Just As Spanish Would Have Been A Dangerous Language By Richard Rodriguez

293 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Language stereotype

“Just as Spanish would have been a danger language for me to have used at the start of my education, so black English would be a dangerous language to use in the schooling of teenagers for whom it reinforces feelings of public separateness.” When Rodriguez says this, it appeals to the reader’s emotions as well as logic. Rodriguez effectively uses logos and pathos to convey his message that speaking a different language than what’s around you increases separateness in the public. “Just as Spanish would have been a danger language for me to have used at the start of my education…” This part of the quote appealing to logos and saying that if Rodriguez would have used Spanish when he went to school then he would not have made the friends he had,

Show More
Related

  • Mexican Lives by Judith Adler Hellman

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.

    Read More

  • Richard Rodriguez Immigrants

    333 Words  | 1 Pages

    Immigrants have helped shape American identity by their languages they speak from their home country. Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to make people know what culture is really identified a person rather than their race. For example, in the essay, it states that Richard Rodriguez “ that he is Chinese, and this is because he lives in a Chinese City and because he wants to be Chinese. But I have lived in a Chinese City for so long that my eye has taken on the palette, has come to prefer lime greens and rose reds and all the inventions of this Chinese Mediterranean. (lines 163-171)”. Although Rodriquez states”he is Chinese”, what he actually

    Read More

  • Analysis Of From Hunger Of Memory: The Education Of Richard Rodriguez

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Bilingual Education in Richard Rodriguez' Aria

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Richard Rodriguez offers an alternate yet equally profound truth: While our heritage and culture may remain forever tied to and expressed in our native or "home" language, only through the dominant language of our country (English in most cases) can we achieve a place in society that gives us a feeling that we belong amongst everyone else. The only way we can truly become a part of our community and fit in is to dominate the current spoken language. In the United States, the dominant language is Standard English. In this excerpt from "Aria," a chapter in his autobiography entitled "Hunger of Memory": The Education of Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez discusses public and private languages, and agrees that his achievements in English separated him from his Spanish family and culture but also brought him "the belief, the calming assurance that [he] belonged in public." We as human beings want to feel we belong. We search for that place in society where we are most comfortable all our lives. One should consider the benefits of mastering the dominant language of the society they live in, but should also take into account the harm of taking your native language for granted. I will attempt to explore both of these considerations and examine Rodriguez place in life now, by stating the facts of who is now by the childhood decisions that were made.

    Read More

  • The Mother Tongue by Demetria Martinez

    2546 Words  | 6 Pages

    Demetria Martínez’s Mother Tongue is divided into five sections and an epilogue. The first three parts of the text present Mary/ María’s, the narrator, recollection of the time when she was nineteen and met José Luis, a refuge from El Salvador, for the first time. The forth and fifth parts, chronologically, go back to her tragic experience when she was seven years old and then her trip to El Salvador with her son, the fruit of her romance with José Luis, twenty years after she met José Luis. And finally the epilogue consists a letter from José Luis to Mary/ María after her trip to El Salvador. The essay traces the development of Mother Tongue’s principal protagonists, María/ Mary. With a close reading of the text, I argue how the forth chapter, namely the domestic abuse scene, functions as a pivotal point in the Mother Tongue as it helps her to define herself.

    Read More

  • Slurring Spanish By Larz Rodriguez

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    Are all children’s education treated equally? In Luis J Rodriguez’s essay “Slurring Spanish” he reflects on his personal experiences while going through the educational system. Through his experience and observations from other students, he saw Spanish speaking students that are not treated the same as English speaking students. While in Lynda Barry’s essay, “The Sanctuary of School” she speaks on how her parents were neglectful and her escape was school. This was where Barry would be notice, but she fears that schools are no longer seeking to give the same attention to students as she received. Barry like Rodriguez felt that schools are treating student’s education differently. Though their personal experiences were very different Rodriguez

    Read More

  • Richard Rodriguez Scholarship Boy Analysis

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    It was almost like he was learning two languages at once. This made it a bit more difficult for him and his parents to understand what the whole schooling/ education system was. Rodriguez spent a lot of his time reading while Hoggart says, “reading is a woman’s game.” (PDF). By him saying this, he is implying that men are more likely and more accustomed to do activities outside, while women are supposed to stay inside and read. Rodriguez’s parents did not understand this whole concept because of their lack of the language. This changed Rodriguez’s life in a very big and impactful way. The education helped Rodriguez in a weird way with him saying that “ If, because of my schooling, I had grown culturally separated from my parents, my education finally had given me ways of speaking and caring about that fact.” (355). This means that he had grown distant to his parent from being involved with his parents through the whole education process. It took time away from them being together, taught him different cultures, and made him make decision in which his parents were not fond

