April 10, 2004
English and
Spanish must know languages in the
Western Hemisphere.
By Patrick Osio,
Jr.
I’ve yet to
meet anyone who speaks more than one
language that has said, “I’m
sorry I speak more than one language.”
But I have met and heard from those who
only speak one language who are resentful
of others speaking another. In fact,
monolingual people fall into categories
– those who wish they spoke another
language; those who don’t care; and,
those who object to others who speak more
than one language. In the USA we have
quite a group who claim English is the
only language we need to speak, and don’t
want to hear foreign languages in
America. And unfortunately this
group garners the most media attention
with nationalistic patriotic sounding
rhetoric such as– our sovereignty is
at stake, our culture is being lost.
When looking at a
map showing the Western Hemisphere,
anti-multi language usage subscribers see
only the USA – for them the other 35
countries are simply there –
addendums to a map of the US. They miss
the point that in this part of earth in
which we live there are 4 major
languages. By order of importance they
are: English, Spanish, Portuguese and
French. By order of usage they are:
Spanish, English, Portuguese and French.
The most common second language spoken in
the US is Spanish, and in Latin America,
English is the second most common.
Spanish is the official language in more
countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Moving out of our
hemisphere into the world at large,
Mandarin is the most used language,
followed by English, Hindustani and
Spanish; Portuguese is eighth, French is
not part of the top languages used.
The most important
languages for international business are:
English, German, Italian, Japanese and
Spanish. The languages considered the
most important in the fields of science
and technology are: English, German,
Russian, Japanese and Spanish.
It shouldn’t go
unnoticed that in our own Western
Hemisphere and the world at large English
and Spanish play the most prominent
roles.
But if this is not
enough evidence, then we should consider
the sheer numbers presently occupying our
hemisphere and the high variant projected
population by the United Nations by 2020.
The US population is projected at
356,530,000 and Canada’s at
35,716,000 for a total in the two
dominant English-speaking countries of
392,246,000. Mexico’s, Central and
South America’s and Caribbean’s
population is projected at 693,360
million. The Western Hemisphere’s
projected 2020 total population is
1,085,606,000. The US population will be
32 percent of the hemisphere’s over
one-billion population.
Obviously, while
these facts and figures dramatically
illustrate the need for Americans to
learn Spanish as a second language, the
same facts and figures illustrate the
need for the Spanish speaking countries
to teach their population English as
their second language.
There still remains
the fear of losing our American culture,
but what is our American culture? Is it
not a hodgepodge of numerous cultures
already? Isn’t one of the unique
aspects of American culture its cultural
diversity? Aren’t we already a
cultural ‘melting-pot’? And
being a part of the Western Hemisphere
with its tremendous number of cultures,
isn’t it only natural that in
addition to the cultures brought from
Europe those from our ‘new’
world would also integrate?
Possibly we haven’t
taken note of how much of our neighbor’
culture and its historical significance
has been absorbed by our country over the
years. The word ‘cowboy’ is the
translation of ‘vaquero’ also
known in Mexico as Charro. The ranch
(rancho) is of Mexican origin, as were
the horses, cows, branding irons, riding
equipment – western saddle, boots,
chaps, buckskin jackets, tight horseman’s
trousers, broad leather belts with silver
buckles. Herding skills and use of ‘la
reata’ (lariate) were also of
Mexican origin, as was wearing a side arm
in a holster. Spanish words like lariate,
buckaroo (couldn’t say vaquero),
rodeo (Mexican origin), mesteño
(mustang), lasso, and many more.
I use this example
to demonstrate how Mexico’s vaquero
culture was not only absorbed, but turned
into a unique part of American culture
and folklore made world famous by
Hollywood, and countless books.
There are numerous
other examples that are now so ingrained
into our own culture that its origin is
forgotten. Thus we need not fear other
cultures, to the contrary, we should
celebrate them as they add to the
uniqueness of our country and in the end,
we will Americanize them so that even
those whose culture it was, will adopt
our version.
Any one for Spanish
I?
________________________________
Patrick Osio, Jr. is
the Editor of HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com).
Reach him at: PosioJr@aol.com
|
