My Experience of Speaking Spanglish Essay Example

“Spanglish” is a form of language that uniquely combines both the English and Spanish language. As someone who is Latina, however experienced childhood in a predominantly English-speaking household, I never felt a part of the “Spanglish” culture due to my ignorance of Spanish. My dialect comprised broken English with words and phrases such as “ain’t” and “Come about that room.” As I got older, hanging around friends who spoke “Spanglish” I eventually picked up on the basics of the Spanish language. While my tongue has different variations of dialect, it’s often influenced by the setting, people, and topic of discussion; bringing about how individuals see me as a person.

Experiencing childhood on the south side of Chicago, where it's home to numerous Latinos and African-American families helped impact my dialect. The socioeconomic status of families on the south side distinguished varieties of slang and broken English where I, in the end, took up as the dialect being a norm. Living with my mother and five other siblings in public housing helped others outside of the south stigmatize my upbringing. People who lived in my neighborhood and attended the same school as I received some sort of government assistance and/or was of gang affiliation. Thus being said, in order to be protected you had to be of a threat towards another. Talking broken English was an indication of acknowledgment in my neighborhood where others can identify with your level of dialect. Those who spoke “proper English”, such as grammatically correct sentences were seen as an outsider and/or threat. The more I spoke broken English the more grammatically incorrect my dialect articulated during conversations with others.

Obtaining a job at Mikva Challenge, where the non-profit is all about giving youth a voice encourages me to speak up and speak out towards where I wish to see change. I’ve recently encountered an interaction with an individual who favors the Republican party. I steered clear of words I felt may disadvantage my argument such as “ain’t”, “can’t even”, and “finna”. I made sure to incorporate words I felt favored my argument such as “hypocrisy”, “salient”, and “Sycophant”. Though political topics are usually voiced strictly on the person's point of view, when spoken I want the opponent to view me as someone who’s passionate.