By Mariah Edmonds-Guridy
Central High School

Teaching Spanish classes at Central High School, Rachael Rodriguez occasionally comes across students from Spanish-speaking families – but who are only just learning the language themselves.

By the time they reach Rodriguez’s class, many have struggled with feelings of inadequacy or been mocked, because they lack fluency in their family’s mother tongue.

“They’re treated differently,” Rodriguez said. “They’re othered by people who do speak Spanish.” There’s even a sarcastic term for them: “No sabo kid” – meaning a child of Hispanic or Latino descent that is not fluent in Spanish. 

The term “no sabo” comes from the incorrect conjugation of the Spanish word saber, which means “to know.” The phrase “no sè,” the correct way to say “I don’t know,” is often confused with the grammatically incorrect “no sabo.” Hence the mocking term “no sabo kid.” 

About 75% of the 63.7 million people of Hispanic descent in the United States speak Spanish.

But what about that other 25%? Why don’t they know Spanish? How can they not know Spanish? The answer to that may be more complex than most think.

There can be multiple reasons why someone doesn’t learn their mother tongue. Some parents believe that teaching children more than one language at once will confuse and overwhelm them. Others believe they don’t have the ability to teach their children. But many immigrant parents choose to not pass on their native language to their children in order to better culturally assimilate.

Cultural assimilation is the process where immigrants attempt to adopt the cultural values and beliefs of their current country. This can mean disowning cultural aspects of their previous lives, like food, clothing, or language.

This assimilating feels deeply necessary to many immigrants in the United States specifically because of the harsh consequences not fitting in would bring. Being unable to find work, bullying in school, and being publicly ridiculed are just some of the possibilities that immigrants might face if they choose not to conform. In the face of those challenges, some parents or guardians decide that teaching their children their native language isn’t worth it.

Much of Hispanic and Latino culture revolves around the Spanish language, said Leo Johnson, another Central High Spanish teacher. Still, it’s not everything. “Between music, food, the festivities – all of those things make up a part of a culture. It’s not just language,” he said.

Those cultural aspects can help kids who don’t speak their family’s first language connect with their culture, Rodriguez said.

Some children of Spanish-speaking families might purposely avoid the language, Johnson said. “I always say if your parents (or) grandparents come from a Spanish-speaking country, you should try to learn it, just to connect to the people that still live there,” he said. “But then you have people who refuse to speak Spanish, because they refuse to speak the colonizers’ language. So some people see it as a [form of] resistance.”

Any separation from their family’s cultural background can cause a dilemma for a child. In a survey of 17 students at Central High, 12 admitted to experiencing feelings of confusion or distance from their families due to lack of understanding of their language. 

“Sometimes, I don’t understand what my parents are saying and I can’t connect with my other relatives, because my Chinese is very broken,” said Bangle Wei, whose parents’ first language is Chinese. Students describe having a language barrier within their family as a strange gray area – feeling as if they’re not fully immersed or in “the know.”   

It’s crucial that “no sabo” kids or anyone else that doesn’t speak their family’s native tongue are met with understanding. Learning a language is not as easy as just “picking it up,” and there could be multiple factors that contribute to their lack of fluency. If they’re trying to learn, that’s great. And if they’re not, that’s fine too. There’s so much more to love and connect with within a culture besides its language.