The Language Chronicles: El Choro Lingüístico 💬

I shared my story with a senator (about the DREAM ACT) over his website, which I want to share with everyone on my Facebook account: I lived for 10 years in the USA, from the age of 12 to 22. Then I moved to Mexico (I left by my own will) knowing that I was not going to be able to come back soon. Still, I took the chance and finished my major in Mexico because I couldn't in the USA (even with a scholarship). I then won another scholarship (while in Mexico) to do my MA in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University. While I was doing my major, I applied for and got a VISA to visit my relatives who still live in the USA, undocumented. I do not wish this last part to be shared publicly (on TV or radio, I meant in the original message), as I fear that my relatives will be deported. I have a brother who could have benefited from the DREAM Act, but he is being deported as we speak. He is now in Atlanta and will be deported in a couple of weeks, even though he arrived to the USA when

Mes vacances de Noël l'année dernière n'ont pas été les meilleures. Je suppose que je les qualifie comme ça parce que j'ai vécu au Mexique pendant presque cinq années avant de venir aux États-Unis. Avant cela, j'avais vécu dix années en Caroline du Nord, où ma famille habite de nos jours. Pendant ces dix années en Caroline du Nord, le Noël était toujours ennuyeux. Je me suis rendu compte de cela quand j'ai vécu au Mexique parce que là-bas, on fête le Noël et le Nouvel An comme si c'était la fin du monde ! Je me souviens qu'au Mexique, on se couchait au lever du jour suivant. Alors, quand je suis allé chez mes parents, qui habitent encore en Caroline du Nord, je me suis tellement ennuyé parce que comparé au Mexique, on n'a pas beaucoup fait ni la veille de Noël et le 25 décembre, ni la veille du Nouvel An. Bien sûr, on a mangé de la nourriture mexicaine spéciale que ma mère a heureusement preparé pour son fils le Mexicain le 25 décembre, mais la veille de

The ceramic collector felt his heart was going to jump out of his chest. Upon passing by the small antique store---actually a trinket store as he had already labeled it in his head when he first glanced at it---he observed a scrawny and dirty cat drinking milk slowly in an authentic Sèvres plate that was placed in the entrance of the store. The collector went up to the corner and then turned back, trying to appear annoyed and indifferent. Reluctantly, he stopped in front of the store window and looked from above his shoulder to see all the junk being displayed there: old violins, chairs and tables with missing legs, porcelain figurines, faded oil paintings, pieces of supposed Mayan or Incan pots, and the infinite amount of trinkets that usually pile up in stores of this type. From the corner of his eye, the collector glanced once more at the plate the cat was sipping its milk from. There was no doubt about it: a legitimate Sèvres, possibly from the second third the 18th century. "

Ok. My last blog was in Spanish. Today...English! My title says it all. It's Wednesday! I got home today after my longest day of the week and my roommate said something that cheered me up. He said, "¡Qué bueno que ya es miércoles! Ya vamos de bajada." Which roughly translated means, "Am I glad it's Wednesday! We're now downsliding" . . . at least for the week! I won't bore you telling you all the things I did since everything went as normal. It's always fun to tell when things go wrong or extraordinarily great. Today, none of those two was the case. What I am telling you, though, is that tomorrow some of my classmates and I are grabbing some pizza and beer to celebrate the fact that it's gonna be Thursday (last class for most of us), it's almost the end of the semester, and Yeji's birthday (a classmate of mine) was on the 31 of October. Besides, even if there had been nothing to celebrate, I'm pretty sure we would have made someth

Today I got paid! I was so happy to see my account today. I bought my MARTA card this afternoon, which is a discounted card for using the subway and buses as much as I want in a month sold to students at GSU. I also called Mexico and had to deal with TELMEX, which is the only phone company in Mexico, clearly a monopoly. I so hope the government lets in foreign phone companies. I have heard about the terrible service and have gone through a few experiences myself. These people, or at least the one I've seen, think they're doing a favor to Mexicans, which they're not! Anyway, today I had to call them and ask how much I owe them. Before coming here, I wanted to cancel the service because I'll be absent from Mexico for almost a year and a half. They told me I couldn't because I first needed to cancel my internet service, return the modem etc., and I did. A week had to pass after that cancelation before I could cancel the actual phone service, but by then I was already h

