For example, under her subtitle “Overcoming the tradition of silence”, she quotes “ahogadas, escupimos……nos sepulta.” (Anzaldua, 498). It would be logical to conclude that she expects her audience to have some basic understanding about Spanish. Even though, it is not necessary for her viewer to understand Spanish in order to appreciate her work, this multi-language use is an important information to spot her intended audience. In another word, she was not writing to Spanish, Latin American audiences exclusively, but they are her core audiences.
It seems as she has no interest in pursuing the Spanish language and refers to English which creates a language barrier. We see this in the passage when the grandmother calls for Michelle in her Mexican name “Micaela” and her brothers refer to her as “Michelle”. (Cisneros 95) The author gives the grandmother a type of resentment attitude towards Michelle because of the constant absence of interest in the culture they share together. In the passage the narrator mentions “The awful grandmother knits the names of the dead and the living into one long prayer fringed with the grandchildren born in that barbaric country with its barbaric ways” (Cisneros 94).
I really enjoyed "Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" by Richard Rodriguez because it gave me a perspective on bilingual children and education I've never heard before. Rodriguez, the son of two Mexican immigrants, grew up in Sacramento, California and began attending an English-speaking school knowing very little English. The essay takes readers through both the struggles and delights he experienced while learning the English language. Despite the struggles he went through, Rodriguez firmly believes that bilingual education is bad for children. Although I’ve always thought that bilingual education was good, Rodriguez made a very convincing argument about why it is wrong; and changed my mind.
This kind of vocabulary without translation shows the respect and knowledge that Junot Diaz has for his country and his roots and that even though he came to the
English and Spanish, the two dogs in this analogy, are the two cultures he nurtures and adores. Despite one culture being more dominant over the other, they are still two different parts of his identity that he must take care of. Compared to Espada’s essay, Rodriguez seems to approach the definition of bilingualism from a completely different perspective. Rodriguez sees bilingualism as a connection to one’s public identity. He mentions his definition near the beginning of his essay, where Rodriguez talks about how his previous non-bilingual self would have been pleased if the teachers had spoken Spanish.
Amy Tan and Richard Rodriquez both grew up in Northern California, to immigrant families. Amy Tan became famous for her book, “The Joy Luck Club” that later became a movie. Richard wrote “The Hunger of Memory.” Before they became famous though, they both struggled to learn English. In “Mother Tongue.”
For instance, the text states, “And as I stood there trying to talk with Meche, I kept stumbling on my Spanish words. She laughed and said I spoke like a pocha, a Mexican born in the U.S. I felt ashamed to realize that learning English had cost me my Spanish” (Grande 270). In other words, Reyna’s Spanish had become worse after she lived in the US, despite being born and raised in Mexico. This evidence emphasizes that she was gradually losing her Mexican culture in exchange for American culture. Though she would appreciate being integrated as a US citizen, she still wanted to hold onto her roots in Mexico.
(177)” The teacher wants Rodriguez’s family to stop speaking Spanish when he is home because it might help him feel more comfortable in speaking
This quote explains that the author feels out of place. When Barrientos came to the United States she stopped speaking spanish, partly because her parents wanted her to speak english. One reason she did not want to be classified as Mexican American was that society has negative connotations outsiders. Learning spanish
Handling a bilingual interview - Some question and smart answer By the word “Bilingual” means, when one can speak in two or more than one language fluently like a native speaker. Now-a-days, in this competitive world, bilingualism in the job field plays a very important role. To keep up an international relationship and business purposes, it is important to have a good idea about different languages. In the United State of America, most of the industrial companies, schools, colleges and universities bilingual activities for own greater good.
What is bilingualism? Bilingualism is the ability to speak or write fluently in two languages. (“Bilingualism”) Canada has been used two official languages since 1969 which are English and French. Those two language have equal status and equal rights to services at the same level which are given by the government of Canada.
Anna Wierzbicka is a Polish linguist with many articles published along her career. She is working at the Australian National University in Canberra where she spent much time writing over 20 books famous in his field , her work containing studies about semantics, pragmatics and cross-cultural linguistics. Her article Bilingual lives,Bilingual experience is a preface of the book Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development . In this article the author addresses several topics about bilingual life based on research done by other people but she also provides examples from her personal life .
The article by Susan Jones titled ‘One body and two heads: girls exploring their bicultural identities through text’ (2006) provides meaningful insight into identity. Two groups of girls, both from different backgrounds, are interviewed. A distinct link is made between biculturalism and bilingualism with authors Hamers and Blanc-as cited by Jones, 2006- stating that “language is a component of culture”. The out-of-school practices carried out by the girls as well as me and every other person indicates that our preferences as well as knowledge of language, influences our culture and identity.
Being bilingual has got many advantages. It has been debated that bilingualism has multiple advantages such as cognitive, cultural, academic benefits as well. Cognitive benefit reveals that being bilingual help to facilitate human brain. People who are bilingual have two language systems which are working simultaneously. These systems don’t create hindrance in individual’s performance and ensure brain’s functioning of both cognitive aspects (Bialystok, 1999).
The notion of bilingualism is frequently connected to the idea of code-switching since a person should have ability to speak using two or more than one variety. Researchers have made countless studies describing bilingualism as they create awareness in different ways. To begin with is Bloomfield (1933) who defined bilingualism as having the “native- like control of two languages”. However, Haugen (1953) pinpointed that bilingualism is the ability of a speaker to communicate and understand an additional variety. This is to mean that the concept of bilingualism exist only when an individual of a certain variety has the capability to communicate effectively in an additional variety.