Lost in Translation Imagine getting forced to live in a foreign country where everyone has a different cultural background and speaks a different language than you. A place where you can only truly understand the thoughts that are in your head, and where everyone views you as an outsider. In the novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, that is the exact situation the Garcia sisters found themselves in when they were forced to live in the United States. The Garcia family found themselves in many confusing situations where they did not understand the English meanings to words and phrases, or how to react in certain situations in the American culture. Their Dominican roots conflicted with the roots of American society that they were forced to adapt to or they would have been eaten alive in their new environment. Four different instances of misunderstandings of language in How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents are when Yolanda, one of the sisters, gets mistaken for Joe, when …show more content…
The Garcia family truly had a hard time adjusting to the Language and phrases that Americans use on a daily bases; however, none of the family members had a harder time fully understanding what many basic American phrases meant than the mother. “If her husband insisted she speak in Spanish to the girls so they wouldn’t forget their native tongue, she’d snap, “When in Rome, do unto the Romans”” (135). Laura’s improper use of the common phrase, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, proved that the language difference was more of a mountainous challenge than the family expected. ““There is no use trying to drink spilt milk, that’s for sure”” (140) is another American saying that Laura mixed up in the novel while trying to sound more American, but as you can see her efforts were coming up short because of the language barrier from her Dominican
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
There are seven billion humans living on planet earth, with hundreds of different cultures and ethnicities. As the leading species on earth, humans have further felt the need to also have a dominant gender. This title is given to the males of society. In the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, the main characters experience a firsthand look to how male dominance prevails in not only the Dominican Republic but also in America. The Garcia family is a prestigious family line in the Dominican Republic, as a result the children of the family have a traditional and very controlled upbringing. The Garcia family moves from the Dominican Republic to the United States which causes the children of the family: Sofia, Yolanda,
The excerpt from “First muse” by Julia Alvarez is a story about her Dominican cultural background. Alvarez has been looked different based on her ability to speak English. Due to Alvarez not have a “Dominican education and her ability to speak English” bullied and teased. As a child Alvarez had told her mom that she does not want to just be the stay home wife who just cooks and cleans like every other wife she wants she does to be different, she wants to be more than just a stay home wife when she get older. It’s ok to know more than one language, but at the same time to should always stay truth to your cultural background/inherent. Just because Alvarez knows English does not make her a different Dominican girl because she knows Spanish too.
Just as their father wanted, the girls kept their Dominican roots alive and never forgot where they came from. This novel, “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents”, is a coming of age novel, where four girls learn through experience how it is like to grow up in a tough time period. In America, the girls had the freedom to attempt almost whatever they wanted because they were free from the constricting rule of the patriarchy that ruled the Dominican Republic. All four were growing up but took separate paths during life to get to where they are as adults. Through the use of multiple narrators, Alvarez creates different perspectives throughout the story. The girls have come a long way from their mother’s color coding system when they were identity less to the women they are today. Each sister fought and conquered some sort of internal or external battle, helping them to overcome obstacles given by society that marked them as different. As adults, the sisters can keep their Dominican roots alive while living in the United States through
This bewilderment is not limited to just the girls either; the parents experience their fair share of perplexity at the chaos that is America. Unlike their offspring, Mr. and Mrs. Garcia work to retain and remember their Island roots...
In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explains the implications of living under the influence of two cultures. She begins with a story of how she was punished by a teacher for correcting the pronunciation of her name. Anzaldúa gives the reader anecdotes about her life in a dual culture society, explaining the trials of accepting her heritage, fighting to find her place in Mexican or American society, and establishing herself as a proud Chicana.
Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood by Richard Rodriguez is an essay that shows his readers a part of life that many have never experienced. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking clear English will help him to fit in to society. He faces society while forfeiting his happy home life, to try to become a typical English-speaking student.
This book is a story about 4 sisters who tell their stories about living on an island in the Dominican Republic , and then moving to New York . What is different about this book is the fact that you have different narrators telling you the story , jumping back and forth from past to present . This is effective because it gives you different view point’s from each of the sisters . It may also detract from the narrative because of the fact that it’s confusing to the reader . This is a style of writing that has been recognized and analyzed by critics . Julia Alvarez is a well- known writer and in a way , mirrors events that happened in her own life , in her book . Looking into her life , it show’s that she went through an experience somewhat like the sisters . I interviewed an immigrant , not from the same ethnic back ground as the sisters , but a Japanese immigrant . This was a very
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
In the work of Amy Tan’s “Mother’s Tongue” she provides a look into how she adapted her language to assimilate into American culture. She made changes to her language because her mother heavily relied on her for translation. She was the voice of her mother, relaying information in standard English to those who were unable to understand her mother’s broken english. She tells about her mother’s broken english and its impact on her communication to those outside their culture. Her mothers broken english limited others’ perception of her intelligence, and even her own perception of her mother was scewed: Tan said, “I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mothers ‘limited’ English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” (419) The use of standard english was a critical component to Tan’s assimilation into American culture. Standard English was an element she acquired to help her mother but more importantly is was an element that helped in her gain success as a writer. Tan changed her ‘Englishes’ (family talk) to include standard English that she had learnt in school and through books, the forms of English that she did not use at home with her mother. (417-418) Tan realized the ch...
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
Tan’s essay on Mother Tongue depicts a story of a daughter who grew up learning different type of “Englishes” (510). The latter described as the kind of English wherein on may regard as “simple”, yet she fondly refers to as her “Mother’s English”. In addition is the “broken English” or Tan’s mother’s communication style with her. Lastly is Tan’s own translation of her mother’s English that she described as “watered down.” An impression that is distinctly different from Tan’s loving description of her Mother’s English, Rodriguez connotes feelings of detachment. Rodriguez’s childhood consist of traditional catholic educators who expected a non-native speaker communicate in English. As a result, the young Rodriguez socially withdrew which prompt the nun teachers to approach the parents regarding the language issue. Since then, life has changed for Rodriguez, thus the beginning of what seem to be a detachment from his own family. Unlike Tan’s warm story of her Mother’s broken English, Rodriguez’s childhood experience connotes feelings of
In this summary the author Tanya Barrientos is explaining how hard it is be different. In the beginning of the summary Barrientos explained how people automatically assume that she is Latina. She grew up in an English-speaking world. Her parents are born and raised in Guatemala but she moved to the United States at the age of three. When her parents came to the United States of America they stopped speaking English immediately. Her parents wanted her to read, talk, and write only in English. She felt like she was the only one who needed to learn how to speak Latino, even though she looks like she can already. In the summary she went on saying that she was trying to fit in and become a regular person so other Latinas won’t judge her. All she
Author José Antonio Villarreal has a dry sense of humor and, as mentioned above, does a marvelous job weaving bits of wry commentary throughout the novel. Another fun quote is when Richard's sister, Luz, demonstrates her own prejudice for the newly arrived, and darker skinned, Mexicans: "Well, they ain't got nuthin' and they don't even talk good English." (p 148)