Why Do You Think That As a Puerto Rican.....

[Leticia_g]

Why Do You Think That As a Puerto Rican, you speak better Spanish than a Mexican, South American etc.?

I was asked this question a couple of weeks ago and actually it made me think only because I never felt like that. However I am aware of many people that do, especially people from other Latin Countries. Latinos from other countries always felt they spoke better or that they had more Spanish in their dialect than we do.

My opinion was different only because I know that we all have been influenced by our environment, location and ethnic mixtures. Our dialects differs however they are basically the same. By basically I mean the sentence structures and the majority of our words came from our influences and mixtures with the Spaniards. Even in Spain they speak many dialects. Their influence is based on the area of Spain, whether the northern part or southern part etc. With that in mind, we as a group of people cannot point a finger at one or another Latino group and say we speak better or worst. The difference is only noted in the education of the individual. Once we become educated enough in the language, we learn that we are all basically correct however that we have our own words that only adds to our specific culture. What is your opinion?

[Edited by Leticia_g on 31st August 2001 at 02:19]

[Suki]

As a translator in a city with very few Puerto Ricans I get a lot of flack from the other Spanish-speaking groups. Many of them are surprised that Puerto Ricans even speak Spanish, many think we speak more English than Spanish.

I also taught Spanish at a foreign language institute with a lady from Mexico City, and when I used some Puerto Ricanisms in class, she challenged me and said the word didn't exist. That those weren't acceptable. I laughed in her face and recited more than 20 words she had used in the last hour of class, that were specifically Mexicanisms and were NOT in the dictionary.

We then had a student look up the words. The ones I used were in the dictionary, hers weren't, she was embarassed. I told her not to be, Mexican Spanish is beautiful and colorful...it has a lot of Nahuatl (Aztec Language) indigenisms and she should be proud of using those words. But not to criticize Puerto Rican Spanish. I told her formal education in Spanish is the key important factor in speaking, reading and writing it well.

The way we cut off the ending of words, the converting of the "r" into an "l" in some words, such as "amor"="amol". Those come from the Southern Spaniards...andaluces and canarios (from the Canary Islands) do that all the time.

I think we should be happy that there exists such a rich spectrum of varieties of Spanish in Latin America, and we should try working on educating all the people in it. Also lets preserve and maintain as many of the Native Indian languages and dialects, their languages are dying every day. And with their lovely languages, their world view is lost to all of us and to their children, that is tragic.

Arriba con los latinoamericanos!

[Leticia_g]

Suki,
Last semester, I took an advance Spanish class at Rutgers University it was called, "Spanish for Native Speakers", I took this class more for personal improvement. The point I was getting at was that my professor was from Spain. A very interesting man, well spoken and well educated. He would challenge the class. My class consisted of over 60 students from all Latin Countries. He would not let one person say something was wrong concerning another country. In fact, many times I raised my hand and challenged him with "Puerto Rican Words", other times, I would actually use the words used in Spain since I was taught Spanish in that manner, he was confused with me, because he was trying to identify our nationality by our manner of speaking. It was a great learning experience. We learned the way many Latin countries refer to different objects and we also learned the expressions used.

One point he said repeatedly was that "we are all correct". The reason we are correct is because it is the spoken language of those countries. It is true some words are slang, those words are not correct, but they are understood by many. What we have to do is realize our difference and respect them, because we all have a rich culture that has many influences, that is what makes us and separates us.