Difficulty Paper on How to Tame a Wild Tounge(Week 7)

"Words distorted by English are known as anglicisms or pochismos. The pocho is an anglicized Mexican or American of Mexican Origin who speaks Spanish with an accent characteristic of North Americans and who distorts and reconstructs the language according to the influence of English" (106).


It was difficult for me to understand all the different type of ways to speak Spanish. Before reading this short story How to Tame a Wild Tongue  by Gloria Anzaldúa, I did know  that at times I speak Spanglish which is when you "switch back and forth from English to Spanish in the same sentence or in the same word"(106). I notice that I speak spanglish whenever I hang out with a group of friends because it catches on, otherwise if I was not hanging out with them I would not speak like that. An example of this would be if my friend asked me "Quieres ir to the mall mañana"? I had trouble in making a difference between speaking spanglish and anglicisms. I did not know until now that the term anglicism is when people borrow an english word to make it into a spanish word. For example, "bola from ball" (107). I previously had thought that spanglish and anglicism were the same thing, however this is not true because in spanglish people change speaking from spanish to english very quickly and using anglicism is an english word being turned into a spanish word. My dad does use anglicisms a lot when he speaks because his original language is Spanish so it is only natural that he will want to keep what is familiar with. I really do not think there is such a thing as the correct language because everyone will have a different opinion when it come to this. Even when there are many rules in language it still ends up evolving as time goes on. 


A reading strategy that I will use for this reading when I am confused thinking that two terms have a similar definition is that I will point out the differences while reading. I will also re-read to notice the descriptions in how both of them are explained and how people use them separately. Much of the time words can be misinterpreted and be used in conversations or writing in the wrong sense, that is why its important to know what a word means and also keep in mind that there are times when a word can seem similar but it has a different definition. Like in this section how I thought that anglicism and spanglish had the same definition but I had to re-read to simplify their meaning because they were very much alike. While reading the section I will note down questions I have and also answer my questions at the same tine. I will also try to relate it to myself and see how it can work to my advantage so I can understand it more efficiently. This is helpful because it would be like an imagery when I read.