California 21

Listen to California 21, a 25-year-old woman from Northridge, Los Angeles, California, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 25

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 22/06/1999

PLACE OF BIRTH: Los Angeles (Northridge), California, United States

GENDER: female

ETHNICITY: Hispanic/Latina

OCCUPATION: student

EDUCATION: high school and bachelor’s degree; currently pursuing a master’s degree

AREAS OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject had been living in Madrid, Spain, for three years at the time of this recording.

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

She speaks Spanish (a mix of Latino Spanish from childhood and Castilian Spanish because of her current residence in Spain). Her father is a native Spanish speaker from El Salvador. The subject had been teaching English in Spain for three years at the time of this recording. The English that she teaches is based on standardized forms of British English.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: subject

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/09/2024

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

I was born in a place that is fondly called the, the Valley. It’s located in Southern California, a little bit north of Los Angeles. It’s a very residential area; it has a university; it has a few community colleges; and, overall, I think it’s a really special place. It’s incredibly diverse, with people from different countries, different religions, different cultural backgrounds, and it’s something I’ve always really appreciated about home.

I did grow up in a neighborhood that was primarily Spanish-speaking, with immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, like my own parents. And I think that, that made for a really unique, or better, uh, special experience. I was able to connect with other kids about where our parents were from, where they might’ve been from, and we got to bond over things like music, and food, and travel.

I, I have a specific memory of explaining to a friend that every summer we drove down to Mexico, because my family is from a border town, and it took six or seven hours, and she, she couldn’t believe it. Her, her family must’ve been from, from southern Mexico, but she — because she explained that it takes a whole day just to fly, how could we possibly drive? And I think that was the beginning of when I really started thinking of like, “Oh yeah, Mexico is a, a different place; it’s not just where my parents came from. Um, it’s another country, it’s far, it’s big, it, it’s diverse in itself.” And, yeah. …

[Subject speaks Spanish]: Nunca he considerado que tengo un nivel altisimo de, de Español. Creo que tengo un nivel bueno, un nivel que es muy útil y que me facilita poder expresarme de una forma correcta. Pero, eh, yo, yo aprendí Español en, en la primaria. Tuve igual cinco, seis años y después de conseguir un fluidez muy aceptable, eh, dejé de usar la idioma durante todo mi vida escolar en la secundaria y sobre todo en el instituto que casi nunca, nunca hablaba en Español. Desde, desde que he empezado a vivir aquí en España, sí que ha mejorado muchísimo, tengo muchísimo más oportunidad para usarlo. Y creo que he adoptado y he aprendido muchísimo jerga, o vocabulario de la calle, que de aquí, de Madrid. Y eso resulta que tengo, un ah, un Español muy, muy Americanizado pero con un vocabulario de Latinoamérica, de Centroamérica. Y, con, un, una forma de expresarme también muy Madrileño. Y, Y aveces digo que como es un poco de la idioma Frankenstein que sueno como un Americano pero también se nota de donde he, he aprendido muchísimo de la idioma.

[English translation: I have never considered that I have a very high level of, of Spanish. I think I have a good level, a level that is very useful and that allows me to express myself correctly. But, eh, I, I learned Spanish in, in primary school. I was maybe five, six years old, and after achieving very acceptable fluency, eh, I stopped using the language throughout my academic life in middle school and especially in all of high school when I almost never, never spoke Spanish. Since, since I started living here in Spain, it has improved a lot; I have a lot more opportunity to use it. And I think I have adopted and learned a lot of slang, or street vocabulary, that — from here, from Madrid. And that means that I have, ah, a very, very Americanized Spanish but with a vocabulary from Latin America, from Central America. And, with, a, a way of expressing myself that is also very Madridlian. And, and sometimes I say that since it’s a bit of the Frankenstein language that I sound like an American, but it also shows where I have, have learned a lot of the language.]

TRANSCRIBED BY: subject

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): 05/09/2024

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

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