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Esta
es una
versión inglesa (algo reducida, eso sí) de la web. Espero que os sea de
utilidad. An
English version (a bit reduced, sorry!) for English-speaking people. With
my compliments.
THE (PERVASIVE) INFLUENCE OF
ENGLISH ON EVERYDAY SPANISH SITUATIONS
0.
INTRODUCTION
We are students of English. We know English... or we think so. Our
future is to teach English to people who, supposedly, do not know anything
of it. However, this is not true, at least not completely true. Almost
everybody knows a bit of English. Almost everybody uses English, and I
mean almost everybody.
The main goal of this web is to show that the English language
plays a very important role in our daily lives and how it plays that role;
and of course we will try to answer by whom, when and why this occurs.
The task, apparently an easy one, is not at all simple. There are
many things to consider, many areas to cover and not few different tasks
to fulfil, but we will try to do our best. Let's go.
1.
ENGLISH IN THE WORLD
The influence of English in Spain cannot be understood without
having an idea of the global situation.
That
English is the language of the world is quite clear. All the data
available to us demonstrate that this is so. Ninety per cent of the music
we listen to is in English, it is estimated that there are over one
thousand million people learning English in 2001 and it is the only
language in the world that many people use every day, even without knowing
it.
We
can talk about the globalisation
of English without any risk to be wrong. There has even begun to be a
classification of the English speakers into three groups: The A-speakers,
also called traditionally "native" speakers (English is shared
by 350 million people as a first language), the B-speakers, that
is, those who learnt the language in their childhood but not as a mother
tongue (350 million use English regularly as a second language);
and the C-speakers, hundreds of millions in the world, who learn English
at school and speak it more or less correctly. This is the group we will
continuously make reference to, since we belong or have belonged to group
C, and certainly the people we will talk about in this paper all belong to
group C, inside which we can include some 100 million
fluent speakers plus many
more sporadic users: 20% of the world’s population altogether have
some level of competence.
Tom McArthur's work on the printed word in the English-speaking
world [McArthur, Tom, 1997: 10-16] is worth commenting here. He
establishes five standards of English around which this language has been
globalized, although only two of them are interesting for us: The
international commercial and technological standard and the international
educational standard.
The
international commercial and technological standard
makes reference to that standard of English used by businessmen, a mixture
of UK and US standards in many cases, even adapting themselves to the part
of the world where they are operating in each moment, mainly used to make
deals or talk to customers or to other businessmen. Of course we have to
add the new Internet and email
English, although we will provide a special section to talk about this
topic in particular.
The
international educational standard rules the English which is
taught in almost all the schools in the world. It is the one the
publishers keep as the "golden mean" of what is
"teachable": Real English (?), easy enough to be learnt and real
enough to be real; English enough to be English and/but adapted enough to
the needs of each country to be usable in the classrooms and to be useful
for the students to pass the exams. There would be a lot to be said about
this. Below, I will be commenting about the situation of the Spanish
education as regards English.
It
is true that English is working quite well as a lingua franca. There is
certainly no other language which is nowadays capable of pushing English
out. Chinese is spoken by many people, but it is too difficult to learn,
there are extremely few teachers, the script is funny and China is too far
from the important economic centres of the world today, with the exception
of Japan, of course. Spanish is spoken by many people,
but the country of origin of the language is not a powerful country
by any means, either in the economic or the political and military field.
Besides, Spanish is spoken by the poorest and most discriminated community
of the US. So it has not got a future as an international language.
English
is easy. That is another important reason. Except for the
irregular pronunciation, just a few rules get to put a good part of the
language together. The first steps are very easy, almost everybody can
learn them. Some other languages, French, Spanish and of course German are
quite more complex (see the verbal system, for example.)
Just
to finish, it would be important to say that English has reached the
status of international language "just on time". A bunch of
causes have gathered together to make English what it is. Victory of
English-speaking countries in the World War Two; economic, military,
political and hence cultural predominance of the UK and the US in the
world; possibility of spreading UK and US culture, ideas, everything...
through the mass media; and the need for a lingua franca in the
"global village", of course. English has come to satisfy a need.
