“Se Habla Espanol” by Tanya Barrientos goes into the life of a young girl who was born in Guatemala but by the age of three her family moved to America. She was raised in the U.S. all of her life, strictly speaking english only. Growing up was different and had it’s own unique challenges with others assumptions of her being bilingual. Barrientos wrote this is short story signify the importance of your roots and where you came from. Her view shifted from not wanting anything to be with her spanish culture to later learning that not being in touch with it actually had it’s downside. “If they could speak the red, white, and blue without a hint of an accent my mother and father believed, people would be forced to look beyond the obvious and see the all-American kids hidden inside the ethnic wrapping. “ Barrientos parents were both …show more content…
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.
Learning the language gave the author much more insight into her culture , when she took the trip to Mexico it completely changed her point of view on who she thought she was. She was able to gain more confidence. The ability to speak spanish better than before , but the only drawback was that it didn’t fully blend perfectly , therefore it would automatically put up a wall between her and whomever she was attempting to speak in that language
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
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.
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
Growing up in a Mexican-American family can be very fun and crazy. Having two different perspectives on two different cultures almost daily really shapes you to become a certain way as you grow up, which is what happened to me. Ever since I was about three months old I have been taking trips to my parents home town for a month time each time we have gone. Practically growing up in both Mexico and the United States for six years has really helped me understand my cultural background and the different parts of my whole culture, such as the food, heritage, language and culture.
Gloria Anzaldua, wrote the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” communicating and describing her adolescence in a society brimming with sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, and identity formation. The reason one comes to America is to finer themselves academically, and intellectually. One must learn to speak English to live among the American’s, because that is the language they speak. Though, no one has the right to deprive you of your familiar tongue. At a young age, Anzaldua was scolded, even mistreated for speaking her native “Chicano” tongue. Anzaldúa described this ignorance, cruelty, and discrimination when she states: “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” She overcomes this hostility throughout her life.
Speaking to someone in their native language is a great complement to that person. Most people do not care enough to learn the language of the country they are visiting. Some travelers expect the people to already know their language to the place that their traveling to. This being said, the ones who actually know the language to the place that they are traveling to, can hold a special place in the local heart. If a child grows up learning two languages, he/she will have a greater appreciation for, not just one, but both languages that they grew up learning, knowing and respecting. This can also be beneficial for school, homework, and tests. If that child knows both English and Spanish, and if they are discussing something that is related to Spanish, like history, that child could be interested since he/she g...
In conclusion, learning English was a challenge when it was first introduced to me, but now I have overcome that challenge. I am able to defend myself in the outside public world of English with no shame at all. I now understand how fortunate I am to know another language different from my own. For me, it is important to still have my first language because it is a way to retain the Mexican culture. It is just the way I was raised to believe.
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...
The writings of Amy Tan and Richard Rodriguez’s depicts a bilingual story based on two differing culture. On Mother Tongue, “Tan explores the effect of her mother’s “broken” English on her life and writing” (506). On the other hand, Richard Rodriguez “recounts the origin of his complex views of bilingual education through Public and Private Language” (512). From a child’s eyes, Tan and Rodriguez describe each joys and pain growing up in a non-English speaking family. Hence, may be viewed that cultural differences plays a major role on how one handles adversities.
A large number of people in the Hispanic community whether Hispanics are not able to get the English literacy skills that they need not because they want to keep born in Latin America or the United States, speak Spanish primarily. This is basically because in present day time, Hispanics are more likely to pass Spanish to their kids now than they have done in the past. (Ortiz, P.149) This is seen as a social problem, especially because of the fact that there is an increasing demand that English should only be taught in public school and it should also be spoken within the Spanish community. Even though Hispanics do speak a lot of Spanish most of the time, they still do learn English also, especially the young. But, because of the large flow of immigrants, the use of Spanish is used more often because they are constantly encountering immigrants who speak no English. (Ortiz, P. 150) Before hand there has been said to have been lower achievements when Hispanics make frequent use of the Spanish la...
My parents did everything they knew to help my sister and I learn and respect our Mexican culture. Born into American culture but raised by Hispanic parents, often was difficult for me. Since I was little I had to manage and balance two very different cultures at the same time. There were many times while growing up that I encountered complex situations in regards to language, whether to speak Spanish or English and when it was appropriate. I felt a lot of pressure having to act as an interpreter for my parents when we were out in public. At home I was told to speak Spanish so I would not forget, but at school I was taught to only speak English with my teachers and friends. However, when we would go visit family in Mexico, I was expected to only speak in Spanish, since speaking in English in front of family members who only spoke Spanish was seen as disrespectful. So learning two languages has been very beneficial to my life and for my family. By
Like many Chicanos, she developed a strong sense of cultural belonging. This is primarily due to discrimination amongst neighboring Mexicans, whites, and anyone in between. Latinos and latinas would attack her, saying “...cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language, you’re ruining the Spanish language” (Anzaldua 412). It was this ethnic struggle that drove her to latch onto her cultural background so strongly. In the personal narrative “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, Anzaldua states “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture” (Anzaldua 419) when referring to the resilience of her native people. She states this in response to other cultural groups having abandoned their language, meanwhile they retained theirs. The Chicanos are aware of the harsh standards of North American society. By saying “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours,” she means that even when other ethnicities have been pushed to eliminate their languages, her ethnicity stayed strong; they refused to cave in. Likewise, when Anzaldua states “We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture,” she draws pride from her culture’s ability to fend off even the most suffocating adversities. In this way, Anzaldua conveys
Richard Rodriguez commences, “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” recounting the memory of his first day of school. A memory that will help support against the use of “family language” as the child 's primary language at school. Rodriguez is forced to say no: it 's not possible for children to use the family language at school. To support against the “family language” used at school, Rodriguez uses simple and complex sentences to help achieve the readers to understand that to only accept the family language is to be closed off by society; to not have a “public life” is to not share one 's life experiences with society. Bilingual Educators state that you would “lose a degree of ‘individuality’ if one assimilates. Rodriguez refutes this statement through his expressive use of diction and narration educing emotion from his audience building his pathos. Rodriguez also develops ethos due to the experiences he went
The frustratingly reminiscent tone encompassed in Julia Alvarez’s “Bilingual Sestina” works to emphasize the author’s difficulties of assimilating into a new culture. When she looks back and reflects on her past memories in her hometown, she yearns for the same simplistic lifestyle. Correspondingly, the constant repetition of the six end words further expresses her conflictions as she must fuse together two different cultures to truly find her identity.
She realized the value of her language when she lost it and now treasures it. The kind of Spanish she speaks is neither English nor Spanish, but both. It is overflowing with culture from Medieval Spain, France, Germany, etc., just from the origins of the words. It is her pride and a representation of herself, fighting and living. In conclusion, in addition to Lera Boroditsky’s article proving that the structure of language affects how we think, the articles by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua show how language is a foundation for a person’s culture, pride, and self.