    Read More

  • Taming A Wild Tongue Thesis

    333 Words  | 1 Pages

    Language is more than just a means of communication; it is part of one's culture, self-expression, and identity. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is a chapter from the book ,Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza ,written by Gloria E. Anzaldua. In this chapter, Anzaldua talks about her Chicana life in a period full of immigrant controversies where Latinos living in the United States were struggling to find their national identity and a language to speak freely without feeling any shame and fear from others. She expresses the dilemma she had to face about her own language in which she was often criticized and scolded for her improper Spanish accent. From these experiences she labeled these attacks on languages as “Linguistic Terrorism”. Anzaldúa

    Read More

  • Growing Up Speaking Spanish

    1542 Words  | 4 Pages

    My parents decided to immigrate to the United States when I was six years of age. As we established ourselves in the United States, my first language was only Spanish. Spanish was the language that I was taught at home, and it was the only language to be spoken at home. Rodriguez describes when he first entered his classroom where he was introduced to a formal English-speaking context, writing that, ?I remember to start with that day in Sacramento-a California now nearly thirty years past-when I first entered a classroom, able to understa...

    Read More

  • Mother Tongue And How To Tame A Wild Tongue

    738 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Anzaldua, “ Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most Latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish”(Anzaldua 32). The Chicano Spanish versus Spanish conflict that occurs in Latino society is a prime example of people considering themselves to be right in a situation where there is not a right answer. The Latino’s who speak Spanish that they believe to be normal are disturbed by the Spanish language changing. They believe that their own views are being challenged, they believe that they are correct, and they believe that anyone who challenges their views is inferior. The people who view all other views are, in reality, just trying to make themselves look more powerful. Like in Tan’s essay, people demeaned others in order to promote their own views, therefore, gaining power over the others who they demeaned. According to Tan, “ She said they would not give her any more information(...) And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect english-- lo and behold-- we had assurances the CAT scan would be found”(Tan 2). The doctors treated Tan’s mother differently due to her use of what they considered “broken language”, leading to her being treated inadequately. People have an image of what they consider to be the right English, anyone who does not speak the right English is usually considered to be uneducated. In both Tan’s and Anzaldua’s essays, the lack of open-mindedness is one of the reasons that people want to become more powerful than others. People fail to realize that what they believe in is not always the right answer, like with stereotypes, the people are trying to gain power over others in order to make themselves seem more

    Read More

  • Coming into Language by Jimmy Santiago Baca

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    Is it possible to make vital life changes to become a better person at heart? Who’s the one that can help you? The only person that will get you up on your feet is yourself, and you have to believe deeply to make those changes. In this essay there are many main points that are being brought across to explain the problems and wisdom that arose from Baca’s life as an inmate. It talks about how he was grown up into an adult and the tragedies that he had to face in order to become one. Later I fallow steps that lead to the purpose and rhetorical appeals of Baca’s essay. The purpose dealt with the cause and effect piece and problem/ solution structure.

    Read More

  • Public And Private Language Summary

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the article, Richard started out by mentioning how his public language which is Spanish will not get him nowhere in life, however by learning a public language which is English will help more in life and make stuff way easier for him. He mentioned being scared and hard for him to learn a public society language. When I came to America 11 years ago, it was hard for me to learn a second language and I doubted myself all the time, however I had family members, teachers and friends pushing me to learn and telling me to not give up even

    Read More

  • The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao

    1850 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even though Diaz chose English as his medium of expression, he never aspired to create a failed Spanglish, but an English exceptionally creative, capable of assimilating the Spanish spoken in New York and using it to improve their adoptive language. None of its relators fascinates with this new language, or becomes the main topic of the novel, but rather it is used as a fun vehicle that allows him to expose his stories with admirable freedom.

    Read More

  • Significance of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism

    2376 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Spanish language has traditionally been regarded one of the major symbols of Puerto Rican culture. Above, González challenges traditional forms of Puerto Rican "language nationalism" which holds the Spanish language "as a rallying point for Puerto Rican identity, in direct opposition to the English speaking United States" (Morris 162). This philosophy has led to a rejection of the English language by many sectors of the Puerto Rican...

    Read More

  • Spanish Narrative

    351 Words  | 1 Pages

    Growing up with my parents I had to learn to adapt to two different languages and two different cultures. When I little I was taught how to speak Spanish before English. My parents at that time could not speak English at all. So I did not learn English until I started prekinder. I mean I would watch shows, and sometimes my older sister would say certain word. I just was confused and had trouble with my English understanding. I was in the ESL program throughout seventh grade. The ESL was a program that children were placed in if they had problems writing or understanding English. I felt ashamed to be in that program because my brother did not get to experiences that. My friends would be surprised and sometimes would laugh about it. Minority

    Read More

More about Just As Spanish Would Have Been A Dangerous Language By Richard Rodriguez

Open Document