And it has done it very well.
2.
THE SPANISH SITUATION
Spain is becoming more and more integrated in a world in which all
developed countries are getting closer and closer by means of the mass
media and the new technologies. Spain has changed its position in the
world in just a few years; although there is still a lot to do, our
integration in the world is evident. And this is so too as to the use of
English.
2.1. THE
SPANISH SCHOOL AND THE LEVEL OF OUR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH
To begin with, we must have a look at the early stages of English
learning: It is essential in order to understand the (pervasive) situation
of English in Spanish daily life.
It is clear that, in theory, the educational authorities in Spain
put a lot of emphasis on the learning of foreign languages. Many data seem
to demonstrate what I say: Children start learning English when they are
very young, there is a second language as an optional subject, students
have to learn English for many years... However, the reality is very
different from what we are supposed to expect: Most secondary school
students under the LOGSE system leave the educational system without
“knowing English”. They only have a slight idea of how the language
works but, due to the shortage of teaching hours in Bachillerato, English
teachers can only make them pass the Selectividad test. Such areas
as listening and speaking are clearly neglected, so students are
completely unable to maintain an easy low-level conversation.
In spite of all this, English keeps on being present in our daily
lives. This is due to the fact that previous generations, that is, people
now 20 to 40 received quite a good education as regards English. Most of
my friends are able to understand English in more or less “emergency”
or basic situations: They can answer to questions like Where
is the Alhambra?, How can I get to Plaza Nueva? and the like. And they
can travel abroad and make themselves understood.
2.2.
THE
ONES WHO DO AND THE ONES WHO DO NOT
Not everybody has been so lucky. We all know lots of people who
think that speaking English is unimportant. They are persons for whom the
need to speak or understand it does
not exist. Older people, people living in rural areas, young people whose
parents have a narrow vision of reality, millions of Spaniards have simply
no idea of the language of Shakespeare.
If we think a bit, they lose lots of details of that everyday life
we make reference to in the title of this essay. They do not understand,
for example, why some products are called the way they are; they do not
know why certain song sounds in certain TV commercial; why the Internet is
called the Internet; or they have to look at the instructions of their
videos or stereos simply because they do not know the meaning of the
buttons...
I will give you an example. One of my friends has access to the
Internet, but he does not know English. When he wants to look for
something, he has to do it through Spanish search engines, which are quite
bad at the moment. So he ends up not finding what he wants or in some
American searcher, in which at least eighty per cent of the sites they
display in the first screen is
usually in English. It has been calculated that 80% of the world’s
electronically stored information is in English.
Millions of these situations occur every day in Spain.
Nevertheless, another part of the population has a reasonable command of
English, which helps them go through these apparently unimportant events
without much difficulty. If somebody is interested in learning English, it
is very easy to learn it at school for free. If they have already left
school, all capital cities have dozens of English academies where you can
learn –paying the tuition fees, of course... but they can learn, even
ESP (English for Specific Purposes, like Engilsh for business, English for
medicine…) if they require it.
Most parents, of course, are becoming aware of the importance of
their children to learn English. Apart from schools and academies, many
Spanish boys and girls go to England, Ireland or the USA in summer to
learn or improve their English: That is another part of the real life in
Spain which has to do with English. It is the need for the language that
impels parents to send their sons or daughters abroad. And that
helps us to bridge this point and the following, whose main subject
is the importance of English to find a good job.
2.3.
ENGLISH AND JOBS
It is precisely because of the importance of knowing English that
many parents in Spain are beginning to send their children abroad to learn
English, as we have commented above. But what
is English important for?
To begin with, of course knowing English is important to pass it at
school. I have some students who, due to their minimum level of English
–among other things, have had to re-sit one or two years. Some of them
have tried to go to England to see if they recovered some of the time they
have lost. They did not, but that is not the important thing here. What
really matters is that English, the language, has obliged students to
change their plans; and that proves that English has its importance in the
life of families.
