“ALLO AMIGO”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 March 1941, Page 3

“ALLO AMIGO”

LIFE IN GUATEMALA j ENGLISH TOURISTS WELCOMED. I SPANISH LANGUAGE NEVER USED. I ißy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright i ' LAKE ATITLAN, Guatemala. ~ i Smiling faces look up at the tourist 1 visiting the abundant native market at Chichicastenango. Brown eyes twinkle ~ and soft voices greet the stranger. " 'Allo .... Goo'bye.” writes Betty e Kirk from Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. in the "Christian Science Monitor.” ® "You are my frien’ —" So the youth of Guatemala offers its contribution to overcoming the greatest barrier separs ating Anglo-Saxon America and Indo- • Spanish America, the barrier of lanv guage. s These familiar words, spoken in the market, are the more remarkable- at " Chichicastenango, in the heart of the Mayan-Quiche Indian highlands of c Guatemala, for here the native lan- !| guages of Quiche and Mayan are cus- ‘ tomarily spoken, in preference to ’ Spanish. Thus many an Indian speaks ~ his softly hissing native tongue and a s few words of broken English but 1 knows no Spanish at all. in spite of the 2 fact that Spanish has been the official 2 language of the country since the Con--2 quest. This friendliness to the English language, and resistance to the Spanish, is - due to the fact that the Anglo-Saxon is 1 looked upon as a welcome visitor; he - buys freely of the native wares and 1 'has only good will to offer to the Ind- > ians. The Spaniard remains in Indian ■ memories, the dreaded "Conquistador” f who destroyed the Indian cultures and , enslaved the Indian peoples during the • years of Spain's imperial expansion - and greatness. Our young guide ! through the market yesterday spoke . English fluently, if not perfectly, and t revealed that he had learned it all ! from tourists in the past five years. The Guatemaltecan youngsters are ' not alone in this. One finds itdhrough- • out Mexico and in other Latin-Ameri-can countries where English-speaking travellers have penetrated during re- ; cent years. An overnight stop at Tapa- . chula. on the Mexico-Guatemala fron- ■ tier, was spent at a hotel where the ■ small daughter of the proprietor was entertaining acquaintances with a • party. The highlight of the fiesta was . the singing of songs in English by little . girls of Mexican. German and AngloAmerican nationality, accompanied by . shy glances toward the “gringoes” for approval. Many Latin-American children are taught English in government schools. And children not fortunate enough to attend a school often learn it by their own efforts or through the help of a “frien’." A good example of this last method we found at Ixtepec in the I southern State of Chiapas, Mexico. The I waiter at our hotel, a young man of seventeen years, had started the night before to learn English. At dinner, twenty-four hours later, he knew the words for all the usual table objects, ■ which he proudly pronounced for us. His sympathetic teacher was Miguel Covarrubias, the famous Mexican artist, who exchanged lessons in English for lessons in Zapotec. It is in the importance placed upon languages that Latin-American educaI tion differs most from that in the United States. Here “foreign” languages are not “foreign" at all. They are as much a part of the educational system as -the three “R’s” in United States schools. Most important of all. they are , taught in the grade schools, instead of ( high school or college. i It is, for instance, a matter of no ; note whatsoever, to find a ten-year-old ; child in Mexico speaking fluent Ger- | man. in addition to his native Spanish. ] He learns them at the schools maintained by the various foreign colonies < in Mexico City and because he learns t them as a child, and with children tc r whom the language is the mother tongue. he learns them without self-con- ( sciousness. 1 The Latin American’s eagerness tc I speak English is equalled only by his v courtesy as we gropingly speak his tongue. Never a smile nor a titter s comes as the tourist from the North c hesitantly launches into Spanish dur- I ing his southern travels. Rather there is grave nodding of approval and a i softly murmured phrase, repeating the t tourist's attempt, but spoken correct- “ ly. Native courtesy would not permit either laughter or pointing out the vis- c itor’s mistake. Instead there is the in- t direct aid given through repeating, and c an understanding smile. v That all of this exchange, obliterat- r ing the language barrier, will eventu- 1" ally have fruitful results is apparent, t Meanwhile we tourists through the d

South hope for the day when NorthAmerican children will attempt with the same charm and eagerness to understand and say buenos dias or adios and to know that an amigo is a friend. Then Spanish will become not a •■foreign" language at all. but a new one belonging to millions of neighbours who welcome our visits and are cooperating to strengthen bonds of understanding.