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Conversely, one teacher was observed speaking Spanish to the
students in the cafeteria as they went through the free and reduced
lunch line. He said that he had picked up some of the words from the
students and tried to use them,because he liked helping the students
and wanted them to feel at home.
The February issue of the school newspaper had several articles
written by the students on the importance of making new friends and
making strangers feel welcome. However, this concept of welcoming new
people did not appear to exist across language barriers, for the students.
Observations of Cultural Differences and Cultural Transmission
As the review of the literature in Chapter Two indicated, culture
and language are inseparable. The view of the Cuban cultural context
serves to make the familiar school setting strange and to emphasize
differences. The North American context highlights other differences.
The Cuban context
The bilingual teachers were both Cuban-American. They expressed
surprise at the language of the students. According to the teachers,
many students had unusual accents and the vocabulary they used was
different. Students frequently used vulgarisms but appeared not to
realize they had said something offensive. The students and their
parents were, at times, difficult to understand and very different from
any other group of Cubans the teachers had ever seen.
The teachers' observations were supported by Moreno Fraginals (1982),
a Cuban writer and professor who was visiting the U.S. from Cuba. His