In recent years, the growing Spanish speaking population has made Spanish a vital part
of the the language scene in North Carolina.
And when I go home, I talk to my children in Spanish, which they hate, by the way, because
they say, "Mom, talk to us in English!"
And I say, "No, you need to learn the language, you need to be bilingual."
There is a process that you go through as a second language speaker becoming really
comfortable with the new culture.
It is very important for coming to the United States because it's key for the language.
You no have the English, you no have nothing.
I think so.
I started dreaming in English and I remember that, thinking wow I'm becoming fluent, you
know, that my dreams are in English.
And then there came this place where I'm like, well who am I now?
Because now I write in English, I read in English and I speak English most of the day.
And that was really confusing, you know.
And then that's when it starts hitting you, where you go, oh, I don't know who I am.
Am I my language?
They're going to learn English because they have to know how
to function in America.
They probably already know English before they get here, but we as an American society,
we're a multicultural society, at least we claim to be.
So we should at least know how to communicate with at least other nationality.
I think more and more you see the translations for both and I think that we have to be considerate
of others as well and start learning other languages and other cultures, too.
I believe that little by little, Spanish is taking or acquiring a lot of importance in
the culture of the United States.
It has become the second language in the United States.
A lot of students are very interested in learning the language just because of newspapers, media,
and other venues of interaction with Hispanics.
I would say that, perhaps, in the near future this country will be bilingual: Spanish and English
A lot of the Hispanics that now own automobiles, they'll put a piece of their country on their
car, whether be a flag or whether it be their cap or something hanging off of their mirror
that indicates who they are.
Hispanics are very proud of their origins, very their heritage, and more so very proud
of their culture.
English will become their first language because that's what they're learning in school, that's
what they're watching on TV.
They'll have to communicate in Spanish in order to have some kind of correlation with
the family unit, but this is a new community in a new land.
The culture is something that they bring with them and they'll die with them no matter where they're at.
Even if it's an American person who can speak Spanish, I will just engage into Spanish conversation
because it feels good.
It's that part of who I am.
I am somebody who originally was nurtured by this language and so I want to hear it.
So I seek out conversation in Spanish.
But when you find somebody that is amazingly fluent like you are in both languages, then
there's this interesting dance, you know, like, somebody calls you on the phone and
you hear a little bit of an accent and so you kind of know that they speak Spanish and
they hear your little bit of accent and so then there's like, so normally I will make
the first move and I'll say something in Spanish and they'll go, "Oh, which language would
you rather talk in?"
And then I'll say whichever of the two, so we'll just go into Spanglish, you know?