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Pardon My Spanglish
In Pardon My Spanglish , stand-up comedian Bill Santiago chronicles the quintessentially American alegrías of his mother the quirky, hilariously improvisational fusion of inglés and español spoken by millions (even if they don’t know or admit que están doing it). With crash-course efficiency, cada página de este libro empowers your every step toward Spanglish mastery. How can you not love Spanglish? Twice the vocabulary, half the grammar!
Readers will
• The outlaw syntax of Spanglish (as observed by a comedian with no formal training in linguistics whatsoever)
• Advanced tricks of Spanglish conjugation (“to google”: Yo googleo, tú googleas, nosotros googleamos)
• The Top 10 Best Things About Being Latino (#6: Guaranteed part in high school production of “West Side Story”)
• Why “People en Español” should simply be called “Gente”
• Handy corporate Spanglish phrases, including “Feliz hump day”
• The secret Spanglish agenda of Dora the Explorer
• ¡And mucho más!
Full of dead-on observations about immigration paniqueo, “oprima el dos” backlash, and every politically incorrect sentiment in between, Pardon My Spanglish is essential reading for Latinos—and the Latino-curious.
Readers will
• The outlaw syntax of Spanglish (as observed by a comedian with no formal training in linguistics whatsoever)
• Advanced tricks of Spanglish conjugation (“to google”: Yo googleo, tú googleas, nosotros googleamos)
• The Top 10 Best Things About Being Latino (#6: Guaranteed part in high school production of “West Side Story”)
• Why “People en Español” should simply be called “Gente”
• Handy corporate Spanglish phrases, including “Feliz hump day”
• The secret Spanglish agenda of Dora the Explorer
• ¡And mucho más!
Full of dead-on observations about immigration paniqueo, “oprima el dos” backlash, and every politically incorrect sentiment in between, Pardon My Spanglish is essential reading for Latinos—and the Latino-curious.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2008
6 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 16, 2021
I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. For me, this book is a proof of concept that an entire book can indeed be written in Spanglish. This is a huge undertaking for an author and could truly only be done by someone who is completely fluent in both Spanish and English, and I do appreciate that the author did not cater to a monolingual English audience at all; you really do have to be bilingual to (literally) understand this novel, because there's almost an exact 50/50 split of Spanish and English. Santiago excelled at proving that Spanglish is truly its own entity, complete with its own set of implicit grammatical rules and significant lexical departures from each of its parent languages.
However, the book's structure and use of Spanglish itself is definitely the strongest aspect of it, while the actual content falls flat. There are certain lessons Santiago includes about Spanglish that I enjoyed reading about, like the rules of constructing a grammatically correct Spanglish sentence or how to conduct a phone conversation in Spanglish. Unfortunately, every single one of these lessons ran far too long, taking up far more pages than necessary. There were dozens and dozens of examples for each scenario, spanning across multiple pages, and at some point I started to skim because it felt like Santiago was just trying to fill up page space to prove his point that Spanglish can be used to write a novel.
Unfortunately, as much as I think Santiago succeeds at speaking and writing the language of Spanglish itself, I don't think he excels as an author per se. He tries to include a lot of jokes but his humor is a little awkward, making the humor more cringe than enjoyable. It's just generally a little difficult to read a book that's largely made up of linguistic examples and jokey lines; it's not dense enough linguistically to be considered a textbook, and it's not humorous enough to read as a comedic novel, so it falls flat on both accounts. When the genre and the content are so disjointed, it leaves readers with a weird sense of not knowing exactly what kind of book they are reading.
The last kicker for me was that Santiago had some weirdly racist comments in the book. I distinctly remember there was one joke about how people eat dogs in Korea and another joke about how the Chinese language is taking over the United States. These types of jokes are incredibly offensive and are particularly disgusting comments to find in a book that is branded as "nonfiction" and thus implies that all the content content is fact-based and truthful. These racist jokes added nothing to the book (in fact, they largely detracted from it), especially in a book on bilingualism. Bilingualism at its core is based in the unification of cultures and linguistic histories, and it seems particularly insensitive to make those types of jokes in this type of novel.
