Gloria Anzaladua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

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You Are What You Speak Language is an important part of our lives; it’s a gift which lets us communicate, expose our thoughts and feelings. It’s something that is inseparable from our culture and life styles. In language we find both truth and beauty. Being human we tend to use it to come across the agreement what is true. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaladua claims, “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- I am my language” (39). What Gloria Anzaladua means by this statement is language fundamentally makes us what we are. I agree that with piece of information language is the most significant part of ones identity because it plays a huge role in our society. Language shape the way we think and visualize the world. It is a way of studying cultures and exploring how culture is learned and taught. Today there are approximately 5,000 various languages spoken in the world. With the support of these languages we are able to express our emotions, wants and needs. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” as well as “Notes of a Native Speaker,” Liu and Gloria struggled with their lives due to their language and life style differences. Liu doesn’t want to be …show more content…

She was told to speak English. She was sent to the corner of the classroom for responding back to her teacher. Her intention was not to disrespect but to correct her teacher on how to pronounce her name accurately. She was tackled with the statement “If you want to be American speak American. If you don’t like it go back to where you belong.” Language was viewed as a “bastard” form. Standard Spanish or standard anything else became internalized that the language was a poorer quality to others. Gloria viewed this as something that needs to be changed. She believes that language is part of ethnic individuality and should be appreciative part of self if the women anticipate improving their self