Degliantoni: Your parents, not Telemundo, will make you multilingual

An interesting opinion piece about the importance of being bilingual or multilingual and how best to get there. - - Donna Poisl

by Lisa Degliantoni, editor-in-chief of the El Paso Media Group

Monolingual Americans living on the border have an obligation to embrace Mexican culture, food and language.

After living in El Paso for eight years, I am embarrassed by the fact that I can't read and write in Spanish. It's a shortcoming of mine; all around me, I see numerous individuals, adults and children alike, embracing more than one language.

On S. El Paso Street, the stores are filled with Korean and Chinese immigrants who navigate Mandarin, English and Spanish conversations depending on who gets to the register next. Most of the store owners are older than 16, way past the age where it's easy to learn a language, and I'm confident Spanish is not offered in Chinese grade schools, English is.

Several of my coworkers at El Paso Media Group speak Spanish as their first language but predominantly use English when at work. In their second language, they masterfully defend their design decisions, with a vocabulary that deals in layouts and colors.
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