The Code Switching Conondrum-Cultural Reporter Application Blog

    For my cultural reporter project, I have chosen to hone my group of interest down from the hispanic culture to the children of hispanic immigrants.  I feel that this will be much more specific and easy to study, rather than a concept as broad as hispanic culture.  I decided that the concept that would best make sense of this group is a topic that we discussed in chapter six, code switching.

http://zer0degrees.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/code-switching-good-or-bad/

    Code switching is a broad term that refers to the phenomenon of changing languages, dialects, or even accents.  Code switching happens at varying levels of intensity and frequency, but is done for three main purposes: to accommodate the other speaker, to avoid accommodating the other speaker, and to express another aspect of their cultural identity (Martin & Nakayama, 2013).  Code switching is an interesting concept to me, and as a spanish speaking student, it is always interesting for me to observe when and where bilingual people choose to speak English and Spanish.  On the block where I live, there is a young man named Valentín.  He is eight years old and his parents immigrated to America when they were much younger.  Valentín can speak both English and Spanish very well, and he and his other bilingual friends speak both languages regularly.  I have always been curious as to what spurs him to choose one language over the other.  I have tried to speak Spanish to him in the past, and he has always acted awkward about it, similar to how most people act when they are asked a question that they don’t really want to answer.  However, oftentimes he will turn right around and proudly and fluently speak spanish with his parents or his younger friends. 

http://voxy.com/blog/index.php/2012/04/code-switching-and-fluency/

    I have developed two main theories about the reasoning behind Valentín’s reluctance to speak Spanish with me.  One of the two theories is that I am simply not as good at speaking Spanish as I think I am, and I sound like an idiot when I attempt it.  The second theory (which is much more related to this course), is that Valentín sees me as a role model, and tries to emulate me as much as he can.  All of the kids on our block look up to us as role models, and always ask us to do things like play soccer with them or help them with homework.  It makes sense to me that Valentín chooses to speak English exclusively when he is around me as a way of identifying with me and “fitting in” with the cool older college kids.

    For the data collection portion of this project, I am going to sit Mr. Valentín down and have a grill out with him and his family.  During the grill out I will casually interview the family and ask them questions about their culture, and Valentín as a child of hispanic immigrants.  Later, I will sit Valentín down and formally interview him.  I am excited to be able to interview a family that I already know fairly well, because I know that I will get candid and honest answers from them. 

References

Martin, J. N. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (Sixth ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Thompson, M. (n.d.). Five Reasons Why People Code-Switch. NPR. Retrieved October 25, 2013, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/04/13/177126294/five-reasons-why-people-code-switch