Archive for the ‘Bilingualism’ Category
The Tax Man Cometh in Spanish
8:00 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|Internet|Money · Comments Off
12 Jan 2007
I like to get my taxes taken care of as soon as I can after the new year, which means I send them to someone else to take care of them. But there really are a wide range of products and services out there on the market that make filing your own taxes a little less scary and some of them even allow you to do your taxes in Spanish.
eSmartTax provides an easy and convenient tool to help Spanish-speaking taxpayers prepare and file their tax returns electronically. And it supports the significant efforts of the IRS, California and other state tax agencies to serve this specific population. Electronic filing of tax returns is quick, accurate and convenient for the taxpayer while it reduces errors and processing costs significantly for the government.
And look you can even do your taxes in my favorite language, Spanglish! I’ve never filed my own taxes, much less done it online but have to admit I’m tempted now.
Via / Hispanic PR Wire
Image Via / U.S. Treasury
Georgia Police Learning Spanish
9:06 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|Georgia|Justice|language · Comments Off
3 Jan 2007
As the population in the South of the US becomes more and more Latino so do the language needs of the area. For all the talk about the English only movement, the fact remains that basic services such as police and other emergency services need to be provided to all and need to oversome language barriers. Georgia is taking the lead in helping to train its police force and emergency telephone operators in speaking and understanding basic Spanish. According to the Univision article, most of the Spanish learned include basic words for car parts and orders like “drop that weapon”, which make me wonder if the police really want to help Spanish speakers or just pull more people over.
Via / Univision.com
Image Via / GACP
Accent Marks : The Difference Between a Year and an Ass
9:14 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|language|Newspapers · 3 Comments
23 Oct 2006
I read an article off of Yahoo! mail this morning with great interest because it’s an issue I face everyday as a Latina writer writing about Latino experiences. To accent or not to accent, that is the question and according to the article I’m not the only one asking.
Newspapers have long maintained that technological problems and editorial confusion make it too difficult to add accents, officially known as diacritical marks. For Colon, now a faculty member at The Poynter Institute of journalism in St. Petersburg, Fla., it’s a question of accuracy, one of the basic tenets of journalism.The absence of accents can change the pronunciation and the meaning of a word.
The name Pena, without the tilde over the “n,” means shame. The Spanish word for year without that squiggle becomes anus.
Latinos are Not a Threat to English Language
11:52 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|Controversia|Immigration|language · Comments Off
19 Sep 2006
I was watching Pat Buchanan on Real Time with Bill Maher go on and on about how the United States is being invaded by Latinos and that the English language is threatened. I won’t even get into how English has always been a language that has borrowed from other languages and instead will point to a recent report that says “no way Jose” to the English only, anti-Latino immigrant hype.
A few generations after families in Latin American countries move to the United States, fluency in Spanish dies out and English becomes dominant, according to a new paper published by sociology professors from California and New Jersey. The study suggests that Mexican immigrants arriving in Southern California today can expect only five out of every 100 of their great-grandchildren to speak fluent Spanish.
Via / MercuryNews.com
Pat Buchanan is Just Rehashing Old Hate
11:54 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|Books|history|Immigration|race · 7 Comments
24 Aug 2006
While Pat Buchanan makes the media rounds pimping his new book, Think Progress points how the his arguments really are the same rhetoric used over time in the United States against various immigrant groups.
Immigrants will dilute the white race:If we do not get control of our borders, by 2050 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built. No nation has ever undergone so radical a demographic transformation and survived. [Buchanan, p. 11, 2006]
VERSUS
The number of purely white People in the World is proportionally very small…in Europe, the Spaniards, Italians, French, Russians and Swedes, are generally of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are Germans also, the Saxons only accepted, who with the English, make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. [Benjamin Franklin, 1751]
Whoever said racism isn’t part of the national character of the U.S. needs to read all the comparisons put out there. Sadly hate never dies, the rhetoric around it just changes ever so slightly.
Via / Think Progressive
Image Via / AsianWeek.com
NY State Test Takers : Don’t Know English? Too Bad!
8:37 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bilingualism|children|Education|language|New York · 2 Comments
9 Aug 2006
As if New York State students, regardless of home language, didn’t have enough to worry about with the increased use of high-stakes testing that makes or breaks the grade, now the heat is on students with limited English. The rule used to be that if a student was in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program for three years or less, they were exempt from taking the English Language Arts (ELA) exam, one of the tests used for promotion in New York State schools. AP is reporting that this is no longer the case. Now any student who has had at least one year of ESL services will be required to take the ELA. I can hear the English only crowd cheering. The sad fact is that the ESL program in New York State doesn’t work.
Oregon Bomberos Don’t Work in English Only by Law
9:33 am By Maegan La Mala · Bilingualism|language|Oregon · 1 Comment
27 Jun 2006
Oregon isn’t buying into that English only nonsense, in fact not being bilingual, speaking English and Spanish, can get you fired if you’re a firefighter. Because of the problems of wildfires in Oregon, there is no language requirements for firefighters. According to Jim Walker with the Oregon Department of Forestry:
What we do know is 85 percent of the crew makeup is of Hispanic descent.
Because of this in 2003 a State law was made requiring bosses who manage firefighting crews be bilingual to ensure communication and safety. But not everyone is happy about this requirement. Some people are losing their positions because they cannot speak Spanish.
Via / The Denver Channel
Image Via / CNN
Nuestro Himno Live at Ellis Island
8:29 am By Maegan La Mala · Bilingualism|Controversia|Immigration|Music · 2 Comments
31 May 2006
Remember Nuestro Himno? Of course you do. People were so riled up about the Spanish language version of the U.S. National Anthem that our site was flooded. Well it’s back! Yesterday Tony Sunshine and members of Reggaeton Ninos performed the song live for the first time at Ellis Island. A video to accompany the song, which was actually translated many years ago, was also unveiled yesterday.
A Recent History of English Only
10:47 am By Maegan La Mala · Bilingualism|Controversia|language · Comments Off
23 May 2006
Talk about a flip-flopper, well at least when it serves him. According to an article posted on AlterNet today, President Bush has gone back and forth on the English only issue, not surprisingly, how he leans depends on what result he’s looking for.
In September 1999, then Texas Governor George Bush told an audience during the New Hampshire presidential primary, “English-only would mean to people ‘me, not you’.”
Now that Bush is facing sliding approval ratings and criticism from fellow Republicans on his postion on immigration, he’s all about English.
“Nuestro Himno”: Musical patriotism and solidarity
4:40 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Bilingualism|Immigration|Music · 124 Comments
24 Apr 2006
Latino performers have banded together in solidarity with immigrants to record a new version of the national anthem. I’m sure this is likely to piss off quite a few conservatives, but the message is clear: the flag, the anthem and other symbols of patriotism belong to all of us, no matter where we came from:
The Latino-oriented record label Urban Box Office (UBO) said Friday it will put the new Spanish-English version of the U.S. national anthem on the market Monday to coincide with the U.S. Senate’s restarting debate on immigration legislation.“We decided to re-record ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ to show our solidarity with the undocumented migrants,” said UBO President Adam Kidron. “Today we are Americans and ‘The-Star Spangled Banner’ represents everything to us.”
The recording features performances by Gloria Trevi, Don Omar and Ivy Queen.
Via / SiLive.com
Update Friday, 28 March: VL Editors available for comment on “Nuestro Himno” controversy
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