To the Editor:

In response to your March 25 news article on Spanglish, the hybrid language of English and Spanish, there are obvious advantages to having the capability of fluctuating between two languages in the cases where both parties are bilingual. To communicate in ''Spanglish'' is another issue entirely.

The concern that I have as a Latin American is that in my experience living on both the East and West Coasts, I discovered that substitution of English in a Spanish conversation among Hispanic people is often because of the lack of knowledge of the correct Spanish word.

For instance, there have been many occasions where I have utilized the proper Spanish word for ''to park'' (''estacionar''), and I was often not understood by Spanish speakers. The Spanglish version is ''parquear,'' which is not a Spanish word. The list could go on.

Particularly for Hispanic people raised in the United States, as in my case, learning to speak Spanish properly is fundamental in order to excel in the professional world and effectively to deal with Latin Americans who were raised in a Spanish-speaking country.

If Latin Americans truly take pride in how descriptive their native tongue is, I would think that they would make more of an effort to preserve the beauty of their language by utilizing any of the vast vocabulary that actually exists in the Spanish language.


Los Angeles, March 26, 1997