*The Spanish Language on CNN * *By Chris Crommet, Vice-President of CNN en Español. Atlanta*
Because of the fact that I have such an American name and that I was born in the United States to American parents, I always feel the need to explain how it is that I ended up heading CNN en Español. Well, it so happens that my family moved to Puerto Rico when I was two years old and that’s where I grew up. And although I remember always knowing both languages, I may in fact have the "convert’s passion" for the Spanish language. I majored in Latin American literature and professionally, I always preferred working for media sources in Spanish. Even when it comes to my hobby, opera, I have a penchant for ballads in Spanish and for the arias of the zarzuela. I say all this only to prove that it would be hard to find a more romantic man, at least language-wise. I have the perhaps quixotic belief that we who work at CNN en Español in Atlanta are the noble champions of the Spanish language, in spite of the fact that we are surrounded by the "infidels" who speak English alone. We take great linguistic pride in producing Spanish language reports that are generally just as high-quality in terms of journalism as the programs aired by our colleagues at CNN in English. We are aware that we are making a cultural statement by transmitting news in Spanish to 22 million homes across the Americas, 24 hours a day. However, it’s not CNN’s business to promote either Spanish or English. Its business is news. And it’s a for-profit business. We are a private sector company, and when I say "private," I am referring to the fact that we are fully independent, free of government pressures and goals, in addition to the fact that we aim to make a profit. Luckily, CNN International – and specifically, CNN en Español – has proven that good, independent, reliable, balanced journalism is good business. And for those of us who are enamored of the Spanish language, we have also discovered that the good use of language is a commercial necessity. It has now been more than a decade since CNN en Español first began airing 24 hours a day, and we have learned that it is only by speaking universal, correct, clear and precise Spanish that we can communicate responsibly and effectively with a diverse public, one which extends from Tierra del Fuego to Montreal and from Madrid to Tokyo. One clarification regarding this last item. Apart from the subscribers in Latin America and the United States who continually receive our signal, CNN+, our partner channel in Spain, includes our reports on their news programs; TLN, a multilingual channel in Canada, airs our programs, and CNN «jota, the CNN channel in Japan, airs our programming live one hour each day. The globalization of our channel allows us to use this universal Spanish, which is not the same as so-called neutral Spanish. The cyber community on Wikipedia tells us that in the case of "neutral Spanish," the linguistic forms employed generally coincide with academic rules regarding the language and with the forms used in the Spanish language literary tradition. With all due respect to our academic colleagues, the traditional academic rules on language rarely apply to TV reports. They are not clear or concise enough. And they aren’t encompassing enough, given that TV reports are to be heard, not to be read. Our reports are written to be read out loud and to be understood by viewers as they hear them. In a journalistic context, it would also be problematic to employ the forms used in the Spanish literary tradition, as stipulated by the Wikipedia definition. The fundamental issue is that we are after a simple and expressive Spanish, one that projects our idea as precisely as possible. At the same time, we would like it to be understood by our public across the world, at all the latitudes we reach. But we are not after flat accents or washed-out words, nor do we want grammatical constructions that are not agreeable to the ear, even if they are correct. Now local and national media have another task, one that is neither more nor less important than our own, but merely different: it is up to them to be clear, relevant and even colloquial with their public. For example, our colleagues at the magazine *Expansión* in Mexico, with whom we have a website with both names, CNNExpansion.com, who are mainly writing for the business sector in Mexico. This is a public that is familiar with English, a public that tends to employ buzzwords – neologisms taken from the English used in business circles – such as "killer application" or the word "buzzword" itself. The writers at*Expansión* use these terms to connect with their readers. In Argentine newspapers – even those that are most careful about how they use language – it is frequent to encounter terms in English or adapted from the English, such as the notable use of "espónsor" (sponsor) and its derivatives, "esponsorizar" and "esponsorización", which has already been added to the Panhispanic Dictionary of Doubts. In Puerto Rico, where there are innumerable political, social, cultural, linguistic and family ties to the United States, there are certain English words that are absolutely essential if one wishes to be understood: the question of the island’s political situation, for example, is known as the "issue del estatus." The use of vernacular expressions – and even the use of Spanglish in certain places – is necessary in order for local media sources to be understood within their community. It is important to note, however, that it is a mistake to speak of Spanglish as if there were only one: the Spanglish on the streets of New York is different from that of Miami or Los Angeles. However, specifically imitating the way in which a single community or a single country speaks is not enough for international media sources. Our goal is to make ourselves perfectly clear around the world and thus make ourselves commercially viable as an international media source. Universal Spanish is our way of achieving this. Reprinted with the kind permission of *Donde dice...* the magazine published by the *Fundación de Español Urgente (Fundéu)* <http://www.fundeu.es/> -- "In complete darkness, we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you." J. Jackson "Es fácil criticar a los demás. Difícil corregirse uno mismo. Èl que nunca se equivoca, es aquél que nunca hace nada." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "English Learner's Cafe" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/english_learners?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
