Spanish Class

I will write positive things about what the class Spanish in Ohio could be. Right now though I am really frustrated with my class.

Spanish 689, is a senior seminar. It is the last class taken by undergraduates. My course isn’t even taught by a professor, and the person is a PhD student in the College of Education not in Spanish. This subject is not her forte. Which is perfectly fine, but she should not be teaching a class on it. Ignoring my frustrations with her. I would like to share my frustrations with one of the speakers we had last week.

The speaker is in charge of ESL in the Southwestern City Schools of Columbus, Ohio.

I asked two questions. The first about how on her list of the 27 languages spoken by ESL students, was Zapotec on it? For the students they had down has “Spanish speakers” was Spanish really their second language?
She replied no that Spanish speakers were indeed speaking Spanish as a first language. I tried to clarify my question by saying that I thought that most Latinos in Southwestern City Schools were from Oaxaca (which they are and Zapotec is their first language). She gave me this condescending look and said. “Yes, and they speak Spanish in Oaxaca. Oaxaca is a state in Mexico. In fact one of our bilingual teachers is married to a man from Oaxaca and he speaks Spanish.”

This frustrated me. You see for example my little friend Olga who is going to turn five soon, is now speaking Spanish but it is still not her first language. When I play with her she frequently forgets to speak to me in Spanish and goes into her more natural Zapotec. She would correct me and give me the Zapotec words for things I would say in Spanish. She still sometimes thinks that we are tricking her when we tell her a word has two names one in Zapotec and Spanish. Her “aunt” Rosa who is only 7 years older didn’t learn Spanish until elementary school. If you ask them if Spanish is their first language they will say yes. If you ask them about Zapotec and then ask them if that is their first language they will say yes. Truth is that the language they are more comfortable in is the one they tend to be more ashamed of.

One of the reasons I think this is important for the schools to notice is that sometimes they say they are allowing for extra time for the students who need to translate things into Spanish but don’t understand that they are translating it from English to Spanish to Zapotec. It was the same thing when I volunteered as a medical interpreter for a Mixtec women for whom Spanish was her second language. The nurse accused me of speaking Mixtec with the woman and that was why she had understood me, when the truth was that I knew Spanish was her second language and so I had spoken to her more slowly.

Additionally, the speaker mentioned that many of their Latino students find it difficult to finish High School because they can’t go on to universities here in the United States because they aren’t citizens even when they have lived here all of K-12.

I asked if they had a lot of their graduating seniors joining the army in order to try and become citizens. “Oh, no. I don’t think they can do that.” My lecturer jumped in to add “Yes, you need to be a US citizen to be in the army” and our speaker nodded her head in agreement. I didn’t want to be rude but wanted them to understand this wasn’t the case. “From what I understand a lot of Latinos especially in states like Texas are joining the US Army because they believe it will help them become citizens and pay for college.” The speakers said, “Yes, Texas has had Latino students much longer than we have had them here in Ohio so they have many more programs then we do.” My lecturer again added “Yes, it maybe they are allowed to join the army in Texas but not yet here in Ohio.”
What the hell? Forget me explaining to them the plight of Latinos, our speaker and lecturer think that the US Army is made up of State Armies? WHAT?

Some of you may remember my previous entry regarding the amount of non-citizens dying while fighting for the US Army with the false hope that they could become a citizen. When truth is you can die for this country and still not be guaranteed citizenship. On top of that if you die and they go to notify your parents of your death and find your parents or siblings illegally here, they will deport them too. Seriously, now go read the entry.