Should I say: "torta," or "pastel?" "jitomate" or "tomate," "alberca" o "piscina", "camioneta," "pikup" or "troka?" As Gershwin said in his 1937 musical hit "lets call the whole thing off," right?
Poor US Hispanic market copywriters, producers, translators, and news media. These questions are indeed their daily struggle, trying to find the right word without offending anyone or falling victim to language criticism. I know, I know, most professionals will preach that the vocabulary you use depends on who your audience is... But take it from a guy whose been involved in all of the above disciplines for well over a decade... It doesn't really matter. You're going to be wrong, no matter what.
Bottom line is that most Spanish speakers in the US are very bilingual, some more than others, and come from a huge range of linguistic influences. However by their own account, they are all experts in the language/s they speak, and you'll be challenged to convince them otherwise. In marketing, we are told in order to sell to Hispanics we need to speak their language of comfort and use the proper cultural cues to effectively motivate their purchase decision making. But if your audience is a bunch of self professed language brainiacs who come from a variety of cultures with different "proper Spanish" definitions, how are you possibly going to satisfy them all? I'll be willing to bet at some point when you called the very language your attempting to speak "español," some bilingual know-it-all has told you it's "castellano" not "español." Hay Dios..... no wonder so many general market advertisers choose to skip Hispanic advertising. We torture them with this nonsense...
I have a suggestion: Lets quit nitpicking language. We all know there are plenty of versions and a multitude of audiences. Face it, we live in the US were everybody is from everywhere, and here, damas y caballeros, everything goes... En los estados unidos, there is no correct way, instead there are many correct ways.
"Que chévere," "que bonito" o "que padre," It's all the same... I just know where your from when you say it... Mexican or Colombian, Cuban or Argentine, Spanglish or "castellano", right or wrong, who cares!!! The diversity adds to the mosaic of our colorful US Hispanic culture.
OK, I may be oversimplifying. When writing an article, or ad copy its still arguably ill-advised to use words like "cajeta" to an Argentine audience and "coger" in front of some Latin Americans. Proper grammar is undeniably important in professional settings too. The point is, if you used a Buenos Aires or Norteño accent on purpose, or perhaps write it, or say it from the perspective of any particular culture, those questions about correct and incorrect Spanish suddenly fade away since we know who is talking. Do they not?
Someone told me once: Language is simply a means of communication, but rich in culture. The answer to what word you should use lies in that very statement and is somewhere between cultural relevancy and effective communication. I propose we adopt a new word: "Culturmunicate." and perhaps take Gershwin's suggestion again to "call the calling off, off."
Drew Wilson,
Business Development Director, Hispanidad
10/12/10
It's funny that this article is written by a "gringo"....maybe I'd put a little more weight on the issue if it were written by someone who's first language is Spanish, whether from the U.S. or not. It seems like the author is just trying to take the easy way out, by saying all the "differences" don't really matter...oversimplifying? Yes! And leave the language to the people who actually speak it, teach it and learn it!
ReplyDeleteTrisha you missed the point. Although your'e right about one thing, the article is written by a "gringo" 100% Gabachísimo, in fact. His Hispanic culture/language skill just happens to be at the same level your English appears to be. y ¡Felicidades por un comentario muy bien dicho!
ReplyDeleteThe point is Trisha, most every US Hispanic thinks their own version of Spanish is right and the other version in wrong. I'm not sure if you're involved in marketing or not, but in this industry, egos run very heavy. And when we all grapple over what translation is correct, we scare folks away instead of establishing any expertise. The result: " I can just reach them in English instead.. " Is that what you want to accomplish by thwarting your proper Spanish rules? Or can you just accept, we all come from a lot of different influences and what's correct for one may be incorrect for another. Its the price of living in a multicultural society. Now, I don't endorse misspelled words or poorly translated Spanish that nobody understands. However I do tolerate our language diversity and recommend good communication and expressing your culture. Just leave the dictionary on the shelf...
Funny, this debate is one why sometimes I almost prefer that our clients be anglo. When you have that marketing manager who is Latino, then your copywriter presents a concept, that Latino is quick to jump in with his/her linguistic expertise to criticize the copy is incorrect or not a widely accepted term. The agency defends its position, the client team feels does not know what to do but to defer to the "Latino" in their organization and the net result is the agency comes across as ill prepared.
ReplyDeleteI agree, lets culturmunicate.
Check this out Victor.., Just today we could have easily spent a total of $340 in agency time going back and forth with the client within ourselves and clients over whether to use "el 50%" or "la mitad," "en" or "de." Of course I'd have to erase that time, I cant live with myself billing for such insignificant detail. If there were only one Spanish speaker in the mix, we'd have put this to bed hours ago.... Too many opinions, too many cooks in the kitchen. In the end, have we sold more product? or just feed or deteriorated someone's Spanish ego...
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting
Trisha,
ReplyDeleteTalk about oversimplify, to assume that because you are native speaker you know the language better than a "gringo" who has "actually speak it, teach it and learn it" is just not accurate.... you should hear this gringo speak it before you make such assumption!
Cliche stuff. I'd say that 90% of the time, neutral Spanish works for non-core words. Everyone understands "piscina" even people who say "alberca". If you say "ni en pedo", bueno, that's otra cosa, but by and large, loose words here and there don't affect the persuassion of the message as much as having the right imagery. What's wrong is not to know how to use or not "luego luego a la derecha" but to think that a commercial or spot that will persuade some white blue collar kid in West Virginia will have the same effect on a Mexican-origin kid in LA just because the Latino kid speaks English
ReplyDelete