Dear Mexican: I’m a Spanish court interpreter in Santa Bárbara, Calif.; I’ve also worked in Los Angeles courts. I just read your column regarding the promotion of the learning and practicing of English by Latinos in the United States. Generally, I agree with your view.
But my question is: Why can’t we also promote the use and practice of PROPER SPANISH in this country? One only needs to take a stroll through the many Latino neighborhoods throughout California and witness the signage on businesses and nonprofits alike, with awful misspellings and grammatical errors. Or flip through the pages of community periodicals, or view the commercials on U.S. Spanish television, and see the same linguistic garbage!
But that is not the worst of it. What about the legions of “bilingual” service professionals who work in private and public agencies, and who speak and write substandard Spanish? Many of these “professionals” are just taken at their word when they assert that they grew up speaking Spanish, with their bi-literacy never truly tested. Sadly, this is the case with most Chicanos, and even native Latinos who neglect their Spanish literacy in favor of awkwardly assimilating into a forced English.
Their arguments for using improper Spanish are disingenuous: “Mexican immigrants won’t get the big words,” or, “Sometimes there aren’t translations for big words or concepts.” The fact is that these “professionals” project their own linguistic incompetence and intellectual indifference when they use Spanglish or other phonetic contrivance in dealing with the Spanish-speaking community. English is the only official language in the U.S. (something we are constantly reminded of), so our Spanish can only be based on something just as official. Why is Spanish not respected as an established foreign language? Why is it consistently dumbed down?
As a court interpreter, it’s my duty to translate complicated legal terminology everyday. It’s unethical for me to lower the register and use words like tíquete, corte, probación and felonía, when the proper words are boleta de tránsito, tribunal, condena condicional and delito grave, respectively. Ninety-nine percent of the time, the public I work with understands and appreciates my formal usage. Such standards should apply to any field.
I’ve come to realize that the human experience is universal: There is a veritable translation for everything! Moreover, it’s actually impossible to direct a translation to a certain group or audience, as the only material that the translating agent has to work with is the source language, English. Walter Benjamin argues this point quite well in his essay, “The Task of the Translator.” Apart from the academic shortcomings, this practice also promotes a negative stereotype: Those dumb Mexicans are too illiterate to understand.
Finally, I must ask: Do Latino immigrants really need to learn to master English? Isn’t it possible to create capital and business opportunities, to create communities, in a strictly Spanish-speaking context? Many major corporations already attempt to cater to our market, the largest ethnic group in the U.S. Other ethnicities do the same, don’t they?
Hasta la Madre en Sta. Bárbara
Dear Wab: I usually ask readers to chop down their preguntas as much as possible—we can’t regulate our borders, but we can sure as hell protect against run-on sentences—but yours was an eloquent-enough rant to sneak in, and raises many interesante points.
As a court interpreter, you know the difference between legal and colloquial English, so I suggest you treat Spanish the same; I doubt you ask for prayer when demanding your breakfast bill. Besides, what kind of a boring world would we live in if proper language governed how we spoke? That’s right: France. And of course Latinos should learn English—remember, it’s the bilinguals who’ll rule the world, and the monolinguals who’ll get left behind. Just look at what’s happening to gabachos in our global economy …
GOOD MEXICAN OF THE WEEK!
Spanglish—not the horrible Adam Sandler movie, but the language. Long viva mongrel tongues! Abajo with custodians of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Flaubert!
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2011.
I REALLY hate these pedantic “proper” language promoters. Castillian Spanish is non-existent in the U.S. Most people speak in vernacular language in both English and Spanish. So bug out biatch.
That’s exactly how I feel regarding cockney English as opposed to the proper Queen’s English.
icecld2 is right to dismiss the overharsh and unrealistic insistence on standard, textbook Spanish in the courtroom when the people being translated for likely don’t understand it, but nowhere does the letter writer argue for Castillian Spanish to be used. Mexican Spanish has normative, standard forms of its own that many immigrants do not understand. Castillian has nothing to do with the conversation.
In this commentary, Hasta la Madre en Sta. Bárbara makes a common mistake, but one which deserves correcting: There is no official language in the United States of America. English is the common language of the United States. It is in that respect, the common language of this country, but it is not in any legal respect, the official language at the Federal level.
HOWEVER, English is the official language of U.S. states. Twenty-seven states have recognized English as an official language, either via statutory or constitutional law (or both). Louisiana, Maine, and New Mexico additionally recognize English as a de facto official language, but it is not, per se, codified as such.
For more information, see
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_… ; or
(2) http://www.law.cornell.edu/states/listing.…
So….all of you commentators think Mexican immigrants won’t understand a true, common Spanish, without mistakes and erroneous words. How is it possible to ascertain each and every Mexicano and Latino immigrant’s ken? You all can assume what you want, but using dumb-down Spanish doesn’t benefit anyone: it’s based solely on stereotype and conjecture. And I am the pedantic one?!
There is no uniform, dumb Spanish: it’s all just an infinite series of mistakes and negligence made over time. This is why you can’t use dumb Spanish to communicate to an entire community.
Think about this, all you defenders of ANTI-EDUCATIONAL Spanish: In our times, WHO WOULD THINK TO USE ”JIVE” OR ”EBONICS” TO ADDRESS AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN A PROFESSIONAL SETTING?? HOW IS THIS ANY DIFFERENT??
As far as Al Tam’s comments:
I never said English is ”codified”, but just ask yourselves, what language is used in courts?? What language is on millions of birth and marriage certificates, on civil judgements, criminal complaints? The U.S. Constitution? The States’ Constitutions?
This doesn’t count as tacit officialdom??