Mississippi Girl Spanish

Many years ago when I traveled to Mississippi for the first time with my friends from Mississippi, I laughed histerically when some of my friends who "knew Spanish" spoke it. While at the time I knew only a couple phrases, I knew it was not supposed to sound the way they spoke it. But at least the were trying, right?

My junior year of highschool I took Mrs. Polk's Spanish 1. I didn't really try in her class, and I didn't really learn anything either (I'm not sure anyone learned anything). Mrs. Polk had been an English major in college, but had taken a few Spanish classes so she was put in charge of teaching us Spanish. Mrs. Polk had never been out of Mississippi and had never had a real conversation with a native speaker. I remember her Spanish sounding much like my friends' Spanish our first summer in Honduras.

Today I walked into my grammar class and in the thickest Mississippi accent I could muster (I don't have much of an accent anymore unless I am tired or angry) I said "Owla, como estis? Jo sowee Nicole." Very sarcasticly (and trying not to laugh) my teacher said she was pleased to meet me. She then asked me how Latin Americans sound when they are trying to learn English. So I said a few common frases. When everyone got to class she said I will talk like a gringo who is just learning Spanish if you will talk like a Latin American who is trying to learn English. We had a short conversation, both of us completely butchering our native tongue. It is always good to remember that we make mistakes and that we should laugh at our mistakes. Our little conversation was a dramatization of how we gringos appear to native Spanish speakers and how they sound to us. It was nice to just laugh at ourselves for a little while.