politically correct english

American television is a big deal here in Argentina. G had a Spanish teacher one week who spoke clear, nearly unaccented American English. G assumed he’d spent significant time in the U.S. Nope, just a month. And a lot of Hollywood movies on t.v. Whoa.

So every once in a while my English class has funny questions about English in the U.S. Like, hat does it mean when people say “Hey gang” or why does my client have a hard time saying my name, Horacio? But last week they asked me about the N word…when is it okay to use it? Can we use it like we use Black or African American?

I’m not 100% sure where they first heard the N word…rap music? Movies? Television? Wherever; they all knew it.

I mean, how to explain why they can never use it? Never. I tried to be clearly emphatic, encouraged them to use African American or even Black, but never the N word. I stopped the whole class to explain the connotations of this word. Most of the people in the class have my skin tone, some a bit darker, some a bit lighter. In the U.S., people’d assume they are White.

But I don’t know enough history of Argentina; I didn’t know what to compare it to. How to explain that Black people can use this word, but White people never?

This is the thing about language—the more and more I learn about Spanish and about teaching English, it’s cultural. G is always talking about language is the basis of philosophy…and its more and more true to me. But how do I talk about that in an “English for Business Basics” class?