The Spanish Language, And How It Influences The Way That Hispanics Think & Behave.

The Sapir- Whorf hypothesis deals with language and what if any impact it has with the user’s behavior. It is said that the way we speak and convey our ideas have an affect on ones thinking and behavior. Language is not separate from culture, but instead a major part of it. In reading about this hypothesis, I have come to realize the language that we speak plays a significant role in how we think and behave. It is the way in which we communicate and relay thoughts and/or ideas. Each language is thought to have certain characteristics that most people identify with. To find out a little more, I asked a couple of my French colleagues what makes their language so appealing, they responded by saying “Our first language (French) is both calming and soothing. We take time to enjoy life and not put a strain on it. This way of thinking is transferred into our language, because our language is our culture.”

In doing research, I have come to realize that code switching is a very big part of the Hispanic community that live in the U.S. Many Hispanic immigrants, who come to America, come to America speaking only Spanish. They are forced to learn the English language to some extent to survive in the American society. Whether at work, church, the supermarket, or at school, they will come in contact with English on a daily basis.

Being Hispanics being exposed to this many English speakers (by people who are monolingual and bilingual) forces both parties to pick up on the others language, thus causing them to learn from each other. This situation causes in most cases for each party to be both the student and the teacher.

The big debate over code switching is “does it cause interference in speech?” (Code Switching as a Countenance of Language Interference by Richard Skiba) or “does it provide a continuity in speech?”

The Hispanic language represents culture and individuality. Many Hispanics switch back to the first language because they feel the message has more importance and encoding it in the first language would do a better job of conveying the message.
With many Hispanic immigrants learning English (second language) for the first time, switching back to Spanish (first language) is a way to convey thoughts that are harder to form in a second language or they just use Spanglish (a mixture of both English and Spanish). To say that it is an interference or continuity in speech is something that has to be determined on a case by case basis. This is an argument that will probably never have a definite answer.

Marketers can use code switching to their advantage, because in many cases Hispanics are noticing both English and Spanish ads. Even though there are still many who don’t speak English, they still have children and peers who speak and/or understand it on some level. With the Hispanic community being so close knit, they rely on the opinions of family, friends and other Hispanics to some extent to help make decisions.

I spoke with a Hispanic immigrant from Ecuador, who works for the state of Florida. He speaks both English and Spanish very well. This individual shared his views on English, Spanish, and bilingual ads. He started off by saying “I pay more attention to ads that are in English, because I can relate more to ads that are in English. I am a citizen of this country now, and I have adapted in many ways to the American way of life. If I want to fit into this country, I must learn the American language. I shouldn’t expect for every American to learn Spanish. ” Not every Hispanic feels this way, and that is why it is hard for a marketer to determine the language for Hispanic advertisements.

By utilizing both English and Spanish avenues, it would increase the level of receptivity to the consumer, by maximizing you’re contact with consumers. You will be increasing your point of contact with consumers by reaching the more enculturated consumers who only speak and respond to Spanish ads, and the acculturated consumers who speak Spanish and English and respond to Spanish and English ads.

By running the ads for the same product through both avenues as listed before, it would also increase the understanding of the second language. The consumer would use the ad that is in first language to decode the message that is in second language, thus becoming more accepting to ads in the second language.

Fayona Salmon
Florida State University