Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public (response)

Marquez explains that her family has not adopted the English language as their official language because it is a sign of respect to talk to her parents in their native language. Speaking their native language not only shows respect, it displays her heritage. If I were standing next to Marquez and her family speaking Spanish, I wouldn't take it offensive and probably wouldn't notice. Marquez and her family would probably be “invisible” to me because I have constantly been exposed to Spanish speaking people in my community. However, if Marquez and her family looked at me in a mean way and the tone of their Spanish was loud and cut throat, I would be offended. I would assume from bad body language and tone that they were talking badly about me in Spanish.

Marquez would stop speaking Spanish if her parents met someone who didn't speak Spanish. If I became bilingual I would also switched to English if I needed to communicate with someone who didn't speak my language. I feel that it is important to switch into English because it's a sign of respect to speak your native language to your family. On the other hand, it is also a sign of respect to speak to people in a mutual language that you both know.

“Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public” is powerful because it is geared toward people who are and are not bilingual. It shows people who are not bilingual a little bit of what it's like being bilingual and why bilingual people speak their native language in America. It is also easily relatable to the people who are bilingual and may feel misunderstood. This writing is more conversational and informal, this makes this special genre easy to read and process. Marquez uses a tone that is pleasant and situations that anyone can relate to, for example, "...shopping with my mother or standing in line with stepdad to order fast food..." This writing is informative without any clutter of sophisticated words or phrases which is greatly affective to reader.