Do+You+Speak+American


 * Do You Speak American ? [videorecording]**

Part 3 of 3 DVDs Now on the West 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 **African American Vernacular English** 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 up 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.

//Why is the English spoken by Maine lobstermen so different from that spoken by cowboys in Texas? Does Spanish pose a threat to English as the dominant language in America? And what on earth do yins, wickety wack, ayuh, catty whompus, and stomping it clean mean? Robert MacNeil travels cross-country to answer these questions and examine the dynamic state of American English - a language rich with regional variety, strong global impact and cultural controversy.//

PBS Special:  http://www.pbs.org/speak/about/

Available at several Public Libraries: http://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/

Available at the La Mesa County Library (you can request it be delivered to El Cajon County Library) http://www.sdcl.org/