Response to Spanglish

I can totally relate to the Spanglish essay. During the summer I work with a large number of both Spanish speaking immigrants and native-born Americans. The language commonly utilized at work is Spanglish. Both English speaking and Spanish speaking individuals, in an effort to communicate with one another, end up speaking sentences that are a blend of both Spanish and English. I had to laugh at the examples used by the authors…”Quiero un part time” and “Cerveza - Six Pack” because that is exactly how people blend the two languages. As the authors note in the essay, many American high school and college students take Spanish classes in school. As a result these same American’s try to communicate using the Spanish they have learned. When they come to a word they don’t know how to say, they intermix English words into the sentence, with the result being Spanglish. I also found it interesting how the authors felt Spanglish was becoming a national slang with Anglo Americans freely using Spanish words like gracias, bueno, amigo, por favor, and no problema. I agree with the authors, because I know others, as well as myself, frequently use these Spanish words as if they were part of the English language.