobre el Spanglish:
Spanglish is a Language Too! | Alondra Posada | TEDxYouth@UrsulineAcademy – YouTube
Write a reflection of approximately 200 words on ONE of the following topics:
OPTION 1: Where do you see Spanglish in your daily life and in your community? How and when is it used? Who is speaking it? What does it mean? Do you use it, too?
OPTION 2: What languages are blended in your community? What are some examples of these blended languages? Who, when, and where do you see the blending happening? Is it considered better or worse, easier or more convenient?
Powered by:
top
26 thoughts on “Midterm Paso I”
Michael Davis
Professor Laurie Lomask
SPN 105
Midterm Paso I
I learned so much from watching this video and didn’t realize that “Spanglish” was a thing or had a name attached. Throughout my life, I’ve had Puerto Rican friends who would use Spanglish when speaking to me. They would tell me, “We talk like this so you can understand the conversation.” But back then, we didn’t have a name for it. I currently work in New York City shelters, and as you know from the news, we have been getting thousands of migrants in the city. Most of them come from Venezuela. When they first arrived, they didn’t know any English at all. They would come to operations where I work and ask for toiletries in their language. I also didn’t understand but quickly understood what they were trying to say by pointing at items. After a few weeks, I noticed them saying the word “la ropa” and then “laundry” right after. I knew then that they were trying to wash clothes and needed laundry detergent, which the shelter provides. So now, when speaking with Venezuelans, I speak in English but use some Spanish words I know they will understand. Usually, it’s the same demands, so I speak Spanglish quite frequently.
Midterm Paso I
Ishia Noman
Midterm Paso I
In my daily life and in my community, I see Spanglish in many different situations. I often hear it in casual conversations between friends and strangers who speak both English and Spanish. As for who speaks Spanglish, it can be anyone who speaks both English and Spanish, although I often see it more in communities with a strong presence of Spanish speakers such as elmhurst. Spanglish is a mixture of English and Spanish used to communicate when the correct word cannot be found in one of the languages. In addition to everyday conversations, Spanglish has also found its way into popular culture, with music, movies, and television shows incorporating the language into their content. This has helped to bring Spanglish to a wider audience and has further cemented its place in the cultural landscape of many communities. As for who speaks Spanglish, it can be anyone who speaks both English and Spanish, although I often see it more in communities with a strong presence of Spanish speakers such as Elmhurst. Personally, I use Spanish on informal occasions, such as to say hello or say thank you. However, I don’t usually speak Spanglish on a regular basis, as I try to learn the language. In my community, I often see street vendors who are fluent in Spanglish to communicate with customers who speak both languages. I also hear Spanglish in restaurants and stores where bilingual people work.
Hip-hop, an artistic and cultural movement that began in the South Bronx, has contributed to the formation of Queens’ linguistic community. The genre honors linguistic diversity and cultural expression by incorporating elements of African American English, Spanish, and other languages spoken by New York City’s diverse communities. Hip-hop music has had a significant impact on Queens’ linguistic community by reflecting the borough’s linguistic diversity through its lyrics and rhymes.
Yanica Williams
Professor Laurie Lomask
SPN 105
03/10/23
In my community, there is a lot of Caribbean. I am from the Caribbean, Jamaica, to be exact. I’ve seen and heard many of my people, meaning I understand them. We speak English but also broken English which is considered Patwa. Their languages blend with our meaning in other countries like Trinidad and Guyana. We might sound different, but we understand each other. When you go to a Caribbean party in the neighborhood, everybody listens to the same music, making everyone comfortable enough to enjoy themself. Guyanes would say the opposite thing as Jamaican, for example. We say rice and peas while they say peas and rice, which makes people consider which is the right one, but others call it rice and peas. In my community, languages are never tricky because even the Haitian who speaks more than one language will understand, but it can be difficult for the ones who don’t speak English. This is very rare because people who have been here a long time know how to speak English. Haitians are saying words like mesi, which means thank you. I hear it often, so I try to remember it if I ever have to use it. I know they speak Spanish also, but they mostly use it when talking to each other.
This is a image of Canarsie Pier the biggest park in canarsie, Before canarsie was a neighborhood with a bunch of stores and restaurant and all the Caribbean people it was known to be a fishing community. Canarsie peir is a big park where you are allow to fish, host events, have dates, play basketball. With this park in the Community it gives young teenagers something to do also when it’s summer time people go out and fish so that lives on and the park would be pack with a bunch of different activities going on.
