The fallacy of learning languages
by Nicolle Morales Kern
We’ve explored the importance of keeping Spanish alive and how learning other languages are food for your brain. With all the technological resources available to us, there really is no excuse to not learn another language. There is even an app to help you practice your desired language. If you go online, you can find meet-ups specifically for people who want to practice different languages. While you help someone learn English, you could be learning Spanish or German or Chinese.
This is in addition to the language-learning software and institutions that all exist with the goal of helping you learn new languages. So why aren’t we taking advantage of the possibilities?
It has become a widely accepted belief that it is extremely difficult for people to acquire new language skills after they pass a certain age. Many studies cite that cutoff age at 12 or 14 years. So if you don’t learn other languages when you are a child, you might as well give up now and stay a part of the English-only league.
The horrible truth about being Latino
by Ulises Silva
Depending on whom you ask, being Latino means many different–and oftentimes awful–things
Being Latino means that, unless you’re a young intern who saves a senator’s life, you’re not going to be invited to Jan Brewer’s next BBQ. It also means that, on your way to another Arizona BBQ, you might get pulled over if you commit the grievous offense of looking too brown.
Being Latino means you wake up knowing that you’ll see or hear at least one thing today that’ll make your blood boil, be it a state’s descent into xenophobic madness, or someone’s idea of good-natured humour.
Being Latino means that you’ll have to endure courageously anonymous comments on message boards about how you’re a stupid third world culture that’s accomplished nothing—ironically written by people who’d lose in the first round of a 2ndgrade spelling bee.
Being Latino means that you’re the scapegoat de jour, the same way the Irish, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, and so on, were blamed for corrupting the very fabric of not only American identity, but the space-time continuum. So despite the fact