Miss Lupe faced several obstacles throughout her life. Some of these were: cultural traditions, the language barrier, people doubting her and being labeled as a retard. However, Miss Lupe used her love for her children as a motivation to overcome the difficulty of understanding English. She was terrified for her children future. She did not want her children to grow up like her, not able to do well because of the language they speak. Miss Lupe decided to take action by getting help speaking and understanding English. She worked closely with other Hispanic students. She used her passion for reading, even though it was initially in Spanish, as a springboard for her eventual English language mastery. Eventually she could help her own children with their English and they in turn were able to help her with her pronunciation as they improved. She did not let her cultural tradition of accepting everything teachers say stop her. She did not accept that she and her kids were …show more content…
English grammar has always been one of the biggest obstacles throughout my life. Like Miss Lupe, I do not let that stop me. I use my son as my motivation to succeed. Even though he is not yet two years old, he is very determined, focused and goal oriented. I watch him take on his little tasks with a determination to succeed. He does not quit until he accomplishes what he set out to. If one approach does not work, he will try other ways until he succeeds. If he can do that, then I should be able to use that approach too. I decided to never give up on my goals. Struggling with an issue does not mean that you will fail. You should not give up. Instead of quitting you should continue to fight through it because you can determine what your future will be. Miss Lupe was not afraid to get help from others, even if they were reluctant at first. She did not let rejection not stop her. These are lessons I learned from the
The story portrays the hardships of Lupe Quintanilla and what she confronted as a child and even as an adult. She was told that she was incapable of learning, and was given a test that said she had an IQ of sixty-four. Which implies she wasn't even open to instruction as indicated by her test scores. Her instructors regarded her as though she was a child. When she was twelve she was put into a class with six year olds, where they teased her for being so old. When she was a teenager she got married and had three children. The three children were put in a program that was made for children who were not smart enough. Lupe pointed the blamed herself for all that her children were put in the program. Not long after that Lupe got to be worn out
In “Se Habla Español,” the author, Tanya, talks about her personal experience with dealing with language issues. Tanya was born in Guatemala and moved to the U.S when she was only three years old. Tanya’s mother did not want her to speak Spanish, because they believed that when they moved to the U.S speaking only English would help her blend in. For so long Tanya believed that speaking Spanish went hand in hand with being poor and speaking only English made her feel superior. After many years she has tried to learn Spanish but has found it quite difficult because although that is her native language it was like trying to learning a whole new language for her. In “Mother Tongue,” Amy’s explains how she has come to the realization that she speaks more than one “English,” meaning that the way she speaks in front of a crowd is different than the way she speaks with her mother. The way Amy speaks with her mother is still English although it is not proper. Amy expresses how she does not really like the phrase “broken English,” because if something is broken it needs to be fixed and she does not feel that her mother’s English needs to be
Since, Lupita has access to both languages. I understand that Lupita need to build up her English skills in particular reading and phonemic awareness; however, It all about comprehension. In other words, if Lupita does not understand a word in English then Spanish can be a helpful tool to grasp comprehension or vise-versa. I would make sure that Spanish words are used as a tool and not the primary language being learned. In addition, be certain that the use of Spanish is slowing faded away as time goes
In Julia Alvarez’s short story “Daughter of Invention” the speaker needed to read and Write to save her life. In this character’s case, she needed to read and write to save her social life. In as an immigrant who moved from the Dominican Republic to the United States, she needs to become part of the culture of the country. Learning English and be able to speak the language well is important to being accepted into the culture. She described United States culture as hostile and “took root in the language” to help merge herself with the culture (). Without, learning the language, how to write she would be forever be shunned by the English speakers in the United States. This would make her life extremely difficult because in the United States
Throughout Richards early childhood development he quickly understood that in order to succeed in America he would have to learn to confidently speak in English. Richard is Hispanic American and although he was born in America, Spanish was the only language that he was exposed to as a young child. He grew up in a home where Spanish flowed freely, but he soon realized outside of his home the language that he primarily knew was foreign. His parents spoke fluent Spanish along with all of his relatives. The brief encounters he experienced of his parents speaking English were only in public places and the proficiency was very poor. Rodriguez’s home was as a safety net for him and his Spanish speaking family with they are his only real connections to the outside world. It wasn’t until Richards encounter with his teachers that he and his family was heavily impressed on the importance of developing a public language. After the encouragement of the visit home from a teacher as a family
Mama Chona told her grandchildren time and time again that they were to be educated. Their family was greater than those who stayed uneducated. “Because of them Miguel Chico and his cousins learned to communicate in both languages fluently, a privilege denied the next generation, who began learning to red and write after Tia Cuca was dead and Mama Chona near senile” (Islas, p. 142).
