Spanish

by Jason Preston on February 10, 2006

I spent something like six academic years studying and learning to hate speaking Spanish. Something about the way classes are structured just made me more and more tired of the language instead of making me excited about it in any way.

Which is how I learned to hate what will probably become (well, it already is) one of the most useful languages in California.

I’ve been away long enough that I forgot how much Spanish really penetrates southern California culture. On Saturday, I went to Disneyland, and noticed that while I was gone they had replaced almost all of the signs in the ride “Pirates of the Caribbean” with spanish versions. Notices warned that things were “explosivo,” and so on.

Just now I turned on PBS and watched as one of the sesame street muppets taught kids about what a “libro” was.

This all brings up a very interesting question: what forces really drive language in a region?  English may be the official language in the United States, sure, but who in LA hasn’t walked into a store where virtually everything was in Spanish. Should we be expecting a time when people who move to LA are expected to learn Spanish instead of English?

If the culture is driven by sheer majority, then it may not be too long before Spanish becomes the language of choice. But it seems like there are other reasons for language consistency.

Even on an international level, consistency in language makes everything from business to political relations easier. It smooths economic transactions, reduces conflict, and builds ties between people and nations. Domestically, it makes even more sense.

Despite the “age of globalization” that we live in, a sense of national solidarity or (and why is this a bad word now?) patriotism is good and healthy for any state. Fragmenting a portion of the country by language is probably not a good idea.

Officially, of course, no portion of the US is likely to declare another language in its boundaries. But unofficially? It’s another story. Is the move towards spanish in some parts of the US going to hurt the country overall?

Thoughts, if you have them, to the comments, please.

  • John Androsavich

    As I see it, the progression towards spanish dialect in the United States is a healthy transition. The US has been seen as a “land of opportunity” for almost its entire history. In relativity, this still hasnt changed–making a couple bucks an hour as a migrant field worker is a hell of alot better than working in textile, automobile, and other industrial gravesites south of the Rio Grande. If we are about to start complaining about the amount of “Mexicans” (even though there is more than one Latin country!) then we should maybe look at the cause for such migrations. Industrialized nations have been oppressing third world countries for centuries, it certainly isnt new. Economically, it makes sense, and anyone part of the Heritage Foundation think tank will defend this. But, you cannot expect people to live under terrible living conditions without looking for an out.

    Anyways, moving past the reasons for the migrations, ever since the mass migrations of the 1800s, we have been essentially isolated from cultural change after the homogenization process of the industrial revolution. The Germans and Italians who moved to America seeking economic opportunites did not learn English for the hell of it. In fact, one could argue that they held onto their culture for dear life until (once again) economic factors (such as trading with the large irish and english populations) forced them to change. So why is it that economic factors arent FORCING latin american migrants to change? A plethora of reasons could be argued, but the fact of the matter is that boundaries and countries are pieces of fiction. They are transient, and they constantly change. I think it is better to just enjoy the fact that we are growing more diverse as a people. Europe for instance has a different language every 500 miles(? i appologize for not knowing the average size in miles of western european countries) or so. I hope to see public education begin to teach regularly BOTH english and spanish. We grew up with 12 years of english classes, maybe its time for 12 years of spanish class also. It certainly wouldnt hurt, right?

  • Jason

    The point isn’t the massive migration, though, it’s the nature of getting to a new place. Just because there’s a new language in almost every European country doesn’t mean that the US shoudl adopt a multi-linguage attitude towards its own borders.

    In fact, it’s probably a good argument against the idea, since (as a mass generalization) Western Europe uses “the international language” of English to facilitate trade, tourism, and politics. But on an individual level, they all protect their unique languages within the borders of the country, suggesting that language integrity within a country is something they value (and by comparison so should we).

    While you’re right that it wouldn’t really hurt us to learn Spanish, I think teaching it on the same level as English in the US is silly, especially since there are so many other languages in the world that can be learned and used as a second, third, fourteenth language. And then also, there are the economic reasons we’ve both mentioned.

  • John Androsavich

    Another interesting point that i forgot to mention is that after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848), nearly half of Mexico was lost to the United States, including parts of the modern-day states of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming, and the whole of California, Nevada, and Utah; subsequently, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans became Americans literally overnight.

    These are the regions which today are the most highly populated and, in turn, most popular spanish speaking states. Interestingly New Mexico considers BOTH spanish and english official languages. Viva New Mexico!

    Oh yeh…one more point…all of Europe is being faced with the influx of Turks and other Muslims, which is causing the same social strains as the influx of peoples from Latin America. This isnt that relevant, but it was an interesting observation from my travels.
    In other news,
    Sites looking good Jason…Hope all is well

  • Jason

    Thanks man, everything is basically good here.

    I figure that the mix of cultures is something that everyone talks about as a good thing, despite the fact that it’s extremely difficult and often creates a lot of localized tension, becuase the world is still basically not a mix of cultures (yet).