Conversational English Fluency…Should It Determine Employment? Society is so used to hearing the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” In reality, this is just a metaphor for how people actually judge each other based on a first impression or how someone speaks. Certain individuals are judged because of their accent, the way they speak, how much English they truly know, or on their ability to speak a different language. As a result, they are often denied jobs when applying because of that specific language barrier. Often times, if certain human beings have broken English, they are thought less of, and have a harder time fitting in because they are judged. Employers need to realize that minorities who speak broken English, are faced with certain disadvantages, and have a harder time fitting into society’s norms. Throughout The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the reader can see that Aibileen’s speaking voice is much different than the other ladies’ in the novel. Therefore, she was not only judged for the color of her skin, but also for her capability to speak English. Of course since she was dark-skinned, she was seen as less than the white women, but her speaking a southern black dialect made her more detached from society. While interviewing Aibileen for the book, Skeeter asks her, “Did you…ever have dreams of being something else?” (144). Aibileen replies by saying no. This quotation really just goes to show that all Aibileen could ever work as is a maid. She can not be
As our nation shifts towards a more culturally diverse population both educators and families have to find a common ground to ensure that English Language Learners are academically successful. All stakeholders must carefully consider the social cultural impact on an ELL education. The process of raising bilingual learners take more than a language a school and a language learned at home. The transition must have a purpose and a goal.
Even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Health and Human Services (HHS) are rallying support for those citizens who do not currently speak English well or at all. The EEOC is fighting
Racism also exists between people from non-English speaking backgrounds and native speakers of English. Because of language barriers, non-native speakers of English have more difficulties of will employment and in general, they have lower income. Also, they have fewer opportunities for promotion despite their
In “Mother Tongue” essay by Amy Tan, Tan shares her discoveries about the different variations of English she learned growing up in an Chinese-American household, and then reflects on these findings. Tan shows the reader that racial profiling still exists, even in a time where every person is promised freedom and equality in the world. Tan talks about not only does the profiling exist and occur, but that it is also done incorrectly and inefficiently, as Tan clearly demonstrates it by surpassing any test that suggested she study medicine or engineering. In her essay it is noticeable that all the evidence used to support Tan's arguments are past experiences she had as a child growing up, speaking what was considered "broken" English. I can definitely relate to Amy Tan’s essay because I too came from a bilingual home and Like Amy Tan, I had intelligent immigrant parents and I was their main avenue of communication with people who didn’t understand them.
Aibileen, on the other hand, hasn’t obtained as much education as Mrs. Skeeter. Aibileen was black, and back in her days, blacks did not have the opportunity to receive the same education as whites did. Aiblieen was a very bright student and would have been very successful if she could have finished school. Even her teacher, Miss Ross, said that she was very intelligent, “You’re the smartest in the class, Abilieen.” Unfortunately, she could not finish school because she had to support her mother with bills that she could not pay herself. She stopped going to school when she was fourteen years old. She instead went to work as a maid and wait on white families. Because of her lack of education, she did not speak very well. She often used slang
Aibileen is a colored woman in The Help who is selfless by the way she takes care of Mae Mobley who is the daughter of Elizabeth leefolt, and how she teaches mae mobley to be self loving, Aibileen has changed since her son Treelore’s death and finds that she cannot easily accept the way colored people are treated and is now set on the right path to do the right thing for society by showing how colored people are treated. Even after losing everything Aibileen remains selfless, caring, and committed to doing the right thing.
Aibileen, a housemaid, was brought up at this time. Living in Mississippi in the 1960s couldn't be much worse for Aibileen, she lived in the the outskirts of jackson with all of the black community in low quality housing, she lost her son to wreckless white people that didn’t give a damn and she got paid just under $1 an hour to work for the white privileged. Growing up Aibileen knew she would be a maid. This is proven through dialog when she says “my Mama was was a maid, and my Gran’mama was a house slave. The mournful tone she speaks with displays her desire to be more than a black dot on a white wall, meaning she did not want to be another black maid living among her supposed white superiors.
Aibileen’s new separate bathroom was finally finished and Miss Leefolt announced the news. Aibileen's has her own bathroom so there isn’t any spreading of disease. The white family’s at that time always had maids, or also referred to as the “the help.” The women of the white homes did not have to put much effort due to their black maids, who performed all their daily tasks. This quote shows how “the help,” for instance, Aibileen have to obey, with their little to no privileges. They couldn’t express how they feel or what they want. Extreme racial segregation was common during this time. These black maids weren’t treated humanely and fairly, but like something lower just because of their color. For Miss Leefolt to spend her money to build Aibileen
With a University Master's Degree in Literary Studies at The University of Alicante, Nina Louise Greve demonstrates thorough analysis and depth into the main issues of The Help; enlightening characters stereotypical attributes. One of the main characters, Aibileen, exhibits these traits through her simplistic, faith-ridden approach to societies ordeals. In addition, consumed by fear of the bourgeoisie, she conforms to the rules set by civilization. Nina reveals that through the duration of the text, The African American Females are continuously portrayed to be dependent upon Skeeter to seek access to freedom. This accredits the archetypal character of the ‘Hero’ upon the sole Caucasian character, and further victimizes the African American
Ironically, this same case, set two entirely different precedents. The first precedent concluded that English-only policies do not constitute national origin discrimination and do not have a disparate impact on employees who are bilingual, and the second precedent concluded that English-only policies do constitute national origin discrimination and do have a disparate impact on employees who cannot speak English or have extreme difficulty speaking it. Therefore, employers who have employees who are Non-English speaking need to implement policies that provide exemptions for these employees (Peterson, 1994, p.
She works for Elizabeth, an affluent white woman who is pregnant with her second child, even as she neglects her first child. Aibileen is the liaison between Skeeter, Elizabeth’s best friend, and the other maids.
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
Discrimination also occurs in employment, often they are relegated to working in subservient positions, because the employer assumes the employee cannot speak English. Many employers reject candidates because of their race. In addition, some
Based off of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel, The Help is a movie told from an African American’s point of view during the early 1960’s in Jackson, Mississippi. The three main characters include, Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Eugenia (Skeeter) Phelan. Skeeter is a young writer who has recently returned from the University of Mississippi. She has been advised by the Elaine Stein, who is the head editor at Harper & Row, to write about a topic she is passionate about, that way she can continue her dream of becoming a serious writer. In addition, Skeeter accepts a writing job down at the Jackson Journal where she writes a housekeeping column. Ironically, she has no housekeeping experience as she grew up with in house help. In order to keep her job she goes to Aibileen, her friend Elizabeth Leefolt’s housekeeper. At this point in her life, Aibileen is just trying to get by. She writes out her prayers on a daily basis as a way to clear her mind since she is fairly reserved on the outside. On the contrary, Aibileen’s friend Minny is also a housekeeper, but she has a rather sharp tongue which doesn’t usually work in her favor. Consequently, she is trying to find a new employer, but is having trouble since there is a bit of discord between her and the most influential socialite in Jackson, Mississippi.
It is commonplace for white families to have black maids serving them at this time. Aibileen (Davis) is a strong-willed maid who is