Culture and Language...

So here are some amusing and somewhat deep thoughts for today...

I stick out like a sore thumb here. There is absolutely no hiding the fact that I am totally a gringa of some seriously German/Non-Latina descent. I feel like my stubby brown ponytail is a little flag that hails the presence of a foreigner, and my slightly sunburned nose is like a little gringa-alert. In case someone STILL wasn't sure, all they would have to do is check out my outfit. See, my outfits are actually match and contain to glitter, sparkles, jewels sequins or feathers of any kind. It kills me how sparkly and feathery everthing is here right now. And as always, the colors I wear are pretty muted... bland compared to what they wear. And the vests and the boots. HAHA! I love it! It depresses me whenever someone askes me in English 'Wair ard jew fdum?' I always answer back in Spanish, but that is never a guarantee that they will continue in Spanish. If I ever spoke to someone in Spanish in the US, and they responded in English, I feel like I would probably understand that they wanted me to speak English.

Here is one more thought: In the US, I know I myself have complained that children do not learn a second language. I still feel that way. It is very ethnocentric of our society to teach no other languages, and learning a second language can prove to be a very useful (and salary-boosting) tool. This being said, my views about the DEGREE of this ethnocentrism have changed somewhat. Let's be honest for a moment... at the risk of sounding conceited, the United States of America is currently the largest world power. What we do, how we manage our affairs and who our leaders are DIRECTLY affects so many countries in very big ways. For this reason, people from other countries (such as Mexico) keep up with US news. The main complaint of the Mexicans about Americans is that they are ignorant of the goings-on in other nations... while I agree that it is a good idea to be knowledgable about our world, I feel that what happens in Mexico, who is elected, and how they manage their affairs... hardly affects my life AT ALL. I feel that the future of the world economy, for example, does not rest in Felipe Calderon's (Mexico's president) hands... whereas Barack Obama... all eyes are on him to turn the world economy around!!!

Secondly... I rarely encounter Spanish in the United States. I jump at every opportunity to use it, and perhaps it will prove to be very useful in the business world, but those opportunites are few and far between at best. HERE, in contrast, EVERYTHING is in English. Movies, TV shows, video games, any sort of product... everything is American. Even t-shirt logos are all in English. It therefore makes a lot of sense to me that the people here need to learn English... because they encounter it multiple times EVERY DAY.

Finally and most importantly... while they KNOW a lot of English, I get frustrated when they ask me why more Americans don't take a second language 1.) because they are TALKING TO ME, I am an American and I am proficient in two languages and 2.) because I have met very few Mexicans in my four months spent in this country whose English could be called proficient. (The Meixcans in the world of tourism speak a lot of English, but I feel that can be said for any person in tourism... they speak the language of the tourists that come!) In short, I speak much better Spanish than many of them do English. This has been a frustration for me this year because I feel like now that I am out of the academic environment, my Spanish is expected to be perfect, and when it is not, people comment. Sometimes I just want to scream, 'HOW MANY LANGUAGES DO YOU SPEAK???' The answer would most typically be one, or one and a half!




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