In the second place, English is required by many employers when
recruiting their staff. Representatives, public relations, shop assistants
of big department stores, everybody who works in a tourist resort or a tourist area has
to know English; apart from this, it is important to point out that
English is the main language of books, magazines, airports and air-traffic
control, international business and academic conferences, science –over
two thirds of the world’s scientists read in English- technology (see
section about Internet and the new technologies below), diplomacy, sport,
international competitions, pop music and advertising (see below for more
detailed information).
And there are also many other jobs for which English is not
essential but it is valued by the employers as a criterion for selection
of their personnel. Spain
having a tourism-based economy, the knowledge of languages, especially
English, is becoming more and more importance. That proves again that the
English language has a place in
our country. There are many more areas to cover which will lead us in the
same direction, so let us have a look at them.
2.4.
ENGLISH IN OUR DAILY LIFE
I think it is about time to stop generalising and start being
precise. In this section, I will try to give you some data about real
situations I have encountered in my daily life. The aim of it is to show
how much we are influenced by English, and to what extent speaking English
is important nowadays in Spain. I will also be offering you some comment
about them.
2.4.1. ENGLISH IN
A “REAL” SPANISH SITUATION
I am a teacher in a high-school and can quote here some of my
students’ anecdotes, including teachers saying the question in a
Chemistry class, to which they answered Oh, my God! or another
person and another time in Philosophy…
As
an example of what I have said and of what I will explain in more detail
below, one of my students, Patricia Cano and I have written a short story
about a day in some Spanish girl’s life; this part of the paper has to
be in Spanish for obvious reasons. As you will be able to see, it is
impossible not to use or receive English in a normal day in Spain.
Before starting, I must make clear that all the words which appear
in English in this story have been taken from real everyday Spanish
situations, although obviously have been put together with a bit too
much of glue.
Esta
historia ocurrió en un weekend que pasé hace un par de semanas en
Marbella beach, donde por cierto no he oído más Spanglish
en mi vida.
Después
de llegar en mi flamante Land Rover dotado de ABS
y cambio hypertronic, me dirigí a un pub cercano,
donde tomé una Coca-Cola light
y un sandwich de chopped que venía liado en film
transparente. Estando en esto, por cierto, pasó una extranjera rubia con wonderbra.
Llevaba unos shorts bastante ajustados, además. Uno de mis amigos
comentó que conocía a la chica, y que había tenido un affair
bastante heavy con un primo suyo; él la había pillado en topless
en una playa cercana, y vaya show que le montó... eso sí, entre
ella y él había habido feeling.
Un
par de horas después decidí salir a ver el rally que se
desarrollaba por la ciudad. Uno de los pilotos casi atropella a un
muchacho que vendía chupa-chups surprise cerca de un STOP.
Del susto, el pobre chico agarró un shock de cuidado. La lista de
diversiones del día concluyó en el cine, donde pudimos ver la última
entrega de Star Wars después de soportar casi quince minutos de trailers
de viejos films como Terminator o Alien.
El
segundo día transcurrió en el gimnasio. Estaba lleno de gente haciendo footing,
puenting o montando sus brillantes mountain bikes.
Pasé entonces por el hall hacia la sala principal, donde los
nuevos aparatos de gimnasia multi up power, AB shaper
y run feet hacían las delicias de los musculosos clientes.
Pasé un mal rato, pues uno de los monitores se cortó con un cutter
muy afilado y sangraba a chorro. Una buena ducha con gel NeutroBalance
y champú Head & Shoulders me dejó como nueva, no sin antes
hidratarme la piel con la nueva loción body milk, que es
imprescindible después de pasarte la silk-epil. No pude
maquillarme como es debido, pues no llevaba la Mask Factor; ni
tampoco teñirme el pelo, que ya iba siendo hora, pues olvidé en la
oficina el tinte Country Colours.
En casa por fin. Mi marido, especialista en marketing de la revista de
discos Discoplay, acababa de empezar a ver la final de la Champions
League. El partido se decidió por penalties, incluso después
de que uno de los equipos hubiese lanzado veintitrés corners
contra la portería contraria. Los hooligans ingleses estuvieron
bastante pacíficos, por una vez. Yo, por mi parte, preferí distraerme
con el Discovery Channel y el Disney Channel.
