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The importance of language in culture
The importance of language in culture
Importance of languages and communication
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I would like to to tell you that you are one of many non spanish speaking latinos. You are not the only one that gets disoriented with family members, friends, and stranger when they approach you in spanish or the nasty look you get when other latinos learn you do not speak spanish. Connecting with culture is harder when you do not speak spanish. Identity is lost but I want to tell you that you are and will always be Latino, hispanic, chicano, etc. Finding a place where you belong is hard because their is no place for you to fit into.The problem of not speaking spanish is that there are many things in your life that either do not make sense to you or you feel disconnected to. Your culture makes up who are but not knowing it makes you feel
Another struggle for identity with Latinos is their struggle with the Spanish and English languages. While some Latinos may speak Spanish in their homes, the language may not be conversationally used in their schools. Some Lat...
Clara E. Rodriguez wrote an essay titled, "What It Means To Be Latino". On this essay she explains the difference between the terms Hispanic and Latino, elaborating on how the term "Hispanic" was created by the U.S. census in 1970, to use it as a general term to describe all of the people who came from, or, had parents who came from a Spanish speaking country. Then she states that the term "Latino", is a term considered to be more neutral and racially inclusive by many people of this population, although she made a good point of view, it still failed to describe the more complexity on the meaning of the term Latino.
I speak to Hispanics; even Latinos in Spanish and they respond
The issue of language is central to the Puerto Rican experience in the United States. Living in a land where the dominant language is English, this Spanish speaking population is involved in a historical struggle to overcome the language barrier. Among other things, their unfamiliarity with the English language has been a major obstacle to the progression of the Puerto Rican people as a whole.
38 percent of all Hispanic parents only speak Spanish according to Pew Research center. In many cases this is why parents teach their children to speak Spanish for their first language. My parents learned English at a young age because they moved to the united states and were expected to know it. That was not the case for me. Growing up my family expected me to know English well. We lived in a small town called Fort Hancock, Texas with my grandparents. Everyone just spoke Spanish in that town and for that reason, I learned to just speak Spanish first. When we moved to Oklahoma City I was five. I had to transition to English, which was hard. I got made fun of, but luckily improved later on my literacy journey.
Picture yourself as a fluent Spanish speaking American. Able to communicate with others. Eliminate stereotypes; talking about me, plotting something.
Many people immigrate to the United States from different countries to begin a better life. Once in the American territory, the first step for success is to learn the English language. Richard Rodriguez, the writer of "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" describes the language decisions he faced as a child: "Outside the house was public society; inside the house was private" (16). The English language is the primary language in the United States, and it must be learned to be able to communicate with the public world. The language that we speak at home is considered to be private because it is only used in the presence of the people we feel comfortable with, our family. Families immigrate to the United States from Mexico to find and give their children a better opportunity to succeed. The children of immigrants who have been raised or born in the United States were able to adapt much faster to the English language. The Spanish language, in the case of Mexicans, is part of our origin that most of us inherit from our ancestors although in the United States many, including me, seem to add a new language, which gives us better opportunities.
Being a Hispanic have impacted all my entire life; I lived 15 years of my life in Mexico I love being there because most part of my family live in Nuevo Laredo, I was cursing my last months of 8th grade and one day my mom told me that she was thinking about send me here to the U.S to start learn English; since I’m a U.S citizen and I didn't know the language of my country, I accepted. The most hard prove was live without having my mom at my side, since I live with my aunt now; when the days passed here in the U.S I started to depressed myself because I missed so much my house and all my family, one day in the middle of the night I call my mom crying and I told her that I really want go back to Mexico, but she didn’t take into account my desire my mom just explained me that it will be the best for my future and with the time I will be thankful with her for don’t let me go back. My mom, and my grandmother are the ones who motivates me to be a better student. Actually I’m in dual enrollment and I have taken AP classes; sometimes is hard for me talk, read or write in another language that the one I was accustomed but, every time I fail I get up and persist until I’m able to do what I want.
