Language is first learned as an infant by absorbing and mimicking one's environment, surroundings, and daily life. For some, like myself, more than one language is spoken, and learning how to balance multiple languages can be a challenge. Trying to integrate language with culture and environment at times can be interesting and other times demanding and tiresome. Maxine Hong Kingston describes her struggles in coping with the differences in her languages, coming to terms with herself, and accepting how her culture uses language in her essay, “The Language of Silence”. Although similar struggles are had by Christine Marin, she writes in her essay “Spanish Lessons”, about how she discovered her culture through language, how it empowered her, and how she learned to love that part of herself.
The poem is a powerful expression of the importance of language in shaping the way individuals perceive themselves and their place in the world. The line "my eyes change to show my mood, my soul, my land" demonstrates how language can be used to express cultural identity through the use of metaphor. The speaker's eyes are a reflection of their connection to their cultural identity and their land, which are both deeply intertwined. Additionally, the use of the word "my" reinforces the idea that the speaker's cultural identity is personal and deeply rooted in their individual experience. However, the line "I speak English to you, you do not understand" highlights the challenges that can arise when language is used to communicate across cultures.
What they want to do is also retain their own language, culture, and identity” (164-167). Here, Espada highlights how language helps people absorb new cultures and offer a wider perception of our world, but that people also want to keep their sense of self-worth without losing
The collective autobiography edited by Alice Pung “Growing Up Asian in Australia” and the short story collection written by Maxine Beneba Clarke, “Foreign Soil” both illustrate the impact of family and cultural expectations on one’s identity. Both authors emphasise how the personal desires and beliefs of individuals brought about by the expectations imposed by their family, their culture and the society on them can serve as a motivation to change and establish their identity. The desire for acceptance and love can motivate an individual to satisfy a certain expectation. Similarly, pressure brought by individuals around a character may bring them to feel obligated to meet standards.
The excerpt from the book “Me Talk Pretty One Day” and the short story “Superman and Me” are both biographical accounts of learning a language along with the struggles with it. They share the purpose of portraying the elation one feels when they have been able to proficiently learn a language. They both use a chronological organization of their text along with figurative language. The authors take contrasting approaches towards the subject matter, one is more comical while the other has a social justice demeanor. They use disparate diction selections, comparisons, and references.
Throughout generations cultural traditions have been passed down, alongside these traditions came language. The language of ancestors, which soon began to be molded by the tongue of newer generations, was inherited. Though language is an everlasting changing part of the world, it is a representation of one’s identity, not only in a cultural way but from an environmental standpoint as well. One’s identity is revealed through language from an environmental point of view because the world that one is surrounded with can cause them to have their own definitions of words, an accent, etc. With newer generations, comes newer forms of languages.
Kasia Suarez discusses the process of acquiring her culture without a constant feeling of embarrassment because of bullying from her peers. For instance, she began attending college classes for education in the field and became more open-minded about the different cultures in the American educational system to help her have a wider perspective on culture. Soon after became a teacher and assisted children who were unfamiliar with English or the country, such as herself, when she was growing up. She was very helpful because she went through the same thing and learned from it as she grew up. This helps different students facilitate their sense of belonging and pride in their culture.
Baldwin shows children and adults the value of having a language in which one is able to communicate one's own experience is essential to everyday life.
Lera Boroditsky, a professor at Stanford, introduces readers to the question of whether a person’s language can shape their thought processes and views of the world around them through her research conducted at Stanford and MIT. Boroditsky explores further into the questioning about a language’s influence in her article “Lost in Translation”. Boroditsky proves to an audience of broad audience of scholars and people interested in cultural psychology that a person’s language not only influences the way a person thinks but can change a person’s perception of the world and media around them. Lera Boroditsky, through her use of rhetorical questions, comparisons, and addressing the counterargument achieves her purpose of proving that language does
Our identity is a place upon many attributes of a human being. Whether the person is someone who goes on promoting themselves to the world or not, and it shows how people communicate to others around them. Language is one of the main components that unveils the person’s identity in their everyday life, and they are many different ways to approach a person’s language. Relating to the article of Yiyun Li, “To Speak is to Blunder,” she knows two languages that has its positive and negative outcomes in her life. I to relate to her understanding of language, but a different view of what language means to me.
At first I wrestled with where my identity lay. The strong values and traditions of the Indian culture sometimes made it difficult to fit in with the crowd. As I grew older, I began to understand that I was not part of an individual culture, but a fusion of two rich and colorful histories. I recognized that there is remarkably more to an individual than where she comes from, and more to her than where she currently lives. Importantly, being from two cultures allows me to incorporate the best qualities of both.
What is cultural identity? I haven't heard about this concept till my tenth grade English Language Arts class. I thought about this question throughout the months. Then I asked myself what represents my cultural identity? It took awhile for me to figure it out, but it came to me, SPORTS!
While at a public speaking, Tan realized that she was using all these large words that her audience understood but her mother did not. “I was saying things like, “The intersection of memory upon imagination” and “There is an aspect of my fiction that relates to thus–and-thus…the forms of English I did not use at home with my mother” (Tan 58). Tan’s mother was in the room while Tan was giving the speech and that was when she realized that language could be a powerful tool that can connect each other in different ways. The English language can also bring people together who speak English but not in such a common way. “We were talking about the price of new and used furniture and I heard myself saying this: “Not waste money that way” (Tan 58).
In Lera Boroditsky 's "How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think" the purpose of the essay is apparent from the second paragraph. "Language is a uniquely human gift central to our experience of being human" she explains, so that the reader understands how language affects ones thoughts and day to day lives (2). Boroditsky 's use of empirical evidence, factual information, organizational structure, understanding and construction upon thoughts that disprove her purpose, and light tone all aide in accomplishing her purpose. Each of these methods help convince the audience that, " Language is central to our experience of being human, and the languages we speak profoundly shapes the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we live our lives" (Boroditsky 10).
Throughout my experiences in this course so far, I have had many opportunities to reflect on my own past and have begun to better understand my own cultural identity. It has been much more difficult to wrap my head around than I would have predicted it to be because so many things play into the construction of an identity that it can be hard to look at all of those separate pieces together. My cultural identity, like all others, is more complicated than it first appears. I identify as a white person, a woman, an American, a gay person, and a feminist, just to name a few. While all of these labels carry with them stereotypes and expectations, they also interplay with the cultural influences I was subject to throughout my childhood.
