How much is that again? -Una Cora! By Nelson Vasquez

 04/04/04

How much is that again? -Una Cora! 

    First of all, I need to point out my perspective about the influence of English in other languages. English has influenced our culture in multiple ways, mostly in our daily speaking. This is because of pop culture, the currency change, call center industry, commercialization of American brands in El Salvador like Starbucks, and Walmart. Social Medial, globalization, etc. Eventually, this affected our language ever since Salvadorans borrowed words and phrases from English.

     Furthermore, there are two main factors that influenced the pursuit of English instruction in El Salvador: On the one hand, the government foreign language (EFL) policy states that all students must receive English classes from 7th grade to 11th grade. On the other hand, the arrival of the call center industry in El Salvador in 1998 was an eye-opener for many adults – older than 16 – who started pursuing English instruction in language academies to get a job that provided them with a better income to support their families; thus, little by little English started to interact more and more with Salvadorans and their goals leading to some unique Salvadoran Spanish vocabulary expressions and many linguistic borrowings.

Nelson explains how the quarter of dollar became into the expression “A cora, a cora” in Salvadoran Spanish. Another great phenomenon that has contributed to the influence that English has had in El Salvador is the development of technology and social media.  in Salvadoran Spanish, we pronounce most words related to technology such as mouse, laptop, wifi, among others. Just as they are used in American English!

To conclude, English has definitively found its way to be part of Salvadoran culture. Not only in business terms but the way we communicate has change, and most Salvadoran people use English expressions so easily without even realizing they are loanwords taken from L2. This adoptions have come to stay