there are many double standards that annoy me. but this one just makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs and slap ignorant bitches across the face. and it is the double standard that pertains to language.
i've seen it happen a lot in los angeles. and what is sad is that we [ as hispanics/latinos ] do it to each other. i don't know if others [ asians, europeans, etc. ] do it.
but here is what i mean: i have a cousin who was born here, but her family moved to mexico when she was two years old. so as you can imagine, she does not speak english. when she was eleven, her parents decided to return to the united states. and she joined the same school as i did. but since she was already eleven, it was harder to teach her english. she learned it. but she has a heavy mexican accent.
so most of her school life, like middle and high school, people would make fun of the way she would speak. and like, they made her feel like she wasn't as smart as the rest of us because she couldn't speak the language as well as we could.
and all the schools we went to were mostly populated with hispanic kids. so it angered me so much when people would bother her.
i know it happens for adults too.
if an adult's first language is spanish and they learn english as a second language much later in their lives, they will have an accent. and i have seen people snicker at them, making fun at them because they can't pronounce words the way an english speaker can. and so, they are seen as less intelligent than everyone else.
and i have noticed it only happens with spanish speakers too.
not asians cause even if they have an accent, they are considered smart. not europeans who's first language isn't english. oh no, especially not them cause they MUST be smarter. or god forbid someone will make fun of an american white person when they speak spanish. that NEVER happens. people are genuinely surprise and act as though it were some amazing feat if a white person says something like, "Me gusta tacos." or "Hola, yo llamarme John Smith." (just an example).
why is it that they get praise when they speak spanish terribly, but hispanics get mocked by society when they speak english terribly?
it is a double standard.
and it is my biggest pet peeve.
-clary xx
