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Recommended: Language, culture, and identity
My understanding of Coming into Language “Coming into Language” is a book by Jimmy Santiago Baca, that talks about the struggles he had to face as a young illiterate Hispanic male. As a “Chicano”, he had to deal with prejudice from an early life and as a result, had frequent run-ins with the police. At the age of seventeen he was arrested as a murder suspect because he refused to explain how he got a gash on his arm. While he is in prison, awaiting trial, he listens to other prisoners reading out loud and that is when he starts appreciating written language. Two years later, he is again behind the bars facing drug charges and a million-dollar bail.
Rodriguez’s viewpoint in “Aria” and Thiong’o’s ideas are similar in a way that they both agree with the fact that having non-native English speaker to learn English by abandoning their mother language will hinder their close relationship with their culture and family. However, Rodriguez believes that the most effective way for immigrants to learn English is to totally leave their mother language behind because this allows the immigrants to learn English in the fastest way, and the immigrants will have the confidence to fit into the American society when their English is fluent. However, Thiong’o sees more cons than pros regard to the idea of letting non-native speaker to learn a second language in a forceful and extreme way. First, he states
In order to conduct the in depth college interview assignment, I decided to interview Lisbeth Luna, a 11th grade from Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College Lizbeth Luna was born on Ecuador, she came to the United States with both of her parents and her brother when she was around four years old. Lisbeth, definitely describes herself as a Latino/Hispanic student. Lisbeth is eligible for free lunch, she actually stated that she believes everyone or the majority of students at her school are eligible for free lunch. Even though Lisbeth describes her first language to be Spanish, she stated that the majority of the time she finds herself speaking English with her friends and brother, expect with her parents. She attempts to talk in Spanish with her parents, but the majority of times she is always speaking English.
That is why Filemon Lopez, who is part of the Benito Juarez Civic Association states that they are working hard to teach the Mixtecs their rights, about the importance of health, housing but overall of education. Even in the Madera school district, the importance of education is being advocated for, for teachers such as Carmen Hernandez states that it is important that both children like adults learn both Spanish and English, so that they can later be able to function in an English speaking society, but also so that they can keep their language and their pride in their background. Such as in the lecture about linguistic anthropology lecture that we went over in class, where it was explained that for the most part once English was learned that native languages were used less and less then forgotten, for only a subset of the population usually those who are older are the only ones who maintain the language going until they are gone. That is why Carmen emphasizes the importance of providing bilingual classes for Mixtec adults and children. So that in the future as Apuleyo Guzman states, that he hopes to learn more English so that he can get a better job so that e can get a better job, so that he can better provided for his family and his village, yet also still has his culture, his language and his ties to
He spoke English at home but when he got home he started speaking Spanish as a daily routine. Sometimes Rodriguez heard his parents speaking English in public but he felt safe in his Spanish speaking home because it was his first language. English seemed difficult for
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.
He came home from school one day, his parents were talking. It wasn’t until after they had switched to English that he realized they had been speaking Spanish. Now you would think having been born to English speaking parents, here in the United States, that I wouldn’t understand a language barrier. Growing up I watched my cousin struggle to communicate with others. He lost his hearing when he was 5 years old.
Class ESL 5 In the article, ”My English” by Julia Alvarez, the author wrote about her experience as she learn to speak English. Spanish was her mother tongue and struggled to speak English in the early phases. She thought that English was a form of Spanish, as there are different dialects in Spanish. Her parents spoke English when they didn’t want her and her siblings to know what was going on.
There are two type of families. There is one family that speak only English and the other one that speak their home language and English in their household. Those type of families that speak two or more languages in their household are mostly immigrants that move to the United States. Their child or children will grow up speaking perfect English while their parents will speak poor English. In Amy Tan “Mother Tongue”, she talks about how without proper English it is sometimes difficult to get through daily life.
Spanish was my first language and neither one of my parents knew english. I would go to school and just listen and try to learn every little thing I could get my hands
In the essay “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, Tan claims the concept that we tend to speak totally different languages to speak with one another which our intelligence is judged by the approach we tend to speak. As a fictional author, Tan is astonished by language and uses it as a district of her work. Tan observes experiences that helped her notice the various variety of “englishes” she uses. As kid born in an exceedingly chines culture, tan had to talk to sorts of languages. One language she used was educational English, that she learned from the books and used it in an exceedingly traditional spoken communication Second language, that was solely utilized by her family.
They told me that it was really hard to communicate with people that spoke English because they didn’t know not even a little of English. They never learned English in Mexico because my dad went only as far as second grade and then he stopped going to school because my grandma told him that it would be better if you just started working. And he did, he would sell bread around his little town. It’s not a coincidence that he now works in a baking factory my mom also dropped out from school to work also.
Having a second language in your background is so impactful on one’s life, providing them with more skills. This is the 21st century and having this skill helps an individual be
In Mexico, my home country, I was able to successfully communicate with others and complete assignments just by the utilizing the Spanish language, but that was not the case on this side of the border. I had to learn a whole new language that seemed to be far different from my natal
Talented at both Latin and English, she told me that in most European countries, people were expected to know at least three languages. I felt lucky that we Americans only have to know one language since English is so universal. Nevertheless, I felt that Americans were missing an opportunity to connect with other cultures. Wanting to understand the students and cultures of other nations, I was motivated to continue studying Latin at school as well as Japanese at
