I like to say I'm trilingual.
Why, you ask? Native English speakers, with little to no knowledge of the Spanish language, I invite you to decipher the following actual phrases commonly used among students.
1. My impress don't have tint.
2. My brother she have his bird day party old the day.
3. Miss, I can go to the nursery because my panza dolerme?
4. The proposite of that excursion was explore the piramid.
Have I stumped you yet? Here are the translations.
1. My printer doesn't have ink.
2. My brother(or sister, one must ask the name to determine gender) had his/her birthday party all day.
3. This is a question. Miss, May I go to the nurse's office because my stomach hurts?
4. The purpose of the field trip was to explore the pyramid.
These are just a few smatterings of how I prove that I'm not only fluent in English and Spanish, but also Spaniglish. Another example,
Teacher: "What are you doing?" Student: "Anything!"
I know my student means to say nothing, but I can't help but think that he or she is really trying to trick me. I think they're doing anything OTHER than what I've asked to be done.
Last, but certainly not least, the use of apostrophes. The following words, in Spanglish of course, all contain apostrophes.
1. Paren't
2. Wan't
3. Studen't
Oh, the list goes on and on. But, you get the picture. Spanglish isn't Spanish and I'm sure you concur that it's certainly not English. It's possible to speak it, write it, read it, etc. Doesn't that make it a language?
Excuse me, but I think I'll update my resume.
i had this conversation with my students today because i was sick of listening about the fact that hernan cortez conquit the aztecas when he had 42 years... i heard how many years these explorers had so many times today i started convincing myself it was conceivable to say.... man, it's exciting to think we're trilingual.
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