The New Bathroom Policy At English High School, By Richard Rodriguez And Martin Espada

Being born to parents who speak Chinese, my first language was Chinese. Growing up, I struggled learning the complex language of English. I had to be in ELD, English Literacy Development, class for years and only until I went to middle school, did I not go to ELD anymore. I was relentlessly made fun of for my grammar in school and I was always afraid to bring Chinese food for lunch because I was scared of people making fun of me. For every good grade I get on a test, I wonder if people will think about the stereotype society has placed on Asian people, all Asians always get good grades. Like me, essayists Richard Rodriguez and Martin Espada are bilingual. Their essays are about their stance on the term, bilingualism. To me, bilingualism is

In the essay, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, Espada witnesses the hostile actions thrown to students at school who speak a language other than English. The students have spoken in Spanish to each other and the lunch people overheard them and automatically assumed that the students were talking unpleasant thoughts about them. They told the principal of the school and she agreed to prohibit Spanish at lunchtime. This shows that people don’t have the freedom to be able to speak their second language in public without wondering constantly if there would be any hostile actions towards them. I also believe that people shouldn’t be forced to learn English and they should be able to learn English when they want to. Because eventually, they will need to learn English out of the necessity to communicate with others. In the excerpt from the essay, “Hunger of Memory”, Rodriguez explains the obligation he has to learn the public language of society, English. He suggests,”I would have delayed - for how long postponed? - having to learn the language of public society?”(22-24). Rodriguez believes that he would have to learn English one way or another, because English is a language of society and he would need to understand English in order to communicate with others in his