New Respond:
I would love to say that Caribbean people are known for partying a lot. Every year we Celebrate a thing class carnival where all the Caribbean people put on their costume and go out on the road and represent their country. You would find artist from trinidad and Jamaica, It’s always a big crowd you can barely walk and a bunch of noise. We celebrate it every year I want to say it is like a tradition thing that lives on.
My community is populated with west Indian people, Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Guyanese, Grenadians, and Haitians. Who speaks broken English and creole; about 40 percent of my community is Haitian. They speak creole, which is broken- French. They often use words like bonjour, which means good morning. I love hearing Haitian talk because they have a lovely accent. I have a few Haitians living in my building. I often see them in the lobby, and they say, koman ou ye, which means how are you and I usually respond mwen ok, which means I am ok. The Jamaicans speak Patwa, but it’s similar to the other Caribbean islands, known as broken English. Guyana and Trinidad have a few things in common, like their culture. They eat the same type of food, dress the same, and speak almost the same way. When Jamaicans talk to each other, they use words like wa gwan, which means how are you? I usually hear that often and sometimes say it among my Jamaican friends. I love speaking different slang and languages.
On Labor Day, a Caribbean event usually occurs in Brooklyn on the eastern parkway. At this event, people from all over the Caribbean come out to represent their country and culture using their country flag and costume, mostly from Guyana, Trinidad, Jamaica, Haiti, Grenada, St Vincent, and many more. This event allows you to understand and learn what it means to be from the Caribbean.
I have to walk my dog three times a day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once at night. During the summer months there are these women that sit on a blue bench across the street from my building. My dog loves people and these women love dogs so naturally we became acquainted with one another. All of them have proven extremely capable of code switching between English and Spanish. From what I’ve gathered in normal conversation the use of either language in casual conversation is about 50/50. However, when they talk about something they’re passionate about, I’ve noticed they use Spanish words a little more frequently. From what Alondra Posada stated in her TED talk, and from what we’ve learned in class, a person’s ability to speak Spanglish means that their understanding of both English and Spanish is at an extremely high level. I only understand a mild amount of Spanish words, and speak even less, but one word I do find myself using is “Bodega”, simply because of how many people around me use this word for the corner Deli. People who aren’t of Spanish descent use it as well.
SHAIMA ALHIRDI
Professor Laurie Lomask
SPN 105 (Midterm Paso I)
In the community where I live there are Spanish speakers. I see Spanglish speakers in supermarkets, parks, a conversation between two people on the buys and even restaurants. Anyone who speaks both English and Spanish uses this hybrid language “Spanglish” by blending the words of the two languages together for example my high school friend speaks both languages. She learned Spanish at home and English in the school, sometimes she switch coding between the languages in the same sentence in a single conversation. Like any other bilingual speaker Spanglish is use to covey thought and explain and express a specific idea. For instance as a bilingual person I tend to switch between Arabic and English when speaking with my friends. Sometimes I feel more comfortable speaking about a specific topic in a specific language. Due to the fact that the vocabulary needed for that subject is specific and is not available in the other language.
The Puerto Rican parade is a celebration that occurs annually that celebrates the culture and heritage of Puerto Ricans. The parade is full of energy and colorful event, it contains musical performances, dances, and arts. It serves as both a cultural celebration and a social and political event. The parade address issues that impact the Puerto Rican community in the US and brings awareness to
society. For example, the parade has addressed issues such as immigration policies and Puerto Rican independence.
I live in a community where the people come from countries that were a part of Soviet Union, and most of the older generation blend English with Russian, while the younger generation fully speak English with no blending. In this small community, you can easily notice that most of the people unconsciously jump between languages. They choose one language to speak mostly, but some details they name in other language. It is not because they do not know a translation for that word, but because they want to articulate themselves especially that way. Also, sometimes there is no word-to-word translation for some specific words, and when we translate, it may not have the same definition or people around us may not understand, so to deliver a zest on top of the meaning we change a language when needed.
Regarding Spanglish, I work part-time with Spanish speaking people, and I practice my Spanish with them. After a while, I noticed some Spanish words in my vocabulary. I say “Sí”, “Gracias”, “perdón”, “permiso” and some other words during conversation with not Spanish speaking people, and suddenly fix myself and say translation in English or Russian. Thus, I came to conclusion that people use Spanglish not for a lack of English, but because they master both languages, and sometimes automatically they switch between languages. I believe it does not have any disadvantages, conversely, it may help monolingual listeners to understand when a speaker says some words in a language that the audience is familiar with.
