Language and Culture

A couple of things have been on my mind these past few days and both relate to Americans studying abroad. The first has to do with language while the other has to do with culture, so hopefully it makes sense.

The other day, Will asked me if he had a good Spanish accent. I have been told that I do not really speak with an accent (though there are some words and some times in which I speak with one, I will grant you that), but other Americans have trouble puring the Englishisms from their Spanish skills. I realized that there are a few things wrong with Will's question. First of all, he should not be asking me (a non-native Spanish speaker) whether his accent is good or not, because I have cannot judge at all. Spanish is not my native tongue, so ask someone who is a native whether your accent is good because I am going to be much more harsh than others. Also with this question, I realized that it seems to be the general case that English speakers (at least the American ones) have difficulty with a couple of aspects of Spanish pronunciation. First is the meshing together or melding of consonants. For example, the word “Cantabria” and the combination of “br” is difficult for English speakers to pronounce because in English we tend to separate consonants and give them each a little bit of a sound. In Spanish, on the other hand, natives meld the two together. I think that this double consonant example (along with a ton of other ones) has the pronunciation of the Spanish “R” as the root problem. In English, we have a very soft “R” sound, with the tongue of our mouth never touching the top of our mouths. However, in Spanish, when you pronounce the letter “R,” you always touch the tip of your tongue to the top of your mouth. I do not know if it is just a lack of effort on the part of Americans or whether it is truly difficult for most Americans to get over or pronounce, but I noticed that that was an issue for sure. Another issue is the pronunciation of vowels, since in English we have such a diverse variety of vowel sounds while Spanish as only five. Both languages have confusing and difficult dipthongs (combinations of vowels), but once you get it down, it is really not that difficult. I was talking to Sara today, my intercambio girl, and she said that Spanish pronunciation is really not that difficult at all (and I am 100% in agreement), so if you cannot get it down, you are not working hard enough at it, in my opinion (and I would imagine she would share this opinion). Finally is the stress of a word. In English there are no markers or rules as to what part of a word you should stress, while in Spanish there are fixed rules and the exceptions to the rules have it marked.

The second part of this post is about culture. Will has come home many days and said something definitive about Spanish culture. Rufi has not always been in agreement, which causes cognitive dissonance for Will: he does not know what to believe anymore. His teacher says one thing while his host mother says another. I think there are many things going on here. First and foremost is this issue of a foreigner saying something about a culture that is not their own, and saying it like it is true for everyone and everything. Will says that X is true about Spanish culture, but Rufi says that she does not agree with that, that this is not how it actually is. I do not know, but I feel like that is a bit pretentious for someone to say something like that. It would be like a foreigner coming to the U.S. and saying that some bad word is the worst ever and that you should never say, ever, no matter what. For example, the word “damn.” I think that most Americans could agree that it is not a word to use all the time and most people get a little uncomfortable when they hear that word in public, but it is not the worst word ever. I do not know if this makes sense at all, but I think the bottom line, the point to take away from this discussion is that I think it is a little pretentious to be a foreigner and think you know everything about a culture. I talked with Sara about this today and she said that your knowledge of cultural things, gestures, words, etc. is largely a function of your experience, your background, your upbringing. I would totally agree, so a cultural statement might be accurate, but it does not mean that it is universal and applies to everyone.