My kids are fluent in this new 华 (hua = dialect): Espanchinglish话. It has some of the same elements as Spanglish (see post from 2.5 years ago)...but the added bonus of Chinese in the mix. This means it is utterly incomprehensible to anyone who doesn't speak all three languages and even for those few, with Espanchinglish话 added slang, it might only be spoken by the 13 kids in our school. I consider myself to be a mere dabbler.
I listened to them today as they played 三国志 (Three Kingdoms= a wildly popular game...it's the new Pokemon from what I gather...to play it I will need to learn approximately 20,399 more characters). Their talk included such phrases as "bien hecho", "muy mal", and "por favor" as well as the Chinese words you would expect to hear, and some English in the mix (you are a pig is a favorite insult for bad moves).
I listened to them today as they played 三国志 (Three Kingdoms= a wildly popular game...it's the new Pokemon from what I gather...to play it I will need to learn approximately 20,399 more characters). Their talk included such phrases as "bien hecho", "muy mal", and "por favor" as well as the Chinese words you would expect to hear, and some English in the mix (you are a pig is a favorite insult for bad moves).
Part of the love for using their 2 non-native languages is the great fun of homophones in different languages having completely different meanings. Words like "bien" and "limpiar" are common and even boring words in Spanish, but bathroom words in Chinese. You can see why middle school boys would find these words irresistable.
To add to the fun, they now have three names. I find myself saying "Antonio, whose real name is Mickey"...even though NEITHER of these are his real name. They don't appear on any paper, they won't be on his Chinese ID card, and he certainly didn't receive his name from his parents. Jason's parents may be confused as to why he is being called "Super Ricardo", a name given after the students found his Spanish name similar to "supermercado" for supermarket.
Even though I feel badly that the word "bien" has been banished from all classes besides Spanish and that the kids might suffer from identity crises from their multiple names, I am still pleased that they are using their Spanish. They ask to use the bathroom in Spanish and politely say "por favor" "gracias" and "de nada". Timo (whose other non-real name is Franklin) even asked for a "Get out of Detention Free Card" in Spanish...that's the dream, folks...that's the dream.
The "Rising Eagles" trilingual homework board.