From the moment that we are born, we are exposed to means of language and communication. Though technically we can not speak as babies; we give our parents small signals to let them know what we need such as, being hungry or needing a diaper change. Language is proven to be essential and an important part of life. In the essays, Homemade Education, by Malcolm X and Spanish Lessons, by Christine Marin both essays give a strong example of why language is important. In Malcolm’s essay, he explains how when he was prison the power of language completely changed his life. In Marin’s essay she talks about her experience with the English and Spanish language and how both languages opened up new doors for her in her life and
When Lupe ran into obstacle after obstacle in her search to learn english, she nearly gave up. Lupe’s story is a great example of being discouraged but proving people wrong because she got discouraged when she was called a retard so she listened to the people who called her that but when her children got called slow she got angry and it motivated her to help prove people wrong that she was smart and her children were too. One time when I got very discouraged was in third grade english class when i wrote a what i thought was a good paper but when I got it back the paper was filled with red ink from the teacher correcting every little thing. This really discouraged me because nobody else had as many corrections on their paper as me this made
One reason why Lupe is so determined is because she is hardworking. She is hardworking because one day after school Lupe left her homework in her backpack and practiced for three hours straight, taking the time to eat a candy bar for energy. She is also hardworking because she decides to do strengthen her wrists by doing twenty push-ups on her fingertips five at a time. “One, two, three …” Even though she
In “The Professor is a Dropout,” Beth Johnson tells the story of Guadalupe Quintanilla. When Lupe was a child she had to face trials and tribulations as she was growing up and even as a woman. As a child she was tested to be retarded, she had an IQ of sixty-four. As a result, her teachers treated her differently and had to drop out of first grade. Later on, she married when she was sixteen and had three children in the years to come. When her children started going to school, all three of them were tested retarded and were into a program called yellow birds for kids that were slow learners. Lupe blamed herself at first but later became tired of feeling sorry for herself. She became determined, persistent and did everything she could to further
Writing has always been my greatest weakness throughout my academic career. I love to talk and debate with other students. I also know writing will be important in any future career. Therefore, being able to translate my thoughts into writing efficiently has been a goal of mine. Thanks to WRC 1023, I have made great progress towards that goal. Because WRC 1023 teaches persuasive writing, I have focused on writing a strong thesis and using credible sources in my essays. But, I still have to improve on grammar, another important aspect of writing.
So I set out to learn the language people assumed I already knew.”. Continuing her education with spanish was not easy, it took a lot of effort and hard work. She benefitted a lot from doing so , she was able to speak spanish , not perfectly , but just good enough for those around her to understand. The only drawback was the looks those fluent speaker would give her when she stumbled over a construction. She then makes an interesting point that if she were a white man/woman, who was attempting to speak the language , they would automatically start applauding just for the amount of effort given.
James P. Spradely, Lynn’s uncle and co-author of this book, his perspective is also important since he does not live in the house with the family. His perspective is so different from what the family did on a daily basis. Being the reader, I could see how he was needed to help edit the book so that all the things that where important got put into the book so that the reader could see what it is like to have a child that does not speak. The learning process the family went through to see that not all children are the same. To find out that in Lynn’s case her native language is...
I realized how important language and grammar are, and that I needed to improve upon these skills before attempting to move forward on my career path. Currently, I am studying to become an elementary and special education teacher. Who am I to teach our youth grammar, when even I struggle with it? Based on this question was why I certainly pushed myself throughout the semester to continuously strengthen my work submitted. Additionally, having proper grammar is useful for any career field. No matter the job the probably for needing an outstanding resume is recommendable. With this skill of writing, it may surely take you down any path you choose. This is exactly why writing is unquestionably the toughest skill to
Richard Rodriguez was born in a Mexican immigrant family, the first years of his life he only spoke Spanish; it wasn’t until he started attending a Roman Catholic school that he was introduced to the English language. In his autobiography, Rodriguez describes his journey through education in California as a Mexican American Student with immigrant parents; he had difficulties with both languages, he found himself caught up in between his private and public life. His culture at home involved the most appreciated things in his life such as his family and Spanish, the home language. At the beginning of his education Richard learned to separate his privacy from his everyday life at school; he valued education and spent most of his time reading and studying with the nuns at his school in order to learn English. He felt really close to his family until one day three nuns from school visited their home and told his parents that it would be better if their children spoke English at home in order for them to advance in their education; from that day his parents decided that they would practice their English at all times and that changed things for Richard, he became embarrassed at his parents lack of education and it broke the relationship and comfort he had at home.