Spanish Updates
January 11th, 2023
Latin Based Languages
The 5th grade has begun digging into the language and it's structure. I began the new unit (professions) with a basic grammar lesson on the gender of the language. It's a huge topic and in the US we are more open and accepting of personal gender and changes to our language. In Spanish, however, a noun is a noun and the Real Academia EspaƱola, in 2018, rejected attempts to make the language more inclusive (see link).
In my position as teacher, I make every effort to explain the grammatical side of the language and if/when students ask questions of inclusivity, I explain that the grammar does not reflect the person. In fact, researching back to Latin, I discovered that the -o ending (the "masculine") is the default. Basically, when in doubt use the -o.
I know this is not as inclusive as our students want. I totally understand. As we continue our journey into professions I will not be asking students to identify themselves with the vocabulary, rather using generalities (The teachers are writing = Los maestros estan escribiendo.) Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions regarding gender-based languages. I am happy to help.