Every night we spend a little time to watch some news – on our local channel or on one of the larger networks that offer reviews of the most important topics of the day. When using the over-the-air channels or streaming services like Roku we understand that advertising is necessary to cover the cost for the broadcasting company. Usually, it is actually these interruptions of the news cast that ultimately put me to sleep prematurely and make me miss the very news that I was looking to consume! Sometimes I do pay attention though and what is increasingly disturbing to me is that the public broadcasters fill their advertisement slots with self-advertising – so if I watch the CBS news roundup they are pushing for me to watch their CBS morning show, similar things are happening on NBC news and others. As I am processing this, I am truly wondering

There are terms for describing confused multilingual speakers. Here in the US the term Spanglish describes intermingled Spanish and English portions in a line of communication. Consulting with google – the term Denglish describes the mix of German and English words. This is still different from natural integration processes of foreign terms into a native language. A process that has occurred many times in history. It could be the introduction of technology driven terms from foreign sources as a region or country introduces that technology. For example, when Peter I. opened up Russia to European technology for a modernization of the country a lot of Dutch and German terms were integrated – for example in the marine industry or ship building. Mатрос (Eng: sailor; Ger: Matrose), верфь (Eng: shipyard; Ger: Werft), каюта (Eng: cabin, Ger: Kajüte), штурман (Eng: navigator; Ger: Steuermann), and рюкзак (Eng: backpack, Ger: Rucksack) are some examples.

When we went on our recent one-week trip to Mexico I was excited for the opportunity to practice the Spanish skills, that I have acquired over the last six month or so. Leading up to the trip I increased the number of sessions I signed up for, and I also made sure to go through a full round of conversation in the “talk-abroad” offering of my language school, which meant that I had four 15 min conversations with people from Central and South America – here Mexico, Panama, Venezuela and Paraguay. There are always new and interesting facts that one can learn there for example I learned that Paraguay has a significant German population of immigrants that is still growing. Equipped with all these preparations we headed for Mexico, and I was determined to try my Spanish from the moment we landed. The first attempt yielded mixed results right away.