If the content was more engaging and varied, and if Santiago focused less on playing up a comedic angle and focused more on providing actual linguistically relevant information about Spanglish, I would've enjoyed the novel a lot more. Unfortunately, it was largely a letdown, save a few passages, and I don't really highly recommend it, unless you're absolutely intent and singularly focused on reading a book that's entirely written in Spanglish.
However, the book's structure and use of Spanglish itself is definitely the strongest aspect of it, while the actual content falls flat. There are certain lessons Santiago includes about Spanglish that I enjoyed reading about, like the rules of constructing a grammatically correct Spanglish sentence or how to conduct a phone conversation in Spanglish. Unfortunately, every single one of these lessons ran far too long, taking up far more pages than necessary. There were dozens and dozens of examples for each scenario, spanning across multiple pages, and at some point I started to skim because it felt like Santiago was just trying to fill up page space to prove his point that Spanglish can be used to write a novel.
Unfortunately, as much as I think Santiago succeeds at speaking and writing the language of Spanglish itself, I don't think he excels as an author per se. He tries to include a lot of jokes but his humor is a little awkward, making the humor more cringe than enjoyable. It's just generally a little difficult to read a book that's largely made up of linguistic examples and jokey lines; it's not dense enough linguistically to be considered a textbook, and it's not humorous enough to read as a comedic novel, so it falls flat on both accounts. When the genre and the content are so disjointed, it leaves readers with a weird sense of not knowing exactly what kind of book they are reading.
The last kicker for me was that Santiago had some weirdly racist comments in the book. I distinctly remember there was one joke about how people eat dogs in Korea and another joke about how the Chinese language is taking over the United States. These types of jokes are incredibly offensive and are particularly disgusting comments to find in a book that is branded as "nonfiction" and thus implies that all the content content is fact-based and truthful. These racist jokes added nothing to the book (in fact, they largely detracted from it), especially in a book on bilingualism. Bilingualism at its core is based in the unification of cultures and linguistic histories, and it seems particularly insensitive to make those types of jokes in this type of novel.
If the content was more engaging and varied, and if Santiago focused less on playing up a comedic angle and focused more on providing actual linguistically relevant information about Spanglish, I would've enjoyed the novel a lot more. Unfortunately, it was largely a letdown, save a few passages, and I don't really highly recommend it, unless you're absolutely intent and singularly focused on reading a book that's entirely written in Spanglish.
February 10, 2017
Bottom line: laugh out loud funny. I can't remember the last time I laughed this much through a book. I first heard Bill Santiago on an episode of Latino USA, and I was hooked from his first riff about riding the A-train through the oprima-el-dos corridor. Alerta a todos mis Spanglishistas out there: go pick up this book. If you've ever let slip a ¿Qué what?, read a bedtime story when it's time for mimí, or lived in dread of the pow pow, rest assured you will recognize yourself and your family in this book, and you'll laugh your way from beginning to fin.
But this is not really just a funny book. There's way more than that going on here. For one thing, hiding beneath that comic exterior is a serious cultural milestone. Pardon My Spanglish is a consciousness-raising call to all of us closet Spanglish practitioners, who have labored under and seriously internalized all the anti-Spanlish bias and hostility we've heard from parents, teachers, and pedantic followers of The Book -- by which Bill Santiago and I mean, of course, el diccionario de la Real Academia Española. At the heart of Santiago's very funny primer is a mighty revolutionary notion: Spanglish is not "bad" or "lazy" Spanish. It is a cultural marker born out of the deep well of creativity of a very distinct social identity, a bi-cultural community equally at home in Latina/o and American culture, and never fully of either one individually. And, as such, Santiago's call to all us closeted Spanglishistas is powerful and unambiguous: it's time to wave your freak bandera high. Own your Spanglish as proudly as you own your Latina/o heritage, and practice it to your heart's delight.
And there's even more in there. While the comedian may make light of the the Santiago Spanglish Institute for World Peace, the truth is you can't write a book this good without actually knowing something about what you're playing with. To a semi-professional linguist like me, Santiago's dirty little secret is pretty clear to see. He's really done his research. Yes, he does collect real world Spanglish specimens like birdwatchers log rare sightings. But he also knows a thing or two about grammar and linguistics. Don't worry, all the eggheady stuff is very well hidden and will not get in the way of the abundant laughter the book will produce, but it's there, and it makes his effort all the richer.
