Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Spanglish
I'm in an environment where 95% of the high school students are hispanic (from a Spanish speaking background and culture). The whispers in the classroom and the teasing in the halls are mostly in Spanish here. Culturally, it's hard to get along if you don't know even a smidgeon of Spanish (knowing the bad words in Spanish is important so you know when to send kids to their dean ;).
So, I'm picking up an odd form of ghetto Spanglish here. Most of the kids have difficulty with some English nuances like the use of "have" and "got" and "isn't" versus "ain't", etc. But, what is most worrying about this is that I am now starting to pick up their speaking style both in and out of the classroom.
The other day I was at my Mom's house and said, "I don't got enough paint for my bedroom." My mother blinked a few times and repeated my statement just to make sure she heard me correctly. I denied that I would have ever said such a thing and added that she should "step off." Ahem.
I'm in an environment where 95% of the high school students are hispanic (from a Spanish speaking background and culture). The whispers in the classroom and the teasing in the halls are mostly in Spanish here. Culturally, it's hard to get along if you don't know even a smidgeon of Spanish (knowing the bad words in Spanish is important so you know when to send kids to their dean ;).
So, I'm picking up an odd form of ghetto Spanglish here. Most of the kids have difficulty with some English nuances like the use of "have" and "got" and "isn't" versus "ain't", etc. But, what is most worrying about this is that I am now starting to pick up their speaking style both in and out of the classroom.
The other day I was at my Mom's house and said, "I don't got enough paint for my bedroom." My mother blinked a few times and repeated my statement just to make sure she heard me correctly. I denied that I would have ever said such a thing and added that she should "step off." Ahem.
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