Jason “The Kid Struggling with Spanish”

Vasquez writes: “I might not be the smartest, the easiest to communicate with, or the first person you contact in an emergency, but I try my best to tailor to any person’s needs.”

Vasquez Jason, “Sory of My Life”, Written Literacy and Language Narrative

Jason Vasquez born and raised in the US, he is originally from Dominican Republic, his family moved to US around 1995/96.

Vasquez has had struggles along the years, and the biggest one he has faced is his Broken Spanish and considering that the rest of his family speaks Spanish perfectly, he sometimes feels anxious and nervous.

Coming from Dominican Republic, he and his family are very much connected to their relatives that live still in there, that’s why they visit it once or twice per year. However, even though Vasquez loves to go there, he is still not very comfortable to speak in Spanish with his relatives, as he feels shy of his Broken Spanish, and he doesn’t take the initiative to speak too much. Vasquez has two sides of him that contradict each other.

“Um, in the Dominican Republic, I’ll say that they are really, like, really expressive. There, they will tell you what it is, like, straight up. That’s why it’s a little bit intimidating whenever I go over there because they’re not scared to say anything. They are really blunt. And so, just knowing that puts a little bit, like, of nerves inside of me.”

From his Interview

Vasquez acknowledges the fact that his Spanish isn’t in the same level as his family’s, therefore he is trying to build towards being able to speak fluent Spanish so they could see him a bit more different and see him as a part of them because over there they refer to people like Vasquez as “gringos” a nickname that refers to the American version of Dominicans. A big influence on Vasquez’s Spanish has had English as well. Considering the fact that he was born and raised in the US, and he has a lot of friends with whom he spends a lot of his time.

“I speak Spanish if I’m speaking to somebody that already knows English, but you know they might be predominantly Spanish or just know Spanish I can throw in a little bit of English words just so that you know although it’s going to be broken Spanish is what they call it uh it’s better than just trying to force words that I might not be too sure about.”

From his Interview

Vasquez is striving to be a licensed Real Estate Agent, and he says that him knowing Spanish has helped his journey to achieve his goal as he has been able to reach more people through his Spanish. So, there are things like these that make Vasquez try his best to perfect his Spanish and prove to his family that he can do it. Just like he says on his interview:

“If one day I perfect the language, that would probably be something I want to do. Just go over there and just show off that I did it.”

From his Interview

There is a place Vasquez calls a second home, and that is the Barber Shop, they don’t just make him look presentable and confident, but they also help him a lot with practicing his Spanish, as they all speak Spanish, and they make it all fun by joking around with their language barriers as well.

“My barber is like a comedian, so he will speak English to me, it will be really funny. And just him having the confidence to speak a language that he’s not so fluent in, it just makes me want to speak Spanish a little more there, just because I’m not too shy to speak in the Spanish, just because they’re not going to judge me, and I’ll be able to get more words out.”

From his Interview

So, based on the environment Vasquez is in and the people that he is surrounded with, he finds a form that suits the other person to communicate with. In his Interview Vasques says:

“I feel like it’s just as impressive or even like people will respect you more just for trying to do things that might be challenging.”

From his Interview

This way Vasquez tries to reach to all the pears his age with the message that it’s not about being able to gasp the full concept of speaking a language fluently, but it is all about you attempting to speak the language, against the challenges you may have.