This book is an absolute treat -- funny, smart, and full of love for the Latin culture. And if all I've written doesn't convince you why you should read this book, the best I can do is leave you with the most beautiful words ever spoken in the Spanglish language: ¿Cómo que why? ¡Porque because!
------
Bonus feature: To see some vintage Spanglish, beautifully executed by none other than that august founding papucho of Spanglish, Ricky Ricardo, check out this video. And if for some reason that link doesn't work, nada más googléelo. :)
But this is not really just a funny book. There's way more than that going on here. For one thing, hiding beneath that comic exterior is a serious cultural milestone. Pardon My Spanglish is a consciousness-raising call to all of us closet Spanglish practitioners, who have labored under and seriously internalized all the anti-Spanlish bias and hostility we've heard from parents, teachers, and pedantic followers of The Book -- by which Bill Santiago and I mean, of course, el diccionario de la Real Academia Española. At the heart of Santiago's very funny primer is a mighty revolutionary notion: Spanglish is not "bad" or "lazy" Spanish. It is a cultural marker born out of the deep well of creativity of a very distinct social identity, a bi-cultural community equally at home in Latina/o and American culture, and never fully of either one individually. And, as such, Santiago's call to all us closeted Spanglishistas is powerful and unambiguous: it's time to wave your freak bandera high. Own your Spanglish as proudly as you own your Latina/o heritage, and practice it to your heart's delight.
And there's even more in there. While the comedian may make light of the the Santiago Spanglish Institute for World Peace, the truth is you can't write a book this good without actually knowing something about what you're playing with. To a semi-professional linguist like me, Santiago's dirty little secret is pretty clear to see. He's really done his research. Yes, he does collect real world Spanglish specimens like birdwatchers log rare sightings. But he also knows a thing or two about grammar and linguistics. Don't worry, all the eggheady stuff is very well hidden and will not get in the way of the abundant laughter the book will produce, but it's there, and it makes his effort all the richer.
This book is an absolute treat -- funny, smart, and full of love for the Latin culture. And if all I've written doesn't convince you why you should read this book, the best I can do is leave you with the most beautiful words ever spoken in the Spanglish language: ¿Cómo que why? ¡Porque because!
------
Bonus feature: To see some vintage Spanglish, beautifully executed by none other than that august founding papucho of Spanglish, Ricky Ricardo, check out this video. And if for some reason that link doesn't work, nada más googléelo. :)
September 3, 2010
A spirited manifesto supporting the mixture of languages. Despite my rudimentary Spanish skills and the comedian's excitable attitude (you know those bouncy comedians and their persistent cheeriness even when they make dumb jokes) this was enjoyable. As he says about Spanglish: "twice the vocabulary and half the grammar."
This is certainly not a necessary read, but there was obviously some research behind it, there are some pin-prick political barbs, and a couple of decent jokes (my favorite involved Army recruitment posters and soy milk).
This is certainly not a necessary read, but there was obviously some research behind it, there are some pin-prick political barbs, and a couple of decent jokes (my favorite involved Army recruitment posters and soy milk).
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April 13, 2021"Se rige por ciertas reglas subconscientes"
"Twice the vocabulary and half the grammar"
"Twice the vocabulary and half the grammar"
September 25, 2009
The entire book is written in Spanglish, making the final chapter, transcriptions of Spanglish conversations at his family's Christmas dinner, a bit redundant. But I love Spanglish, and I loved the fact the Bill Santiago takes it seriously. He's a comedian and goes for the funny, but embedded among the jokes are some pretty interesting observations about the language and its patterns.
February 27, 2012
I think this book is straight down hilarious, and funny.
October 27, 2012
A cute little book. There were some chapters that had me dying with laughter. I would definitely like to see Bill's stand-up act.
September 18, 2012
Laughed out loud. Repeatedly. My boys were embarassed to sit near me at the doctor's office. It's written in Spanglish, which was *sin duda, la unica manera en que podria haber sido escrito.*
April 6, 2014
Que pochistoso - even if he *is* boricua! His insights had me in estiches, and nearly made me need to change my chonies de risa! (Tambien es muy suave and affable - a great guy in person.)
April 30, 2010
I loved reading about using Spanglish. I totally relate, although the book was cheesy at times.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews