Saludos de Corona, California

Saludos de Corona, California
 

Hola. Soy Villa y vivo en Corona, California. Viví dos años en Italia y aprendí italiano bien. Cuando regresé de Italia aprendí el espanol. Fui
a la escuela en San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico y tambien en California.
Fui maestro bilingúe por 23 anos y despues maestro de high school Spanish por 7 años. En la noche enseñaba inglés a los adultos hispanos
por 15 años mientras enseñaba los muchachos en el dia. Hace cuatro años
comenzé a enseñar italiano a los niños de primer grado. Luego regresé a la
escuela en Italia y ahora tengo tres anos enseñado italiano a los adultos. Casi todos mis alumnos hablan español y aprenden italiano facilmente.

Me gusta mucho la idea que tenemos dentro de Los Estados Unidos una nacion Hispana. De los 21 paises de habla hispana Los Estados Unidos ya es el cuarto pais mas grande de habla hispana. Solo Mexico, Espana, Colombia y posiblemente Argentina tienen mas hispano parlantes que aqui.
Tenemos casi mil estaciones de television en espanol y mas o menos la misma cantidad de estaciones de radio en espanol. Ir a una iglesia en espanol es comun. Tenemos programas bilingues de differente tipos en nuestras escuelas a pesar de las quejas de mucha gente. Y California donde yo vivo es el estado de mas hispano parlantes en America. You vivo solo una hora de la frontera con Mexico por ejemplo. Miro las novelas en espanol diario.

En la opinion de ustedes cual es el futuro para los hispanos en Los Estados Unidos?

Otra cosa. Quando voy a dormir en la noche mi ultima preocupacion es que en America el espanol va a reemplazar el ingles como idioma dominante. Ojalá!:D

bienvenido, Villa :)

¡Bienvenido! Vivo en EE UU, primera lengua inglés. La gente en EE UU necesitan estar más abierto en lo referente a los lenguajes diferentes que inglés. Es una cosa preciosa que otras personas hablan en idiomas diferentes aquí, pero desgraciadamente esas personas están obligadas, de la presión de los políticos, a aprender inglés , así dejar atrás sus culturas.

Pienso en el futuro nadie hablará español en EE UU, el inglés reinará , además ojalá no ocurra

espero que me entiendas:D

Hola. Pues planteas una pregunta muy polémica. Leí algo del tema hace algunos días en Language Log: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1712

bienvenido a los foros

I bid you welcome.


I hope your stay in the forums, it'll be enjoyable.

Hola, Villa. Bienvenido :)

Tienes suerte de vivir en un país con tanto contacto con el español. A mí me gustaría que en mi país hubiera el mismo contacto con el inglés que el que tú tienes, pero casi siempre "me tengo que buscar la vida". Sin embargo, sí creo que un país tiene que conservar su idioma y que los habitantes de un país, sean nativos o no, tienen que conocer el idioma del país en el que residen. Aquí viene mucha gente de muchos países con idiomas diferentes y a veces no te puedes comunicar con ellos porque no hablan nuestro idioma. Necesitamos traductores de muchos idiomas en los hospitales, en los juzgados, en los lugares de asistencia social, etc. porque no hay manera de establecer una comunicación y eso también lo tenemos que pagar con impuestos. Tal vez si viniera gente de un solo país o con una sola lengua, sería más fácil, pero no es el caso. :)

Bienvenido Villa :D

¿No hay un montón de contacto con el inglés en Andalucía? ¿O es que sólo vienen los turistas cuando los nativos se han largado de las ciudades para refugiarse del calor en las montañas?

Editado: digo tonterías. Se me había olvidado que los ingleses que vienen a España suelen evitar contacto con los "extranjeros" (es decir, los no ingleses).

¡¡¡Muchas gracias a todos por su bienvenida!!!

It has happened to me sometimes, the trouble is that your internet connection sometimes is slow and the website takes two times the send data in the host, I mean, for instance you gave click the first time in summit but the internet in that moment is slow, therefore you again push the summit bottom and well there in that moment in the same time your software sends two times the same data, it're wrongs of the connection in that moment and occasionally is problem from the server where is hosted the website.

I hope you can understand me.:)

@pjt: if that happens again, you can always delete the second message. :)

Sí, los españoles en España somos extranjeros para los ingleses y los alemanes (perdón por lo de ingleses, pero aquí sois ingleses ;) )

Ya lo sé. ¿Has visto alguna vez como se pone un galés que tiene que escribir "Inglaterra" en un postal porque no puede confiar que con "Gales" llegue a su destino?

PD Gracias, Angélica. Sabiendo que existe la opción he podido encontrarla.

No, pero aquí también pasa cuando gente de algunas comunidades tiene que escribir "España" :D

¡Bienvenido Villa!

Welcome, Villa! I enjoyed reading your introduction. I am relatively new to learning Spanish, so I'll write in English. I love the Los Angeles area. I used to have family there, but have only had the opportunity to visit a small handful of times in my life. You are fortunate to live in such a beautiful place!

