Spanglish

I've been watching a lot of children's television lately.

I've got a growing family, and the little ones like the morning cartoons. We let them watch public television because, frankly, most of the "kids" cartoons these days are just bad. Super violent, anti-adult and FRENETIC. Crazy constant ridiculous pace. It's no wonder kids can't pay attention to anything.

And then the commercials! Wow. They simply don't need to watch those. Since they don't, my kids aren't aware of how unhappy and unsatisfied they must be. Surely they must be unhappy and unfulfilled! If only they had xxxxxx. Over and over. Blah.

Anyhow, Public TV stuff is great. Nice shows, no commercials. But one growing trend has me scratching my head a little bit. Its seems that many of the shows want my kids to learn Spanish.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'd love for my kids to learn another language. I myself know just enough Spanish to get by - which has been pretty handy on several occasions. Spanish is a wonderful language, and I've found Spanish speaking peoples (generally) to be warm and welcoming.

But I'm not really sure about the intent of having morning cartoons, and especially the little "educational spots" in between shows, highlighting and teaching the Espanol Equivalents to English words and phrases. Why are they trying to teach my kids Spanish?

Is the goal to make the Spanish speaking population feel more welcomed and comfortable? To make the English speaking kids more accepting of the Spanish speaking population?

It's not really a big deal, but I am curious about the purpose of it. It's presence doesn't really bother me too much, but I can't clearly tell the intent the producers and writers have from watching it.

Maybe I'll ask write a letter and ask them some preguntas. (that's Spanish for questions)