Mastering Spanish, and speaking good English

Re “My sinful Spanish syntax,” Opinion, Aug. 28

If mastering Spanish has no benefits for Latinos in this nation other than the ability to communicate with other Latinos, perhaps Gustavo Arellano should abandon Spanish altogether and pick up another ancient tongue: Chinese. Arellano and his “successful Mexican American peers” can then forge lucrative business deals in Beijing, leading their raza to long-deserved economic glory without bothering to make a single Chinese friend in the process.

AJAY SINGH

Los Angeles

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“So you’re the Mexican who doesn’t speak good Spanish?” How about the Americans who don’t speak good English? Most of the native Americans who think they speak English well, and especially the news commentators, make grammatical mistakes that raise the hair on the back of my neck. I hear sentences such as “Him and I are going to the store” (“him” should be changed to the subject pronoun “he”) or “That was her speaking last night” (“her” should be changed to the subject complement “she” because it follows a linking verb).

And speaking of linking verbs, I’m particularly annoyed when someone “feels badly” (instead of bad), and I want to tell them not to touch me if they are not going to do a good job of feeling me with their hands. Finally, there’s the who-whom problem, but that’s another story. So, Mr. Arellano, don’t feel (bad, badly?) if someone knocks your Spanish when they probably can’t speak English (good, well?).

GERSTEN SCHACHNE

Northridge

The writer is an English-as-a-second-language instructor in the Intensive English Program at Cal State Northridge’s Tseng College of Extended Learning.