From Poetry to Prose

So in my last post, I compared Spanish to Portuguese — a language which I know absolutely nothing about.

This time around, I decided to do the same, only with Japanese — a language which I actually have a pretty solid grasp of.

To give you an idea, I took Japanese for three years in high school and for three more years at UT. So by now, I have a pretty good understanding of the language and how it compares to Spanish.

As I expected when beginning Spanish, both languages are completely dissimilar. What surprises me though are their similarities.

First of all — the concept of "Spanglish", or in Japanese, "katakana". To me, the idea of incorporation of English vocabulary into another language is an interesting concept. I had always (arrogantly) assumed that the Japanese were unique in doing this and had "little brother syndrome" — wanting to be just like us. However, now that I am experiencing another culture doing much of the same, it leads me to wonder — why?

The interesting thing is that many of the words that both cultures choose not to translate do, in fact, have direct translations. However, many non-native English speakers, when given the choice, choose to use the English words. This is particularly common among the younger generations. Perhaps this is because, when in the company of speakers of their native tongues, the use of English words is seen as sign of cultural savvy.

An interesting example of this scenario was recently presented by the professor in class. When describing uses of Spanglish, she mentioned her use of the word "shuttle" when conversing with her Spanish speaking siblings. She claims that because of this, her siblings (sarcastically) state that — due to the influence American culture — she has become a snob.

So as we learn to speak Spanish more fluently, and we too choose to incorporate English into our Spanish conversations, we must first ask ourselves — at what point does savvy become arrogance?