Growing up, my parents always expressed the importance of language. Within my family alone, my father speaks Greek and Hebrew, my sister and my mother both speak Spanish. Whenever the chance came for me to take a foreign language my parents encouraged me to try it. At first I started off taking French classes, but I soon realized that it was not for me and switched to the American favorite, Spanish. Never truly mastering the language of Spanish, I still feel a strong connection to the culture.
Keeping my background in mind, my encounters with the Puerto Rican language were impactful. Puerto Ricans take their language very seriously, which can be understood through the way they speak it. Puerto Ricans have even came up with a term called, Spanglish, where they mix both Spanish and English words into their language. Spanglish has given Puerto Ricans a sense of pride and ownership of their language as a whole. An important thing that I soon realized that is that Puerto Ricans do not speak in English unless they have to, which goes back to the fact that they are proud of the evolution of their language. 
After my trip to Puerto Rico, back home, it soon dawned on me that language helps establish cultures and provides explanation on how a culture has evolved and deviated from a central force. No different than the rest, Puerto Rico provides more than enough support for this thought.
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