Una
llamada telefónica distrajo mi atención del reality show que
estaba viendo. Era de una compañía de teléfonos móviles, que me ofrecía
cambiar mi viejo Moviline por
un pack MoviStar GSM Alcatel One Touch Easy de última
generación. Les dije que prefería esperar a que llegara el nuevo standard
UMTS, y que ni siquiera me convencerían con el sistema WAP
actual, con el que puedes acceder a Internet desde el móvil.
Sonando
ya las diez en el Bird Clock que compré en la página web
de TV shop, mi marido cambió el fútbol por un partido de squash
nocturno en el club deportivo. Es curiosísimo ver allí a los yuppies
hacer footing con los Walkman
puestos.
Volvió
justo a tiempo para evitar que nuestras hijas, Jennifer y Melodie,
montasen un show y se dieran de bofetadas por el nuevo Action
Man que les había traído la semana pasada. Mañana se va a Bruselas,
en jet privado para evitar el overbooking...
As you can see, many of the words are not exactly
completely English, but they are of English origin or have been coined
from English words or with English elements.
2.4.2. SPORT
"Innovation in language tends to diffuse through social
networks" and "young
people are important leaders of change", says the British Council
[1997] in their article "Futurology". Sport and the role played
by the media are good examples of that. The combination youth-sport-media
is explosive in this sense.
El
sparring de Tyson; el mister
del equipo; el jugador estaba en offside; la etapa se disputó al sprint,
y hubo que recurrir a la photo-finish; Champions League: el warm-up de la
carrera; los boxes / el box de Ferrari; corner; penalty; el
manager general del equipo; el trainer del equipo; last lap in broadcastings of
athletics or motoring are only some of the English terms we can hear every
week in sport programmes or publications.
Then, many Spanish sport words come from direct translations, such as negociar
la curva; árbitro asistente (en lugar de
ayudante); servir (instead of
sacar); drive for golpe de
derecha; liftar, (from lift); esmachar (from smash); un passing (shot), meaning un golpe pasante.
2.4.3.
ADVERTISING
English is the language of advertising, that is clear. We can see
hundreds of TV commercials in which English is used, no matter the country
we are in. The Spanish situation is not different by any means. As a
matter of fact, advertising in Spain is deeply influenced by English.
Maybe it is that way because we Spaniards think that what comes from
outside is better, or perhaps because English “sounds well”, or maybe
because, being the international language, it adds prestige to what is
being advertised. Whatever the reason, the fact is that you can not
avoid hearing English at home every day several times a day.
I have collected quite a few examples. To have a look at them,
click here.
Apart from all these, we should point out that ninety per cent of
the music we hear in ads is in English.
2.4.4.
CINEMA, MUSIC AND TELEVISION
Un
video-clip; un casting; a woman introduces a singer and says
Surprise! The expressions okay and sit down are used
in the programme “El informal”. In a popular TV series, a shop
assistant asked: ¿Quieres el desodorante en spray, en stick o en
roll-on?; Antena 3 noticias says tickets instead of
billetes; boys
and strip-tease, said in “Senderos de gloria” by Consuelo
Berlanga, to refer to men who get undressed as part of a show; música country, rock and roll, new age, jazz (this one coming
from gullah, not from English, but clearly entering Spanish through
English); in “Corazón de primavera”, someone said: Paulina y yo
tenemos stickers (pegatinas) en nuestros corazones”; in “Gente con
chispa”, one of the presenters said I’m sorry; Cine Made in America
(Antena 3); in “Gran
Hermano” someone said entertainment; el show-business; las fans del
cantante…; dispararon los flashes; the winner is… (not only
in the Oscar awards ceremony); “El
informal”: El Gran Wyoming es un showman…; escuchamos el último
single de…; the presenter of the quiz “Saber y ganar” said of
course...
2.4.5.
ENGLISH, TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET
New
technologies give rise to language change. Of the estimated forty million
users of the Internet, the majority communicate in English. 80% of the
world’s electronically stored information is in English. English is the
“default” language in email throughout the world. These are some of
the data we must keep in mind in order to find the answer to the question: Why does a good percent of the words related to the new
technologies (especially computing) come from English?