I was supposed to be Mexican but then came the Manifest Destiny and I became Mexican-American, then came the Census Bureau and told me I was now Hispanic. Later there was that one Ethnic Studies class and I became a Chicano but Cherríe Moraga decided that wasn’t good enough and made me Xicano. In the end it was just me and my unsolicited opinion of fully comprehending who I really identified as. I find it hard to fit in this society because I am either too Mexican for my American friends or too American for my Mexican friends.
So what does being Hispanic really mean? There are different interpretations of what being Hispanic is, or should be. Hispanic is much more than how we look, how we dress and how we act. For me being Hispanic defines the word familia (family) and the orgullo (pride) that I have in myself and in my traditions/cultures.
The article shows her ideas with a specific focus on the Latino community in English-language country. The writer said “After my first set of lessons, I could function in the present tense. Hola, Paco. De que color es tu cuaderno? El mío es azul”. (Barrientos, Tanya p.64). This is evidence throughout the article that she said such as this sentence and writes some words in Spanish that she don’t know. The writer was born in a Latin American country, and feels like a Latina (the brown-skin) even if she was raised in the United States and does not speak Spanish anymore. In addition, this article also serves as inspiration for people with different backgrounds that suffer from the same problem, helping all the people that face the same problem. I’m also have same experience. I’m growing up in Shandong province, but born in Guangdong province. It is so far from Guangdong to Shandong. And China is an old country, the culture and habit is not similar from place to place. If there are a few mountains between two cities, the language is total different. So every time when I come back to my hometown, the citizen, especially my grandparents, which growing up in tradition, will call me “yuasangia”, which like the writer’s struggles in American. However, the different is that this noun just for others province people who live in or travel to my hometown. Every time when I say my hometown language
The Latino and Hispanic culture has many differences that truly make it unique. This culture is compiled of people living in the United States but have lineage from Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and El Salvador, and other Latin American countries (Sue & Sue, 2007). The terms Hispanic and Latino tend to be used interchangeably in the United States for people with origins in Spanish-speaking or Portuguese-speaking countries, like Mexico, Costa Rica, and Brazil. Contrary to many beliefs, Hispanic is not a race, but an ethnicity. Hispanic is a term created by the U.S. federal government in the early 1970s in an attempt to provide a common denominator to a large, but diverse, population with connection to the Spanish language or culture from a Spanish-speaking country ( U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). It is imperative to be mindful of the distinctive differences that exist within the sub-groups and between the different groups. Similarly, to the African American culture it is important to know the history of the culture.
Throughout the experiences I have been through, such as meeting proud Latin kids in school and reading about the experiences of other Latinos, I am proud to say that I am Puerto Rican. I will teach the future generation about our culture, including traditions and customs. My children may not have the opportunity to read about well-known Latinos in school, but I will make sure they learn about prominent scholars, such as Jose Marti and Rigoberta Menchu. Also, speaking Spanish is very important because our culture is based on the language. After all, one day the official language of Puerto Rico might change to English. However, we can't forget our roots, or where we came from. Even though I was born in America, I am Puerto Rican.
If I know what I’m exactly talking about, I won’t struggle to explain it, but when I do struggle and don’t know how to say something in English, then I have to say it in Spanish. This can be hard for me sometimes, depending on who it is I’m talking to because then they would have to know Spanish to understand me. Sometimes when this happens, I sort of feel insecure because I then think that they’re secretly judging me and thinking I'm dumb for not knowing how to say stuff in English. This mainly happens when I'm talking to someone that's not the same as me, meaning in race.
There are two types of bilingualism; simultaneous and sequential. There are children who expose two languages in the family environment, including speech-sign language; this group is part of simultaneous bilingualism and also in some countries bilingualism is required and children learn second language later in their life; and this group is part of sequential bilingualism. Besides, the population of sequential bilinguals is very high in Turkey. Whether it is successful or not, in Turkey children expose to English from the beginning of their education and they are required to be bilingual, even trilingual in their later life. Therefore, it is essential to investigate its effects on children. This is one of our reasons to choose this topic. Moreover,