Thera are five vaves of Russian immigration to the US and today, more than 3 million Russians live in America right now. Most of them live in Brooklyn New York and Brighton Beach is considered to be the biggest Russian neighborhood in the US. Here all Russians live together as a friendly community. They have own press in Russian namely “Komsomolskaya Pravda” “Novoe Russkoe Slovo”, there are a lot of Russian cafe, restaurants and shops, theaters and a Russian school. So Russians turned Brighton Beach into a part of Russia to overcome homesickness in a foreign country.
Also there is a Museum of Russian Art in Jersey City which was open in 1980. This is a pride of Russians and the joy of other nations who have such an excellent opportunity to get to know Russian culture closely.
Mariah Rivera
Midterm Paso 1
Spanish is a language used all around the world, especially in my family. Spanish is how many of my family members communicate with each other. They have learned spanish from a young age, when they were growing up that was one of the only ways they could connect with their fellow family members. For instance, my mother spent a lot of her childhood in Puerto Rico with her grandmother who only spoke spanish. Additionally they use it to build connections within their community, our neighbors speak fluent spanish just like my family. Therefore the only contact we have with them is through this latin language. Spanish has a significant meaning to me and my family; it gives them a sense of being a part of something bigger than themselves and I want to experience that myself. Knowing this language allows them to connect with complete strangers. I have seen bonds being built with people that did not have anything in common just by using this language. I did not get the opportunity to grow up speaking Spanish, I always wanted to know what my family was saying to each other and to try to learn to speak it myself. Overtime i became familiar with certain words that were used frequently but learning Spanish has always been important to me. It is a part of who I am, I am Puerto rican and will eternally take pride in being a hispanic woman.
This the elementary school i went to as a child. Many events were held here, like charity events and my favorite Dance Fate. Which was an event that all the students from PS 13 participated in. Every grade was given a dance to perform for the community and our families. Everyone from the neighborhood came to watch, people of all ethnicities, Mexican, Puerto Rican, African American , Irish. This brought a lot of the neighbors closer to each other because they all had something to bond over. This event connected people with completely different backgrounds and brought them closer to unit my community. PS13 has been around since the 1900’s, everyone in my neighborhood went there for elementary school which benefited a lot of the students and families in my neighborhood because it allowed them to look out for one another, take care of each other on a deeper level than just being strangers.
I live and grow up in a community that uses “Siculish ”. Siculish is a hybrid language that is a mix of English and Sicilian, which is a different dialect of Italian. Sicily is a latin language known as the first “romance language”. My grandparents spoke this hybrid language from a very young age. Since my great grandparents immigrated from Sicily through Ellis Island. Ellis Island is a historical landmark where many different cultures immigrated through. Growing up in a household where my family spoke many blended sentences. Since I was a young child my Grandmother, which I call “Nonie” , would say “Bon jornu are you ready andare in chiesa”. Which means good morning, are you ready to go to church? My neighborhood and family still follow many traditions that were brought over from Sicily. Every Sunday we go to church which is the same church my great grandparents went to when they first came to New York City. Our Lady of Pompeii Church, which was known as the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Pompeii. It is located in the south village of Manhattan. Originally it was founded to help Italian-American immigrants who settled in Greenwich Village and the transition to America, especially in NYC. It is still a national Italian American Parish. When I go to church we all kiss and hug hello“Ciau Salutamu Assa binidica Sabbinidica” and goodbye “Ciau Nni videmu Salutamu A biatu”. My grandmother is part of the church and after church someone hosts dinner where Italian food is served. Since it’s on Sundays, many different pasta dishes are made. I feel this part of my life keeps my Sicilian/ Italian culture alive. I am very proud to be a third generation Sicilian American. Learning Sicilian either by talking, listening or taking part in my family’s culture is extremely important to me. It is part of who I am. I take pride in being part of the Latin Sicilian Italian Culture.
I see spanglish being used at my cousins house, since they grew up speaking English at school but also using English and a bit of Spanish at home at a very young age. My cousins grew up knowing more English than Spanish, since their parents came to the United States at a young age and learned English, which led to them also using spanglish. It’s usually just my uncle, aunt and my cousins using spanglish, while my uncle’s mother uses only Spanish. Spanglish is just when a person who knows both Spanish and English and uses both languages to speak, they mix up Spanish and English words into one sentence. I do use spanglish, but I mainly use spanglish at home with my sister, my parents know English but not perfectly, so I grew up talking to them speaking Spanish, but I never fully learned how pronounce and spell in Spanish, since it was only used in the house and basic things were said. My parents also used a bit of English at home to improve their Spanish, so that’s why I arew up speaking Spanglish at home, and use it more with my sister since we both dont fully feel comfortable with Spanish but we still dont want to forget Spanish.
