The X in Mexico

La Equis

"La Equis" (the X) is a  public art project located in Ciudad Juárez, México.  The gigantic, almost 200 feet tall red X is visible for miles around.  Recently, my husband Wayne and I discussed the X as we were driving on the highway that borders our home town of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez. What was the significance of the X, we wondered?  And why is the name of our southern neighbor, Mexico, spelled with an "x" in the middle that is pronounced with the sound of the Spanish  "j"?  I distinctly remembered seeing "México" spelled  as "Méjico" sometime in my studies of the Spanish language.  I decided to investigate.

"La Equis" is brimming with artistic symbolism.  It was created in 2013 by Sebastián, an artist from Chihuahua, Mexico. The sculpture commemorates the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Chamizal Treaty, hailed as a model of international cooperation when in 1963 the United States returned a portion of land to Mexico.  The ownership of the land had been under dispute because of erratic changes in the path of the Rio Grande River. 

Even more symbolism can be read into this enormous red structure.  The population of Mexico is a fusion, or cross of Spanish and indigenous roots.  The fusion of the Christian cross and an Aztec religious symbol can also be imagined.  

But how did the letter "x" end up in the name of the country?  The answer is that Benito Juárez,

Benito Juárez

the first indigenous president of Mexico, changed the spelling of his country's name in the late 1800's to more accurately depict the roots of the Mexican people. And here is where the story gets complicated linguistically.

The "x"in Old Spanish represented a sound similar to an English "sh." Later, the sound evolved into a harder sound now usually represented by the Spanish letter "j" ( somewhat similar to an English "h"). But the letter "x" has been retained in certain words, especially those of foreign or indigenous roots, such as México (Aztec), Oaxaca (Nahuatl) and Texas (Caddo).

So where have I seen "Méjico," written with the letter "j" instead of an "x"?  Probably in writings from Spain, where the Royal Academy of Language gives the "j" spelling as the first spelling. 

Public art and linguistic history have combined in "La Equis" to offer a memorable symbol of the birth of Mexico, a New World nation.

Are you frustrated with language learning?

I have been feeling a little frustrated recently about language learning.  Do you know the sensation? You really want to make progress in a certain language, but it is just not happening for you.

Irish Gaelic is the language that is currently making me chew my fingernails when I sit down at the computer. Irish is the only foreign language I have studied that is not in the Romance family of languages.  And I chose Irish on purpose for that very reason - I wanted a challenge.  And did I ever get what I asked for!

Currently I am trying to acquire Irish Gaelic on two different programs. Let's call them Program 1 and Program 2. Both are web-based.  I'm not going to slander them, because both programs are well formulated and well presented.  But the fact that I am very frustrated doing Program 2 leads me to analyze what's going wrong for me personally. The answer may lie in the language skills that each program chooses to present first.

The traditional language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are well known.

Although all four language skills can be interrelated, each skill has unique aspects as well.   Two of the most sought after language skills are listening and speaking, you know, so you can actually have a face-to-face conversation with someone.  The reading and writing skills are important for such mundane communication as text messages or emails, and also, of course, for reading and writing great literature.

One of the many debates in the field of language acquisition is which skill or skills to learn first.  Or should there be a first skill?  Should all skills be learned simultaneously?

Program 1, which I have been doing daily in Irish for about a year now, has yet to require me to speak Irish.  I have to read Irish, write Irish, and translate Irish, but I have not yet been asked to speak Irish. I know from working in other languages in the same program that after you reach a certain level, questions that require an oral response to be recorded are included. But a whole year without speaking?  There may be a method to their madness.

Program 2, which I have been doing for only several weeks, almost immediately required that I listen to phrases, repeat them, and then formulate my own sentences.  And I couldn't do it!  After a few minutes, I clicked off the computer and walked away, feeling very guilty.  Sound familiar?

Although the perfect language learning experience has yet to be discovered, one well-known approach is to allow learners to have a "Silent Period," during which language is presented for understanding, but no immediate response is required.

When working with Program 2, I would have enjoyed a more gradual introduction to Irish, where I could concentrate on understanding what was being said, rather than immediately being asked to perform all the tasks that speaking requires - remembering the vocabulary, arranging the words in the right order, and making the correct sounds, some of them familiar and others not.  Whew!  No wonder we language learners tear our hair out!

Now that I have ranted and raved, I may log on to Program 2 one more time, just to see if it caught me in a bad mood last time around.  But I am really looking forward to working in Irish in Program 1 again, where I can relax and take my time with the language.  But I can't order a Guinness in Dublin in Irish as yet!