Five Reasons Why People Code Switching

I remember the day when my mother dropped me off at the front door of my pre-school class- the welcoming teachers who were extra tender, the vibrant wall decorations, and the clueless children who were dominantly from Mexican heritage, but the image that strikes me most is of me hugging my Guatemalan mother’s leg, telling me “Todo ba estar bien mijio.” translated in English as “son, everything will be fine.” Only I knew understood my mother 's words since she spoke in Guatemalan Spanish instead of the common Mexican Spanish. Mexican and Guatemalan Spanish ultimately are very much similar because it is spanish except some conversational phrases and terminology are different. This difference is due to the history of the two cultures which some are unaware of; Guatemala denotes influences from the early Mayan civilization and Mexico denotes influences from the early Aztec civilization. …show more content…
From my experiences in school my childhood is an example of how code-switching was uncomfortable as I am the oldest first-generation American born child in my family. I grew up in a home where Central American customs, food, and culture exalted over any other lifestyle. From the first day I started pre-school, code-switching was important to my social interactions, but it also caused me to lose a part of myself to society. The everyday battlefield for my identity transpired in school. I associated my Central American language and culture with comfort and a unique love that I could not find anywhere else, but I felt pressured to be similar with Mexican-American pride because it meant a connections with the majority of the students in my school. I was battling with abandoning my warm Central American lifestyle and language for a conventional Mexican-American