In South Texas, speaking English or Spanish is a matter of choice. And you can certainly hum Jingle Bells or Feliz Navidad without causing too much of a stir no matter where you are.

So I thought that perhaps, with some study and some crafty observation, I could determine which of the two languages was more prominent among Hispanics during the holiday season. I figured a sustained observation - at the local retail stores and at the mall - would bring out some interesting results.

I wasn’t mistaken.

Two weeks later, after eavesdropping on just about everybody’s conversation, the one thing I learned is that when it comes to speaking “Spanglish” things aren’t going to change. Assembling Spanish and English words together in a uniform fashion seems to pop up in just about every conversation … with the party that’s listening-in understanding every spoken word.

Case in point: “Ay mijita you’ve grown so much!” Or, “Bueno, come over to the house cuando quieres.”

Good English or bad, the use of both languages isn’t going to end. Just don’t tell me that the candy bar in your hand cost “fisty” cents and you’re okay.

In fact, having a second language under your belt is a definite advantage, especially when the language enables you to adapt to a particular cultural background. For example, the inflow of Hispanic immigrants into the United States and South Texas has resulted in a more varied cultural experience for all. That’s why tacos are so widely accepted and humming both Jingle Bells and Feliz Navidad is normal.

Speaking of carols, most of the people I observed seemed to have music on their minds, humming jolly Christmas songs as they made their way through the store. I was also surprised in the number of Country Christmas songs being played over the loudspeakers at the various stores I visited.

And just in case you need to know, the only problem with speaking “Spanglish” is when a child begins school and doesn’t have the basic understanding of the English and Spanish languages. It could be, at least for a child, hard to differentiate. That could cause the child to fall behind in school or even, as the year’s progress, to be held back.

Hispanics aren’t the only minority to be confronted with language barriers. Just several weeks ago, a story about a successful Chinese immigrant who hired a young boy to teach him the neighborhood language exemplified the problem.

It seems the immigrant, after presumably learning what he thought was English, decided to celebrate the occasion by taking his wife out to a nice American restaurant. After being seated, the immigrant quickly observed that not only could he not read the writing on the menu, but was unable to understand a single word spoken by the waiter.

Seeking a translator to fill the couple’s order, the waiter said, “You’re not going to believe this, but there’s a Chinese gentleman speaking Polish on Table 4.”

As it turned out, the Chinese immigrant had unknowingly moved into a Polish neighborhood.

So I guess it wouldn’t hurt to teach your child the differences in the languages, just in case.

One thing for sure, however, is that the holiday spirit is universally understood and enjoyed by all, no matter what language you speak.