Spanglish 101

I am amused today by the fact that I am taking Spanish 423 this summer (starting next week), and the title of the class is "Border Spanish"! I'm actually pretty excited for it.

And no, I won't be learning "how" to speak border Spanish, per se. If I'm not mistaken, it's more of a study of how border Spanish came to exist, how the English language has influenced Spanish over time. The class description suggests that the student take some sort of linguistics course before enrolling in this class. I took Spanish Phonetics & Pronunciation last semester, which I believe would qualify me.

I went and bought my books at the bookstore today, and was amused by the titles: "Cowboy Talk: A Dictionary of Spanish Terms from the American West" and "The Dictionary of Chicano Spanish." So one of them studies the Spanish influence on American language, while the other focuses on the English impact on Spanish speakers. I think that's sort of interesting, and I'm happy because they were both relatively cheap, and they are REFERENCE books, which hints that there may not be a lot of reading involved in this class!

I really am excited to take this class. Border Spanish cracks me up, and I think I will get a kick out of learning more about how "estacionar la camioneta" has turned into "parquear la troca."