California Heritage Language

All languages are important and realizing it will make you become a stronger, more diverse human being. We need take make an effort not only for ourselves but for other citizens living in the United States who don’t speak English; we need to make them feel welcomed into our country. Marjorie Agosín described that,”here in the United States, where I have lived since I was a young girl, the solitude of exile makes me feel that so little is mine, that not even the sky has the same constellations, the trees and the fauna the same names or sounds, or the rubbish the same smell. These are the dilemmas of one who writes in Spanish and lives in translation”(Agosin 599). Agosín has lived in the United States for quite some time now, yet still feels like she is living a life through “translation”. She should not feel this way, Agosin should feel apart of our country and feel as if she is a citizen. It is important for us to take a stand now to make language become apart of the curriculum within our school systems starting in Kindergarten, so that our children have a more diverse life filled with opportunities. One thing we know about the future for sure is that we will still have our knowledge about language, but it is how we use that knowledge that will depict how we will succeed in life and as a

The growth of English language has increased tremendously over the years and has become the most widely spoken languages in the United States. This observation aims to explore why when moving to the United States, many non-English speakers feel the social pressure to learn English and what difficulties they encounter. After my observation, I found that many feel the need to learn English in order to assimilate into a community, and though straddling two languages is difficult, it opens more opportunities, and language privilege.

“Who is to say that robbing people of its language is less violent than war?” Ray Gwyn Smith. I’ve always had this struggle with my identity because I am Mexican and American. I grew up speaking Spanish and English, and was always being policed on what language I was allowed to speak. If I was with my parents they only wanted me to speak in Spanish and when I was at school I was actually forced to only speak English. Gloria Anzaldua writes about the struggles Mexican Americans have in America within our own community and within the “American” standards. Langue is a part of our culture it’s how we begin to communicate with those around us. In this article she explains how Chicanos express themselves through language, we speak different English than White Americans and we speak different Spanish than Mexicans. We get criticized by both for speaking incorrectly; I think it’s important to shine light on the oppression of language in today’s life and how it affects our culture. I will discuss how our culture and language shapes our identity but there can be many obstacles oppressing the way you express yourself from within our own Chicano community and within white American community.

Language is much more than a method of communication. Permeated within it are traditions, customs, and legacies of one’s culture. The identity of an entire population is in the distinct vocalizations of their native language. Unfortunately, as a wave of immigrants enters the United States at young ages, many face language barriers that pose significant challenges. Language barriers affect a multitude of immigrant populations to different degrees. This, in turn, causes many of them to abandon not only their native tongue but a piece of their ethnic identity, as well. In Maxine Hong Kingston’s personal narrative,“The Language of Silence,” she describes the difficulties she experienced throughout her childhood with a language barrier as a

It is important in the United States to have a competitive workforce, and a great way to do that is to have a society of learners that can communicate with people of other cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Although there are efforts for teaching school children other languages, most programs are primitive at best, left to be forgotten before the skills reach the point of relevancy. Dual language programs should be established in the US wherever feasible to give parents, at the very least, the choice to expand the minds of their children. Recent years have seen the inclusion of voluntary language immersion programs in places such as Athens, Georgia, in which students are taught from Kindergarten in two languages. These are steps in the right

Language is a very important part of culture. It’s the method of communication between people, it’s a comforting feeling to hear your own language, and it defines who you are as a person. In the Hispanic culture the language spoken is Spanish. Spanish is such a popular language in the united states that many people become bilingual to be able to speak English and Spanish. "Spanish is the most spoken non-English language in U.S. homes, even among non-Hispanics. A record 37.6 million persons ages 5 year and older speak Spanish at home, according to an analysis of the 2011 American Community Survey by the Pew Research Center” When visiting a different culture, the language barriers are scary, I recently visited Mexico and not knowing what people were saying was frightening, Luckily Spanish is common so it wasn’t hard to find someone to translate. I remember feeling so warm inside hearing someone who speaks English talking, it was comforting to

Language has clearly become a powerful force in many countries where different communities actually want to split apart on the sole basis on the language they speak. An article about Spain’s language diversity explains how people feel so passionate about their native languages that the country had to create autonomous regions for each of the major languages, and people are still fighting to have their language become the dominant dialect (Berdichevsky 276). This is also seen repeatedly in America’s history where immigrants to the country struggle to keep their languages alive. These immigrants realize the important role that language plays in keeping a community together, and many immigrants from the same country will choose to live by each other in America and are resentful when they are forced to learn English. My own great-grandparents chose to live in an Italian neighborhood in Ohio when they first came from Italy so that their culture would not be lost. This allowed my grandma to learn Italian as well as English, and even though she was going to an English school she was still taught the morals of her culture because she was able to talk with the older Italian people who did not speak English. My grandma says that this has helped her throughout life because even though she lives in America she says, “I respect my Italian heritage,” and that it has helped “build my confidence” (12 April 2003).

