LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Spanish and English in the American South

About this video

Director
Neal Hutcheson
Provider
North Carolina State University / North Carolina Language and Life Project
Date created
2005
Duration
5:41
Location
North Carolina
File
Flash Video
License
This video copyright ©2008. All Rights Reserved

See this video in context

Related media

Learn more

In the classroom

You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.

Download video file (Right-click or option-click)

Excerpt about Spanish and Hispanic English trends in the South from the documentary Voices of North Carolina, produced by Neal Hutcheson and the North Carolina Language and Life Project.

This video is one in a series that also includes:

Transcript

(00:03)
[Singing in Spanish]
(00:19)
In recent years, the growing Spanish-speaking population has made Spanish a vital part of the language scene in North Carolina.
Victor Medina (00:28)
[In Spanish with English subtitles] When I got here, I said, “Well, if I’m coming to work I have to be able to communicate with my boss, whoever that might be.” So if I come here I come with the idea of also learning English. Because if I don’t learn English, I’m always going to be dependent on another person.
Teresa Fernandez (00:53)
[In Spanish with English subtitles] Well, we recognize that language is definitely a hurdle for educating our children in the English language always reminding our community that our heritage, our traditions, our culture never should disappear from our homes. Yes, it’s important to know the English language but without forgetting where we come from. That way we know where we’re going. That’s my vision.
Evelyn Valladares (01:18)
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, you know, you need to learn the language, you need to be bilingual."
(01:30)
There is a process that you go through as a second-language speaker becoming really comfortable with the new culture.
Victor Medina (01:42)
It’s very important when you coming to the United States because it’s the key for the language. You don’t have English, you don’t have nothing. I think so, anyway.
(01:51)
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, I am, am I my language?"
Georgia Hill (02:22)
They are 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 American society, we are a multicultural society, or at least we claim to be, so we should at least know how to communicate with at least one other nationality.
(02:45)
[Teacher speaking in Spanish]
Mary Ann Spivey (02:51)
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.
Hector Jaimes (03:04)
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.
(03:45)
[Spanish radio station playing]
Jon Hernandez (04:04)
A lot of the Hispanics that now own automobiles, they’ll put a piece of their country on their car, whether it be a flag, or it’ll be their cap, or something hanging off of their mirror that indicates who they are. Hispanics are very proud of their origin, very proud of their heritage, and moreso very proud of their culture. [Speaking in Spanish] 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 ** with them, no matter where they’re at.
(04:43)
Even if it’s an American person who can speak Spanish, I will just engage into Spanish conversation because it feels good. It’s a 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. And then 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, so then there’s like — so normally I will make the first move, and I’ll say something in Spanish, and then they’ll go, "Oh, which language would you rather talk in?" And then, I’ll say, "Whichever of the two," so we just go into "Spanglish," you know?