Spanish Major

Prior to coming to college, I knew I wanted to study Spanish because I really enjoyed learning it in my high school. I loved the process of learning a new language and learning more about Hispanic culture. As I discovered I wanted to study speech pathology, this further motivated me to study Spanish and even change my degree from a minor to a double major. A very small minority of speech therapists (SLPs) speak Spanish, yet they are greatly needed. My goal as a future SLP is to serve clients who speak English, Spanish, or both. To prepare for working with these clients, I have studied both the language and the Spanish culture. 

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Going into my Spanish courses, I tried my best to enter each lesson with an open mind, ready to learn. However, I found myself easily falling back onto my preconceptions and biases, even though they were unintentional. One example of this was when we began learning about egocentrism. This is basically the inability to understand another person’s point of view and thinking of oneself as superior. I was familiar with this term coming into college, but my understanding of what it means has greatly changed. In my classes, we identified how white U.S. citizens often fall into this, myself included. Most people don’t go around being obviously egocentric, but more often, it is expressed through small acts or words called microaggressions.  

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In my other major and through the Honors program, I have learned about microaggressions, which are basically any behaviors that exclude others due to culture, race, or ethnicity. They can be intentional or unintentional. In my Spanish classes, I learned about a microaggression that I had never considered but had commonly used. My professor explained to us the importance of differentiating parts of America. He started out by asking us to think in our heads about the different regions of America. My initial thoughts when he said this included the South, Midwest, and the West and East Coasts. This proved the point that he was trying to make. As U.S. citizens, many of us often refer to our country as “America”. While I grew up thinking this was normal, I now realize that this can show that I am only concerned with matters pertaining to me. Saying this can imply that I consider myself or my country superior to all other countries in North and South America. It may come off as disregarding any other countries in the Americas. In reality, our country is just part of America. 

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Honestly, this concept was difficult for me to accept at first. I found myself thinking, “what’s the big deal?” and “well I don’t think of myself as superior when I refer to just our country as America”. After thinking more about it though, I realized that this is often how microaggressions such as these continue or even get worse. Those whose job it is to change deny that there is an issue, so it is never resolved. I now intentionally refer to our country as either the U.S. or United States, especially when speaking in Spanish. I plan to apply this idea to any other microaggressions that I encounter in the future. It is my job not only as a professional, but also as a person to actively work to dismantle any kind of inequity or discrimination when I recognize it. 

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In one of my Spanish classes, I was able to write a research paper about my field. This gave me an opportunity to learn about working as a bilingual clinician, specifically relating to Spanish. I learned about the importance of linguistic diversity in the field of speech therapy. The number of Spanish speaking individuals in our country is rising; therefore, the number of Spanish speaking people with communication disorders will naturally rise as well. Unfortunately, the field of speech pathology is not very diverse. The majority of SLPs are white females, like me. There have been many efforts throughout the past few years to diversify our field to provide more suitable services to an array of clients. However, a significant disproportion still exists. I cannot change my identity as a white woman, but I can recognize my situation and try to provide personalized services to each client. 

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One way to provide these kinds of services is by learning about each clients’ background and culture to better understand them. This may give greater insight into why they act or speak a certain way or even why they pronounce certain words differently than I might be used to. For example, in my communication disorders classes, we discussed that African American English is its own dialect. Through learning more about this, I discovered a bias I had. When I heard African American individuals speak with a strong dialect, I thought they were using poor grammar. After talking with many classmates, I found this was a common assumption, especially among people from the Midwest. However, I learned that there is no “right” or “wrong” English, as many of us may assume. Rather, there are many different dialects of English. 

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Just as people have different accents depending on region, dialects will differ based on ethnicity or culture. When someone’s first language is Spanish, they will likely have an accent when speaking in English. This is because they develop their language skills with a slightly different phonetic inventory. They never learn how to pronounce some of the common sounds in English because some are not used in the Spanish language. Thus, it may be difficult for them to produce these sounds when learning English. Learning Spanish helped me understand this better. I still struggle to produce the “trill” sound in Spanish because as I developed my language, I never practiced this sound. Studying Spanish has helped me see the difficulty associated with learning a new language and how frustrating it can be when unable to produce a specific sound. This will help me have a better understanding of what my clients go through as they struggle producing sounds. 

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Choosing to double major in Spanish has been one of the best decisions I have made. It has helped me grow as a person and better prepare to become a speech therapist. I have gained knowledge about a whole other culture and learned its language. In combination with the Honors program and my other major, it has helped me learn about treating others with equity and dismantling inequities when I see them. Studying Spanish has been a fun journey that will allow me to serve more clients than I could have just using English.