I hear Spanglish daily and very different what I learn in class. I reside in Washington heights which has a rich Spanish history. Different races speak different Spanglish. My brother married a big Dominican family, who are determined to keep their heritage alive in America. There would be things that I repeat to other members of my community that I heard in my brothers home but the Puerto Rican members of my immediate community didn’t understand what I was saying. The interesting part about this was when I would repeat the same things in my bothers Dominican community they would totally understand me. That’s when I understood the different denominations of Spanish. Spanish is unique geometrically, so different communities all over the world have a very distinct way in which they communicate. People do this sometime for individuality. They will tweak things to fit them or because it’s simply an easier way to say the word. I reside in a very diverse community filled with different vibrations of Spanish. Spanglish”
Noah Ayala
SPN 105
Midterm Paso 1
I see Spanglish in my daily life when speaking to my parents and family members. I used to also see it when I was growing up in certain parts of the Bronx, as the community there was primarily Spanish. As a Puerto Rican, it was tradition in my family to know both languages to communicate with both sides of my family, the ones on the island and the ones that live here. It is used when my relatives want to add emphasis on a word with an impact that cannot usually be obtained when speaking English, and if something is hard to explain in Spanish then they will transition to English. My mother speaks it when talking to my grandmothers from time to time and use it occasionally when in public if they are discussing certain sensitive information just so that not everyone around them has to understand it. Spanglish is essentially a hybrid language combining words from both languages, especially Spanish speech that uses many English words and expressions. I use it sometimes when I also do not know how to express myself in Spanish when speaking to my Spanish cousins and need to alternate.
In my daily life I see Spanglish a lot at the Mexican restaurant I work at as it can only be used in instances when both speakers can understand the two languages at least somewhat. There are many people there from Latin America that don’t speak English or are trying to learn, so as I’m learning Spanish I can really see the merging of the languages as we try to understand each other and communicate. I see it in kind of reverse styles with New York natives and Latin American natives speaking their second language. Not always, but I notice how the New York native might speak Spanish and then code-switch to English if there is a word that is stronger in English or they can’t recall the Spanish word at the moment and the Latino person will be speaking in English and switch to Spanish because just because the word translates to the other language, there are slight discrepancies in the translation of a word or phrase that may only make sense in either Spanish or English or be closer to what the speaker means. However, it also just flows well and helps each person little by little if we are both learning each other’s language and I think it can be fun and playful to mix the two. A basic example is when someone asks “¿Cómo estás?” I’ll respond, “I’m good, Y tu?” or something like “can you darme some platos por favor?” and I feel like it’s a low pressure way to get used to speaking Spanish and try to connect with a person who is in a new place with a new language because I’ve been there and know how scary and exhausting it can be.
Spanish and English have mutually influenced each other so greatly especially in America where, according to the 2020 census, those that identify as Hispanic or Latino make up the second largest ethnic group at 18.9%. Considering we border Mexico and took a lot of from Mexico after the Mexican American War, were colonized by the Spanish, and even consider Cuba and Puerto Rico U.S. Territories, it makes sense that Spanish is also the most common second language in the United States. Spanglish is becoming more recognized lately as a distinct language and culture due to changes in how we view speaking multiple languages and code-switching. Years ago it was seen as a negative thing to speak more than one language because it was believed that you would not be fully proficient in either language and it would slow down your learning process, but now we obviously know that is not the case as it has be proven to increase cognitive abilities and has even been linked to delaying Alzheimer’s. With this we are able to see an emergence of a new culture that combines two different backgrounds into something new rather than fighting between two identities as the population of second-generation Latinos rapidly increase.
I see Spanglish being used in my son’s school and at work. Since I am dating someone who is Spanish, we’ve been together for 6 years and I hear it at his house, and we speak it around the house and in passing. There are many people in my family and around me that speak Spanish and we have a shorthand of many words which make up Spanglish.
Spanglish is used when we want to shorthand some words or phrases and jump in and out of English to Spanish and back to english. We may use Spanglish when there are words that are easier to just say in English than in Spanish.
My son goes to a catholic school with all Spanish speaking teachers, and they speak Spanglish for him to learn how to adapt to the language but in a way that a five-year-old can learn the language. At his dad’s house, his grandfather speaks Spanish but it’s faster Spanish because he is Dominican and the language sounds slightly different because of the speed and curtain words. When I’m at work, I have coworkers that speak Spanish, and we jump in and out of Spanish and English.
Gabin Moon
SPN 105
I was born and raised in Korea, where the predominant language is Korean, and Spanish was something that was far from my everyday reality. In East Asia, Spanish is not a commonly spoken language, and it wasn’t something I was exposed to. However, after I came to New York to study, I found myself hearing Spanish every day. One of my closest friends and my boyfriend are Mexican, which made it hard for me to detach myself from the language. Slowly but naturally, I began to pick up a few basic Spanish words, from the language of love to simple phrases like “te amo,” “claro,” and “donde esta?” Being in a place where Spanish speakers were the majority, I soon realized that it was a charming language that I wanted to learn more about. For my 21st birthday, I traveled to Mexico City and Guadalajara with my boyfriend. Later, this winter, I also traveled to Barcelona, where Spanish is spoken. However, I noticed that the Spanish spoken in each country had slight differences in accent and word choice. It was a fascinating experience to witness the same language being used in different ways, with distinct styles. This made me appreciate the versatility of the Spanish language even more.
I took this picture at the Museo Frida Kahlo, also known as the Blue House, in Mexico City. The building holds great historical significance as it was not only the birthplace of Kahlo, but also the home where she grew up, lived with her husband, Diego Rivera, for a number of years, and ultimately passed away in a room on the upper floor. In 1957, Rivera donated the home and all its contents to be turned into a museum in honor of Frida’s life and legacy. In the history of Mexican art, Frida is one of the most significant and powerful artists, making it even more meaningful for me to write about the history of Mexican art.
The long march of gentrification has gutted my community, stripping it of much of the vibrant multilingualism and culture that it had before. There were many instances in my childhood where we would interact using many languages mixed together, spanglish was one of the more popular styles of speech. But that is all in the past now. There is a new diaspora here now, and new communities and language mixes used by the now much more affluent multilinguals of the neighborhood. They are, and were, most often used when speaking amongst friends or to a lover, as is the example that I have here. When speaking to family, acquaintances or just generally on the street, they would generally just stick to one language, often non-english for family and english for everything else. In the case that I had it seemed like an old (young) lover’s quarrel, to use a turn of phrase. I only managed to actually write down one part of it so this will be incomplete, but anyway. I was out on a walk in prospect park, or more accurately sitting by the lakeside in prospect park, watching some turtles sunning themselves on a rock when I heard a couple (appeared to be a man and a woman) start arguing about whether the turtles were real or not. I only managed to capture a few lines from the woman’s perspective here, but they do offer some small interest linguistically, “¡Que la le arbo![x2] There’s no way! ¡Que la le arbo! See it’s moving!” Now this is my original transcription, which I include here in case anyone can make better sense of it than I can, but I think the spanish exclamations are probably something closer to “¡que la de arbo!” Which in this case was used as an interjection to halt her partner’s protests and make him pay more attention to the turtles at hand and her arguments, being essentially the equivalent of “there, by the tree!” or “look! By the tree!” though the grammar feels a bit off in both cases. Anyway, on to culture!
Now down the long road of neighborhood history. It’s kind of funny how the historic district has now become a much more rich neighborhood again after having gone through at least two major cycles of gentrification in its history. Brooklyn as a city has its starts in the early 1800s as one of the world’s first commuter suburbs, a mostly residential settlement off of a city where most residents commute to the city to work. Prospect park was spurred on in the mid 1800s by the construction of central park in manhattan and was partly intended to attract rich residents, a task it was greatly successful in, if the architecture is to be believed. Much of the architecture is some intermingled combination of Art Deco and the earlier Art Nouveau design, and many of the buildings do hail from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Please note, art deco was basically an entire style based on rich industrialists appropriating cultures with minimalist design strategies in an attempt to one up each other in their displays of wealth, that’s actually kind of why the earliest skyscrapers in new york were built. This was the first cycle of gentrification, where, it seems, much of the old communities that had been present before the time of the park and the late 1800s were displaced as the landscape was demolished and replaced with an array of similar homes for the rich. Starting around the turn of the century and greatly accelerating thereafter, the city and neighborhood entered a period of economic decline as rich people fled for the country, followed in the 40’s and 50’s by the middle class white population in the well documented phenomenon of white flight as more irish americans and african americans moved in. The 60’s and 70’s saw the start of a new wave of gentrification that continues to this day. My mother came here in around the early 90’s when the neighborhood was still very much in transition, and growing up, it was very much like experiencing the end of an era, seeing so many old businesses that had been there for years and years shutting down as rents increased, same with the people too, seeing so many of our neighbors and friends be forced to leave. I guess it’s the same thing as the end of the 19th century happening all over again, except this time the rich people can’t just demolish the old neighborhood to build a new one.
Anyway can you tell I love history?