Curitiba, ciudad brasileña al sur del país, en el estado de Paraná. Hoy estaba en clase de metodología y estaba hablando con un compañero brasileño acerca de esta ciudad. La primera vez que escuché hablar de ella fue donde trabajo en México. Había tres estudiantes brasileños precisamente de esta ciudad e hicieron una exposición de la misma. ¿Qué les puedo contar? Esta ciudad se ha ganado varios premios por ser una ciudad ecológicamente sostenible. Como el sistema de transporte subterráneo era demasiado caro, lo que hicieron fue crear un sistema de autobuses supereficiente. En tal sistema hay paradas especiales donde la gente sube y pagan dejando su ticket antes de entrar al autobús. Pueden hacer las conexiones que deseen sin pagar nuevamente. Más o menos es como el metrobús en el DF, si alguien ha tenido la oportunidad de subir. Es realmente como una mezcla entre metro y autobús. El autobús en sí cuenta con tres vagones conectados por un "acordeón" así que ya se imaginarán, e

Today was one of my worst days in Atlanta. Of course, nothing compared to that day last August when I missed my connection flight in Dallas, Texas. I was going from North Carolina to Tampico and had to stay in Dallas for the night. Then in Tampico, the very next day I crash (I swear it was that Taxi's fault), and that weekend a venomous worm stings me and my hand gets all swollen up, and it burnt a whole lot. I even got a fever and couldn't even feel my whole arm. I would have never guessed those little, fuzzy-looking guava worms did all that! Anyway, back to my bad day here. I woke up late. Lately, I've been having that problem. Dang. I was doing my exercises for the class I took today when I started looking over today's agenda to see if I had missed anything. Turns out I had to micro-teach, but I didn't know who my partner was. The paper only had my name on it, and I didn't ask anybody to tell me what they had written on theirs. Anyway, I did the activity by m

Ok. I'm beginning to blog again, after about two months of inactivity. Last time I blogged, I was in Tampico, teaching English at a high school and at a university. I was actually teaching for the language center under the Law School at the college I graduated from. My blogs will be in either Spanish or English. I'm thinking of writing one in English and then one in Spanish and continue like that. I enjoy writing in both languages, but because not all my readers know both languages, I want them to enjoy at least every other blog. --------------------- Spanish: Mis blogs serán ya sea en español o en inglés. Estoy pensando en escribir uno en inglés y otro en español y seguir así. Me gusta escribir en ambos idiomas pero porque no todos mis lectores saben ambos idiomas quiero que disfruten por lo menos uno que otro blog. ---------------------- So, a little more than two months have passed, and I am now at Georgia State University doing my Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics

Primero que nada, Feliz 20 de Noviembre para México. No sé si se diga "feliz" o no, pero ya lo dije. Hoy hubo muchos desfiles en México por motivo de la conmemoración de la Revolución Mexicana y por supuesto que hubo puente en muchos lugares de trabajo y escuelas. Lo siento por mis exalumnos y compañeros de trabajo del IEST, ya que como es escuela privada no hay puentes. "Sorry for you," dijo Niurka. En fin. Después del breve reconocimiento a nuestra patria, para los que somos mexicanos y para que vean que no somos elitistas (jaja eso qué?) paso a relatarles un poco de las preparaciones para Thanksgiving. Como muchos de ustedes ya sabrán, tenemos vacaciones de Thanksgiving aquí en GSU por cuatro días hábiles empezando el 24 del presente, que es un martes. Lo que nos da, incluyendo sábado y domingo, seis días, muy buenos eh! El día de Thanksgiving en sí es el 26 de noviembre. Si estuviéramos en México ya se habría hecho un puentezote desde mañana sábado 21 hasta dom

As many of you might know already, I applied for a scholarship offered by UPN (Universidad Pedagógica Nacional) and GSU (Georgia State University). Well, guess what? I got accepted! So, basically, what I had to do are many things in order to get ready to go abroad and live in Atlanta for 15 whole months! Do you have any idea how much that is! Anyway. Time flies when you're having fun, and so far everything's been ok. On the 8th of August, I shipped out from Tampico and took a bus to Monterrey. I arrived there the same day at noon. Monterrey is AWESOME. That's the only thing I'm gonna say because I wouldn't be able to stop talking about it if I really got started. I stayed in Monterrey for a whole day, and then I'm supposed to take my plane here: MTY-ATL. Posted originally on August 15, 2009

Published originally on January 8th, 2010 Hit by the acute economic crisis during Carlos Salinas de Gortari in Mexico and with the added pressure of a false accusation at his job, which those who know Mexico might sadly know that they often happen, my Dad was lured by “the American Dream.” My uncle knew that my Dad had a family of four to feed back home, so his reaction was of course to help him come to the USA. Three years passed when my Dad realized that he had to go back to Mexico only to bring us to the USA. My older brother was 14, I was 12, and my younger brothers were 7 and 6 respectively. My sister was born here . I went to middle school and high school, from which I graduated with honors. Deep down, I was convinced I was going to work in something I did not like for the rest of my life, as my father was. However, my dad had always instilled in us that we needed to get an education. He and my Mom would always set themselves as examples of people who unfortunately could not get