Quinn Anderson

English 11

Ms. Fordahl

February 18, 2014

Exploring Borderlands

     This past week in class we have been talking about exploring borderlands. I find this topic interesting. To me it shows how different countries have very different cultures and speak completely different languages. We watched a PBS video about it. We read a story called “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. What is a borderland? A borderland is a region on either side of a national border separating different countries and their cultures.

            Each country has many different cultures, and some don’t. Almost every country has an official language where America does not have an official language. Some people think that if you live in a country and move to another that you’re “illegal”. Just because you don’t speak the same language as everybody else in that country they don’t want you there. I know some kids in my school think that people who don’t speak English shouldn’t be allowed to live here. The Conquistadors were soldiers who settled in Mexico and South America. Mexico’s official language is Spanish. Since the conquistadors were the first there. Chicano’s are people of Mexican decent living in the US. Some people don’t think that that is right. Others don’t mind.

            The lifestyles of different cultures are very different. Like in my last blog we talked about native voices which the Native Americans talked about their history and storytelling but passed them down only by oral tradition. Now we are talking about exploring borderlands. Borderlands are the separation from the different countries. Every culture has their similarities but all of them are very different from one another.

            In the US, there is a borderline between us and Canada and Mexico. There is no actual line that you can see but you will know once you reach a different country just by how the people talk and how their culture is. Canada and the US are very similar in culture wise. The US and Mexico are quite different in culture wise. Historia is a Spanish word for history or story. The Spanish have a lot of history that they talk about.

            I’ve learned a lot about the different cultures for different countries. I never knew there wasn’t an official language here until we started talking more about it. The video talked a lot about the borderline between America and Mexico. Over the years other countries have become more so where they eventually won’t have an official language either I think.