The
answer could be to fill a gap (see below for more information). Computing
is a new science, technology causes change, makes new things and there is
a need for new words to design new concepts. Let's have a look at a brief
list.
PC
(personal computer); microfilm; Disco disponible en CD (Compact
Disc); película
en DVD (Digital Versatile Disc); joystick; Walkman;
walkie-talkie;
diskette; frenos EDS (electronic direction system); frenos
ABS (anti-block break system); motor HDI (high-pressure direct injection); el
nuevo modelo de Airbus; motor turbo intercooler; game over when a video
game finishes; chip; bit; byte; mouse (why not simply "ratón"?); joystick (I like this word, no translation of it in Spanish
whatsoever: the capability of English to make up compound words to express
complex concepts is worth mentioning. It is not a simple stick, it is a
stick used for en"joy"ment, hence joystick); the above commented e-mail
(email); Soundblaster (marca de tarjeta de sonido); Megabyte; CD-ROM (Read-Only Memory); memoria
RAM (Random Access Memory); el ordenador va a hacer un Scandisk;
almacenando información en el buffer;
trabajar en un entorno WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get); Windows
95/98/2000...
There are so many English words used in computing that Oxford
University Press decided to publish a dictionary with all the terms
possibly used in this area. This was four years ago, and the dictionary is
already obsolete. There are more than 2600 real examples of words or
expressions used in computing. Not all, but many of these words or
expressions are currently used in Spanish as well, as we have been able to
see in the examples above.
English is the unofficial language of the Internet, and new terms
are coined every day. To solve the problems of both native and non-native
users of English, there are even on-line dictionaries in the web which can
be consulted while you are reading anything on your screen. That and much
more has been caused by the new technologies. A certain sense of
dependence of English already exists. The point is: To what extent will
English become necessary? Is it necessary now? Well, it all
depends on what you are, who you are and who/what you would like to
become, as we have commented above when talking about "The ones who
do and the ones who do not" and "English and jobs".
2.4.6. OTHER
La jet (set); la beautiful (people); sandwich; snack
(bar); un burger; zapear; cambiar
el chip; examen tipo test; no tengo money...
2.4.7. THE REASONS
In his article "English in European
Spanish", Ross Smith [1997]
establishes four main areas of reasons why English words are
imported to Spanish, and I agree with him in most of his opinion.
The first reason is showing off. This is a hobby many
Spaniards are most keen on. To show the other people that you know a lot,
no matter you really know or not, the important matter here is to give the
impression that you do... Well, for that reason we find examples of such
English borrowings as por último pero no por ello menos importante...,
probably from Shakespeare's last but not least...; or un político
de perfil bajo, from low-profile; or,
like Ross points out, Spanish teenagers greeting each other with hellos,
or confirming with okays. Also nos vemos, currently under
extensive used but certainly not very common in the 70s, comes from
English see you.
Many years ago, a famous Spanish commentator said that Norway was un
outsider tradicional in the Eurovision Song Contest, meaning that they
never won. The Telefónica stock options, extensively used by all
media in Spain, finally defeated the attempts of the Cadena COPE, which
always said "opciones sobre acciones".
When I first wanted to have a connection to the Internet, I asked
for it in the computer store. The shop assistant then asked me for a
"paahwooh" (sort of phonetic transcription of the English word
"password", hispanicised and pronounced Andalusian-style.) Of
course I did not understand. "Contraseña", in our own language,
would certainly have been a much better choice.
The second reason is to fill a gap, that is, a word that
does not exist but has to be used is imported. It is certainly much easier
than creating a new word. However, some of the borrowings have Spanish
equivalents, as we will see. Ross Smith cites marketing (técnicas
de mercado); leasing; footing ("correr por deporte o para
estar en forma" seems to be rather a long translation to be
functional); parking (aparcamiento does not seem that bad, doesn't
it? [see below for a deeper comment on this word]); renting (what
about "alquiler"); camping, "camp site" being
the proper English term -which is very curious: we are borrowing an
improper term; software, hardware (impossible to find an acceptable
translation). And the brand-new freeware and shareware.
The third is osmosis, although I think that only a few words
can be placed in this box: the example by Ross Smith is dale a
"enter" (computer language).
Bad translations, the fourth reason, can be found
everywhere, especially in TV series which are translated very quickly due
to lack of time reasons. In
more serious environments, such expressions as en detalle (con
detalle, detalladamente) or en profundidad (con profundidad,
profundamente) can be seen here and there. Consistentemente,
meaning "constantemente, sin fisuras" started to be used by the
media too. Before that, "consistente" only meant in Spanish
"thick" and/or "strong".
Other clear cases of bad translation are "honesto", used
instead of the Spanish correct form "honrado" because of the
influence of English honest; and "implementar", from
English implement (llevar a cabo, realizar), which does not exist
in Spanish but is said everyday -especially by politicians- and is heard
in the media
by millions of Spaniards who think it is correct and use it... so the
usage of the word spreads all over the country.
I would add a fifth reason: Phonetics. Many times, English
words "sound" better than the corresponding Spanish
translations. That is why advertisements include lots of words in English,
and that is why we tend to say an English word instead of its Spanish
counterpart. The above commented parking instead of
"aparcamiento" is an example of what I say. Phonetically
speaking, a-par-ca-mien-to has five syllables. Park-ing only two. English
words are ninety per cent monosyllabic and in any case ninety per cent
shorter than Spanish ones. In a world where everything tends to be
shortened –we only need to have a look at the number of acronyms in
either English or Spanish-, to have a shorter word seems to be in.
It is clear that that is not always the case. The word computer
is shorter than "ordenador" and we have adopted the latter. It
is a curious case, since "computadora" was the first word used
in Spanish to name this machine, and we finally made up our minds for
"ordenador". The same happens as to the word "condón",
originally from English condom, which has ended up as
"preservativo", much longer and difficult to pronounce. Prestige
has the key here, I guess. "Condón" tended to be identified
with low-register talk, whereas "preservativo" was more...
"scientific".
3. CONCLUSION
It is clear that the world is becoming more and more globalised.
That means that the need for communication will be –in fact, it is-greater
and greater; and that means that we need an instrument for communication,
a language which has the capability of being universal. My opinion is that
that language can only be English. Some suggest that Spanish or Chinese,
because of number of speakers, could replace English in the long term, but
it is clear that Chinese is difficult to learn and is spoken only in
China; Spanish is used by many countries as a first language, but their
importance in the world economy or politics is very little compared to the
USA and the UK.
English is seen worldwide as an attractive and fashionable
language. "An English name [Nigel Ross, 1997] lends
an aura of chic prestige to a business, suggesting that it is part of the
international scene, following the latest trends, up-to-date with the
newest ideas." Also,
the international prestige of what is produced in the USA and the UK is a
reason for the use of English everywhere. Spain is not an exception.
A mixture of reasons have caused the trend of English being used in
everyday Spanish situations –many more than we will ever be able to
compile anywhere-. My opinion is that the trend will go on and on, but I
would like to break a lance in favour of Spanish. I think that borrowing
words for new concepts/objects is okay if
there is no Spanish corresponding word. If there is, any
borrowing is unfair for our culture and our language, and a crime against
hundreds of years of history of the language of Cervantes and the people
who have spoken it for centuries.
4. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
Lan,
Li, 1998. "Cyberdictionaries", English Today, vol. 14,
no. 2. CUP: Cambridge.
McArthur,
Tom, 1997. "The printed word in the English-speaking world", English
today, vol. 13, no. 1. CUP: Cambridge.
Pyne, Sandra and Tuck, Allene, 1996: Oxford Dictionary of Computing.
OUP: Oxford.
Ross, Nigel J., 1997. "Signs of International English", English
Today, vol. 13, no. 2, CUP: Cambridge .
Smith, Ross, 1997. "English in European Spanish", English
Today, vol. 13, no. 4, CUP: Cambridge .
Strang,
Barbara M.H., 1970. A history of
English. London: Methuen.
1997.
"Futurology", The future
of English? London: The
British Council.
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