Growing up, I perceived myself as a minority in a predominantly Hispanic and to a lesser extent Asian area based solely on the restaurants in the area and how often I would see Spanish and an East or Southeast Asian script on the sign for a store. The latter is seen in the fact 55.9% of the population spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole and 87% of this group spoke English “less than well,” indicating it may be at least a second language for them. Asian and Pacific Island language speakers makeup 5.2% of the population, however, a greater degree of assimilation was seen in this group with only 64.4% of this group indicating they spoke English “less than well.” Another factor in this is that over 60 percent of the population (61.3%) is foreign born with the vast majority (90.8%) speaking Spanish or Spanish Creole at home. A quarter mile from my house there was an entire plaza of Southeast Asian stores and restaurants and a half mile away was another, larger plaza with mostly Mexican and other Central American businesses and spaces. In spite of this economic activity, the two thirds of residents rented rather than owned their homes and nearly 80% of the total population lived in these units. Additionally, 82.1% of the Spanish speaking population over the age of 25 have earned less than a highschool diploma. Such data are emblematic of the relationship between being a person of color in this country and the barriers to

The English language is considered one of the global languages. It is spoken in many countries and is well-known everywhere. But do you ever wonder how many obstacles people face when they speak English as a second language? Or when they speak with an accent or use black vernacular language? In United States (US) people glorify Standard American English (SAE), and it used as a tool to discriminate and oppress. In the Article “8 Harmful Example of Standard American English Privilege”, Hernandez (2015) states that:

As a child, around the age of five, I became friends with the children of a family that had just moved to our neighborhood from Hawaii. The parents would occasionally make statements in a language that the children could not speak. I realize now that they were making these statements in Hawaiian, although they did not speak the language fluently, and their children did not speak the language at all. Unfortunately, this loss of language from one generation to the next has been quite common in Hawaii since the early nineteen-hundreds when the influence of the United States resulted in institutionalized language death.

Upon initial research of the rich heritage of California the two minority groups that stood out as especially influential in historic California and today’s society are the Native Americans and Hispanic Americans. To better understand and identify with these minority groups we must identify the common themes within their day to day life. By researching each culture’s common family traditions, religious beliefs, arts & entertainment, and language one can gain a greater appreciation of many different kinds of people, and in turn have more effective relationships in a multicultural society.

Another major concern for native born Americans is the constant reshaping of American culture to fit in with the immigrant’s culture. For example many parts of Texas and California have become both Spanish and English speaking towns. Schools now require multiple years of foreign language and many companies would like for their employers to be bi-lingual. While this helps broaden our horizon as a

In this world, there are many different countries speaking their own individual languages. People can identify from each other’s language of who they are and where they are from. The language I speak shows my identity, culture and this is who I am and where I originally come from. However, my culture can be lost when immigrating to the most diverse cultural country which is the United States. The reason is because I obligated to learn a new language to adapt into the new society.

Within ethnic communities, there are a huge number of people who face language barriers that prevents them from seeking employment outside of their ethnic community. People within these ethnic enclaves do not feel the need to learn the dominant language, because the majority of the population with their community speaks the same language as they do. Places like San Francisco’s China town has established their own enclave that includes everything from grocery shops to hospitals. This

The United States is commonly know as a melting pot of nations, in which people from around the world have emigrated to form a homogeneous yet varied culture. Although we come from different ethnic groups, we are usually bound together through our common English language. This becomes an issue, however, when immigrants are not familiar with English and American culture, and instead attempt to keep their own heritage alive. They are often torn between identities through language, the one they speak at home which they are familiar with, and the one they must adhere to in public. This often leads to struggle and conflict on both sides, dealing with different cultures and how people react when assimilation occurs. Because of this, living in the United States often requires us to completely accept only one identity, even though hints of the other may spill over at times.