I really enjoyed this Monica. I grew up bilingual in Scotland speaking Spanish and English, and my son is now doing the same (his dad is Spanish so it's the language we speak at home). We have a very different experience obviously as Edinburgh is not Miami, although there is a larger Spanish community than when I was growing up. But since reading your article I've been thinking about which words we swap in, and when we switch languages.
In Scotland we have an added layer of language within our society which is Scots. There are still people who claim that Scots is a dialect not a language. A lot of people use Scots words with English to varying degrees in Scotland, and it has a huge socio-economic judgment attached to it. Scots is traditionally associated with poor and working class communities (although historically there are plenty of examples of aristocracy and great thinkers using it too). Anyway, as always such a thought provoking piece which leaves me mulling things over for days - thank you!
I really enjoyed this Monica. I grew up bilingual in Scotland speaking Spanish and English, and my son is now doing the same (his dad is Spanish so it's the language we speak at home). We have a very different experience obviously as Edinburgh is not Miami, although there is a larger Spanish community than when I was growing up. But since reading your article I've been thinking about which words we swap in, and when we switch languages.
In Scotland we have an added layer of language within our society which is Scots. There are still people who claim that Scots is a dialect not a language. A lot of people use Scots words with English to varying degrees in Scotland, and it has a huge socio-economic judgment attached to it. Scots is traditionally associated with poor and working class communities (although historically there are plenty of examples of aristocracy and great thinkers using it too). Anyway, as always such a thought provoking piece which leaves me mulling things over for days - thank you!