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What Are The Pros And Cons Of Being Bilingual

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There are lots of opinions created by one another about languages, whether it be personal or based by society. Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez have a big part on being bilingual and forming two different opinions and arguments. Being bilingual to Espada is having an Identity, love, and connecting to your heritage. However; for Rodriguez it’s something different. Rodriguez throughout his life struggles having to learn the public language only to lose his private language. Rodriguez gains something but in return loses himself. Martin Espada and other Latinos feel that being bilingual is a good idea. They hold on to their …show more content…

Automatically hearing someone speak a foreign language you do not understand you assume they’re talking about you well most of the time that is untrue. Anglos don’t know the language to assume what’s being said neither can they judge it. Finally, after everything latinos go through with being judged and mistreated by Anglos they defend their so speak the Latino tongue. Spanish speakers are they’re going to fight for their right to speak the language. Espada being Puerto Rican from Brooklyn he’s always had to fight for his right to speak his language. He states “ .. I have learned that the best way for me to maintain Spanish is to fight for the right to speak Spanish.’’ ( 4 ). No one or nothing will stop them from being who they are. Continuing to speak it is his way of fighting. They will fight together nobody will silence them. For example, the group META was involved in a demonstration at State House protesting a bill in Massachusetts to make English the official language of the state. According to Espada

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Even after what Espada had just experienced, he proceeded to address the crowd with a microphone in hand and speak against the state and people like the man he had just encountered. Espada believes that the “English Only” idea is harmful and we must fight against policies and ideas that go against non-English speakers. However, there is a multitude of ways to approach policies like “English

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Selena Quintanilla’s father once said, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.” In today’s society, many have encountered the challenge of not being able to be who they really are because they fear not being accepted by others, more specifically their culture. But, what happens when an individual is part of two worlds that have just as many rules? Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Mexican-American writer and poet who made a major contribution to the fields of cultural, feminist, and queer theory. Anzaldúa identifies as a Chicana and speaks different variations of Spanish, some of which she exhibits in her works.

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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

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Castro appeals to a younger audience in many ways, pleading for a call to action in continuing to teach Spanish to the 2nd and 3rd generation Hispanics. He knows that these are the people who he needs to reach with his words. The kids and young adults who should take pride in their culture, but maybe aren’t because their heritage through their native language wasn’t passed down to them. These are the people with the power to revitalize the Spanish speaking natives in America’s

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However, in order for one to truly understand the arguments made by the authors they must also understand the context behind these arguments; therefore, knowing how the individual authors’ definition of bilingualism lets the reader truly absorb what points they’re trying to make and why. In Espada’s essay, he defines bilingualism as a way for a person to remain in contact with their different cultural identities. There are many areas in the essay where the reader could interpret this definition from. However, the most significant piece of evidence appears at the beginning of the essay where Espada mentions his friend Jack Agueros’ analogy to describe his bilingualism “English and Spanish are like two dogs I love. English is an obedient dog.

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Espada believes that being able to speak your native is your personal way to stay connected to your culture, Bilingualism to Espada its more than speaking 2 languages it a piece of your identity. In his essay, he states "He can rip my tongue out if he wants. but it won 't work, (because I speak Spanish with my heart)"(7, 97-100). Espada takes the view of it 's not a skill that developed it 's something you 're born with, something that can never be taken away. Unlike Rodriguez who states that Spanish is a private language, and English is a public

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Both readings claim that Hispanics are here to stay, but with opposing views on how this affects society. One place where Hispanic presence is on the rise is in schools. However, some Hispanic students know more Spanish than English, and therefore struggle in school. This idea of exemplifies the stereotype that Hispanics are “dumb”.

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My personal experience being multilingual is that i am able to freely express myself in words or phrases that come natural to me. Being able to speak Vietnamese, English, and French with ease while using some commonly known phrases from the Japanese language. Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, two authors that speak Spanish and English have different standpoints on the subject of bilingualism. In Martin Espada’s essay “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” explains the need to maintain cultural identity through bilingualism, while in Richard Rodriguez’s exert “Hunger of Memory” depicts the necessity of becoming bilingual to be able to function well in society. “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” by Martin Espada explores

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I speak Spanish with my heart”). Espada said this to convey how the legislator in the Massachusetts State house were trying to silence and metaphorically rip thier spanish tongues out by making English the official language of massachusetts, which could mean Spanish speakers could be legally discriminated

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Barrientos stated; “If I stayed away from Spanish, stereotypes would stay away from me. ”(Barrientos 646) She knew even as a young child that people around her pegged their family as “Mexican”, which would mean inferior. She wanted to feel white so she could fit into society. Today, America teaches languages in schools.

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First, it is well known that most of Hispanics and Latinos speak Spanish to communicate with each other: however, this does not mean

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Being bilingual in the era of globalization opens up many doors to the world as well as opportunities to a brighter career and future. The myths and misunderstandings of bilingualism has to be corrected and in order for them to come to an end, since they were proven by scientific researchers that they were nothing more than just myths from the past. Parents, educators along with researchers play an important role in spreading the facts about bilingualism to avoid future confusion especially to many new bilingual families. Aside from that, motivation from parents is the main key for a bilingual child to learn and excel in both languages to achieve a balance in order to be successful in the future. It is also important for the parents to guide and monitor a child’s learning development.

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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).

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So not only do both groups learn and work with two languages they meet new people they wouldn't have met or had class if it was not for those bilingual classes. Studies have been made to show the effects of bilingual education and how students would benefit from being in a bilingual class, “ELLs who had gotten waivers to remain in small bilingual programs were equally proficient in English and did just as well on state tests when compared with ELLs in English-only programs” (Sanchez). So bilingual education can improve the communication between ELL students

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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.

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