Coined as an official word in 1965, Webster defines Spanglish as “Spanish marked by numerous borrowings from English” and “any of various combinations of Spanish and English.”
Spanglish is a lot of fun, and SK and I often pull from our grab bag of favorite Spanish words and expressions when in conversation. Sometimes, we forget how to say things in English, and so we just utilize the Spanish phrase instead. It’s a fun and cool way to chat among friends who know both languages, and it takes the pressure off for having to speak one over the other. However, while Spanglish does have its benefits, it becomes a crutch when trying to speak correctly in either language. Actually, it’s causing a lot of problems for me right now, as I am trying to express myself in presentable and publishable English!
In addition to Spangish messing with the linguistically-inclined parts of my cerebral lobes, I discovered months ago that working with Spaniards who aren’t fluent in English can have a disastrous effect on any native English speaker… and before you know it, you’re telling the kids to “stop to talk” or “please, explain me this.” At school, I constantly am trying to ignore the gross grammatical errors that are committed in my presence so that I don’t pick up the dreadful habits. Yet, even my concentrated efforts to better my British English aren’t enough to prevent a few incorrect phrases to seep into my vernacular involuntarily.
These days my head is full of Spanglish, but I would prefer it to be full of English and Spanish. Other than clearing the small hurdles at school, my English is fine. My Spanish, on the other hand, still needs a lot of work. Some of you may be thinking, “But, Hailey, you live in Spain! Isn’t your Spanish just great after being there a year already?” To that, I would reply, “Actually, I haven’t spoken as much Spanish as you would think…”
Since my job requires me to speak English and since most of my best friends are English-speaking, I don’t spend as much time speaking Spanish as I’d like (or at least, I didn't last year). Of course, I do have to use Spanish on a daily basis, but it can be very minimal. At the end of last school year, I was a bit disappointed that my Spanish level hadn’t jumped off the charts. Don’t get me wrong. My Spanish really has improved, and I am comfortable communicating with anyone in Spanish (I’ve learned to get over the fear of making a mistake when speaking… that will always happen). In fact, ever since I returned to Madrid a few weeks ago, Spanish has come much easier than ever before!
With hopes of strengthening my grasp on the Spanish language, I am currently enrolled in a Spanish class at Mosaic, an international language institute here in Madrid. My class meets on Friday nights from 6:00-8:00, and we just had our first class this week. Our professor, Lara, is from the Canary Islands, and she seems like she would keep class fun and interesting. We the students formed a small assortment of young people from all over the US, Brazil, and Holland. Mosaic is a well run language institute and they have offered some special (and discounted) classes for the people in the bilingual program. At this point, I am still unsure if I want to make this commitment, but I’m going to attend a least one or two more classes before I decide.
And so, after beginning my Spanish studies a decade ago, I find myself back in the classroom… as a student!
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