I am also a high school teacher - I teach Algebra and have done so for about 20 years. For the past 13 years I have taught in schools in the Washington, DC suburbs, and in both of the schools I worked in the great majority of the students in attendance are from Spanish-speaking homes. I love working with our Hispanic students!

As far as your question goes ... in my opinion (:twocents:), I would love to see the United States become a BI-lingual nation. There are several reasons for this. The first, as you pointed out, is because of the growing Spanish-speaking population we have here. But, I would say Bilingual instead of primarily Spanish-speaking because I think that both heritages are valuable ... the English background AND the "newer" US/Spanish culture.

My second main reason is because I am constantly struck by the fact that so many of my international friends, especially those from Europe and Asia, all speak (with great fluency) more than one or two languages. Some are very fluent in 5 or 6 languages ... and where they live, that is normal. And I'm not only talking about people with an extensive education. In Africa, it is quite normal for someone to speak a tribal language and a national language. All of the women I volunteer with in Nairobi (I do volunteer work at a professional training center there) speak a tribal language, Swahili AND English ... and many speak other languages from other nearby countries, like French (from Rwanda) or Amharic (from Ethiopia). Lou Ann speaks ONLY English ... and was never (ever) encouraged to do more than two years of a high school level foreign language. (I took German......) It's SO SAD that the United States' public schools don't incorporate second (and third and fourth) languages into all public school education from Kindergarten on up!

Third, our world is INCREASINGLY moving toward "globalization". I am increasingly convinced that those who speak only one language have a certain arrogance that their language is sufficient for themselves and everyone else. When I travel in a country where I don't speak the language, I tend to feel guilty that I can't communicate my needs or desires or even common pleasantries. But so many English-speakers travel widely and EXPECT everyone to accommodate them. This can NOT go on for much longer!

Finally, I have to add that I believe it would be VERY unwise to just "switch" to being officially "bilingual" (Spanish/English). I think it will take a good 15-20 years. We would have to come up with a quality education program to start with the youngest children and slowly incorporate Spanish language instruction into ALL schools EVERYWHERE from the BEGINNING. We will need to study how English is taught in, say, European countries from the youngest ages to successfully create fluency. At the same time we will need to begin the VERY difficult job of convincing the populace that this is (1) a good idea, (2) can be done, and (3) is worth the GREAT expense that it will cost!

Thanks for asking such a thought provoking question. I'm interested to continue to watch this discussion!

Mucho gusto aepelba. Nice to hear from you.

I moved out to the Corona, California area somewhat recently. At any rate just the other day found out that the Corona/Norco School District has a Dual language Spanish/English program. The kids are taught half the day in Spanish and half the day in English. Dual immersion or dual language. This system seems to work better than anyother type of bilingual program.

Dual language is a form of education in which students are taught literacy and content in two languages. The majority of dual language programs in the United States teach in English and Spanish, although increasing numbers of programs use a partner language other than Spanish, such as Arabic, Chinese, French, Hawaiian, Japanese, or Korean. Dual language programs use the partner language for at least half of the instructional day in the elementary years.
Dual language programs generally start in kindergarten or first grade and extend for at least five years, although many continue into middle school and high school. These programs aim for bilingualism (the ability to speak fluently in two languages), biliteracy (the ability to read and write in two languages), academic achievement equal to that of students in non-dual language programs, and cross-cultural competence. Most dual language programs are located in neighborhood public schools, although many are charter, magnet, or private schools.

Speaking in general to these nuts who want English only in the U.S.:
Like I said before, when I go to sleep at night the very last thing I worry about is that Spanish or anyother language will take the place of English in the U.S. Only 9% of native English speakers in the U.S. speak anyother language other than English. What a shame. Thinking or saying that English is some how threaten by Spanish or anyother language is totally absurd. It's fearful nagative thinking that does not help us become a better nation.

I taught English as a second language to adult Spanish speakers at night for 15 years. At one point we had a two year waiting period because there were so many people signed up to take English. Our classes were full to the brim. They worked extremely hard for very little money under terrible working conditions. Some of their stories were heart breaking. They would come faithfullly every night to learn English for 3 hours 4 times a week. Saw many of them go through levels 1-5. My sister taught ESL to South East Asian students 20 years ago. All their children now speak English and have just about forgot their own native language or the language of their parents.

I misunderstood. (Need to study more Spanish!!) I thought you wanted to see the country switch TO Spanish only, in place of English. Like I said ... I would LOVE to see everyone able to use both languages fluently!! :)

I have also seen this "problem" in the Washington Metro area. There are MANY more adults who want to take English classes at night than there are seats in the available English classes. Waiting lists are LONG! Unfortunately, there are those ignorant Americans (who are from families in this country for several generations) who get angry when they hear Spanish spoken on the street or in places of business. I can't tell you how many people I've told about the problem with more people wanting to study English than there are spots available.

[QUOTE=laepelba;51026]I misunderstood. (Need to study more Spanish!!) I thought you wanted to see the country switch TO Spanish only, in place of English. Like I said ... I would LOVE to see everyone able to use both languages fluently!! :)

Laepelba, "Hablando se entiende la gente." This is a saying that means when people talk things out then they understand each other.