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On the left coast, the series spotlights Spanglish — a hybrid of Spanish and English.
On the left coast, the series spotlights Spanglish - a hybrid of
Spanish and English - with a segment on Patricia López, a
video jockey on the local Latino television program "Mex to the
Max." It also explores Chicano - the thriving, distinct street talk
of the Los Angeles Latino community - taking a trip to an
inner-city park packed with urban teens accompanied by linguist
Carmen Fought. MacNeil visits classrooms in which young students
learn to translate Ebonics and the informal versions of English
spoken at home into the classroom English they will need to succeed
in the workforce. MacNeil gets a lesson himself in surfer-,
skateboarder- and skater-speak. He meets with screenwriters Amy
Heckerling and Winnie Holtzman for a discussion about the impact of
Hollywood on our language; comedian Steve Harvey, who says he
sounds silly speaking anything other than "African-American," but
well understands the need for African-American children to be
"bilingual"; and Cliff Nass, a Stanford University professor who
poses thoughtful questions about the potential societal impact of
voice-activated computers.
