Her Spanish is better than yours?
Keila Ochoa,
Houston, TX
p>My name is Keila, and I am a 1st generation Mexican American. Growing up, I typically spoke Spanish fluently, but I spoke more English because of school. I was always embarrassed when surrounded by other Hispanic kids who spoke better Spanish because my Spanish was not as good. So people always think I’m whitewashed or don’t try to learn my native tongue. I know many people who weren’t taught Spanish because their parents wanted them to be saved from bullying, so I think it’s important to recognize that many people don’t always have the best Spanish.
Lone Star College at University Park.
Shameless to speak, English has Dialects.
Somandy Real,
Fremont, CA.
Many people who’s first language was not English think that they’re English isn’t “fluent”, however they are fluent, it’s just in another dialect of English they have made on their own, and it is okay.
Hispanic but also white I think
Claysi Arevalo-Garrido,
Union City, CA
This is my race card because I never truly know how to identify myself. My parents are from El Salvador but I was born and raised here in California. I sometimes get embarrassed because I am not fluent in Spanish and it seems to come as a shock to many Hispanic people. But I seem to also get embarrassed saying that I am white but truly I am. I wasn’t raised with the Hispanic culture. My mother believed that since we are in the United States we must speak English and do things the way Americans would. This has always been my struggle and something to this day I continue to struggle with. I am proud of where my mother is from and proud of where I am from but I can’t seem to mix the two evenly.
Fully Korean, can barely understand it
Audrey Lee,
Menlo Park, CA
I’m fully Korean – both of my parents were born in South Korea to Korean parents. Yet I grew up in an English-speaking environment, and once I went to preschool, my mind switched from fluent Korean to English and American-accented Korean. I never returned to fluent Korean, and as I grew up, I stopped trying to learn it. In 2022, I wrote a poem, “An Ocean Away”, detailing my experiences and the disconnect I feel.
English and Spanish, Fluent in None
Martin Orozco,
Berwyn, IL
Being bilingual is a blessing but a curse at times. You feel like you haven’t mastered either language but know both languages enough to speak it. When speaking English, sometimes you can’t find the words and have to fill it in with Spanish words and vice versa. I feel like it’s hard to jumble two languages when trying to communicate in either language.
Engish only, you’re not really Mexican.
Matthew Montoya,
Orange, CA
I understand Spanish but I can speak fluently. I get embarrassed because fluent Spanish speakers are no help to teach, they laugh if I mispronounce a word. My experience trying to learn was not good and made me shut down from ever trying to. This made those who are fluent speakers divide themselves and made themselves believe they are the representation of a true Hispanic/Mexican.
Can you translate? It’s not that easy!
Alejandra Garcia,
Nuevo, CA.
I am a 23 year old Latina who works at a public high school. People see me and they assume I’m like Google Translate. Yes I speak Spanish but just because I look Mexican doesn’t mean I’m fluent. People expect me to translate English to Spanish within seconds. It is not that easy people!! Plus, the fact that I’m not fluent makes it harder and I have to think twice as hard to come up with the correct translation. Shout out to my school: California Baptist University!
Don’t speak Spanish to white relatives.
Max Lazzara,
Minneapolis, MN.
Bilingual when I learned to talk, raised among my father’s Floridian family of Spaniards, Italians, and Cubans, I was just as Hispanic as I was white; but moved by divorce, I joined my mother’s German-Polish Minnesotan family. The message quickly became clear: don’t speak Spanish to white relatives. In a fully English-speaking home in a majority-white town, I had nowhere to speak it anymore. It wasn’t until age fourteen that I began to relearn Spanish, and I was not fluent until age seventeen.
You’re spanish and don’t speak it?
Keatan Oliva,
McAllen, TX.
Growing up near the boarder of Mexico, where I would often cross with my mother to have lunch on weekends, it seemed expected of me to know Spanish fluently. Although I was raised in a town named Rancho Viejo, which might even be considered nearer to Mexico and its culture than McAllen is, I really wasn’t exposed to the Spanish language very often and it never occurred to me that I HAD to learn it growing up. My entire family is bilingual, but even so I was never spoken Spanish to in or outside of the house by them. To add to the lack of exposure outside the natural culture that was all around me, I was defiant in learning Spanish. For some odd reason I just didn’t want to know it and was aware of the fact that I felt I didn’t need or want it. Unfortunately, the older I became the more demanding it got to know the language. A barrier had been created and I was no longer looked at as the young little girl who had time to learn. I was a teenager and eventually a college student who was now looked at differently, almost disrespectfully with surprise. Although I personally feel somewhat left out of the culture around me because I don’t speak Spanish, I know I can become fluent in it with practice. Even though I feel its a stereotype for all Spaniards, Hispanics, Mexicans or what have you’s to be able to speak Spanish, I do feel its probably important for us to learn the language to be better able to communicate and know our culture a bit better.
