My Experience With Bilingualism In The US

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

“Our culture, our traditions, our languages are the foundations upon which we build our identity.” - Unknown. Bilingualism has many different interpretations and definitions and can cause problems in the community or unite it. The concept of bilingualism represents several different ideas, two writers, Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez share in their essays their personal stories about being immersed into the English culture and learning the language. They share their views of what bilingualism means to them personally and make arguments about the importance of the concept. The two essayists bring awareness to the major role bilingualism plays in the communities today and highlight the effects of disagreements between cultural groups.

The most predominant group is composed by Hispanics followed by Caucasians. Establishments such as churches indicates Caucasian influence. For example, the Hope Lutheran Church displays an historical sign, describing the influence of Germans in the church foundation. ADD THE PICTURE. All the signs observed were wrote in English. Regarding the languages spoken in the town, Spanish was observed, especially among the workers of the Beasley Farmer’s cotton gin. However, during the interaction between the UH group and the workers English was the language of preference. This shows that many of them were bilingual. ADD THE PICTURE. English was spoken among the Caucasian

First off, it’s important to understand the difference between learning and education. Learning is the ability of an individual’s brain to acquire and retain information for a lifetime, whereas education is an aide to further strengthen a student’s learning capacity with the use of resources: teachers, libraries, classroom environment, etc. All students are essentially equal when they enter the educational environment, however students who don’t speak English have an unfair disadvantage in the american educational system.

This means that language itself is not just a form of communication, but also a means of connecting to the culture shared between the adolescents and other Vietnamese people in the community. Vietnamese parents tend to enforce the acquisition of the Vietnamese language upon their children because they experience the phenomena of language loyalty and language maintenance. Language loyalty is “the tendency to remain loyal to the community language” (Danesi, 2016, p. 100), while language maintenance is “the tendency to maintain the language” (p. 100). According to Stoessel, these two factors are “critical for the survival of a minority language” (p. 100). Applying it to the participants in the case study, the minority language would be Vietnamese since the

For more than 300 years, immigrants from every corner of the globe have settled in America, creating the most diverse and heterogeneous nation on Earth. Though immigrants have given much to the country, their process of changing from their homeland to the new land has never been easy. To immigrate does not only mean to come and live in a country after leaving your own country, but it also means to deal with many new and unfamiliar situations, social backgrounds, cultures, and mainly with the acquisition and master of a new language. This often causes mixed emotions, frustration, awkward feelings, and other conflicts. In Richard Rodriguez’s essay “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”, the author

Rodriguez offers a different standpoint on bilingualism, and an argument he presents is that one must be willing to give up part of their native ways when learning a language to fit into the public. Rodriguez considered Spanish a private language and English a public one. This perception made him reluctant to learn English, but at the same time, it motivated him to become a part of the public by learning its language. Rodriguez uses his family life as an example of his native identity. He was not an English speaker when he was young, but upon learning the language, he drifted away from his family, and describes it rather frankly: “I was an American citizen. But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminished by then. . . . No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness . . . . When I arrived home there would often be

In the article, Speak Spanish, You’re in America!: El Huracan over language and Culture, Juan Gonzalez, a journalist and broadcaster of the daily show, Democracy Now, describes how bilingualism has impacted the United States’ modern education system. He describes an amendment that would constitute English as the official in the United States, which he believes can be a potential threat to the educational system. Gonzalez suggests that instead of having an amendment that constitutes English as the national language, American schools should implement Spanish to highlight the importance of being bilingualism in the American educational system. A constitutional amendment declaring English as the national language would be damaging to bilingual students because it would limit their capability of communicating in English or their native language, and therefore they have would fall behind in classes and will not succeed in the American educational system. To highlight the importance of bilingualism, even more the educational system should implement a variety of languages.

A common joke says “What do you call someone who speaks two languages?” in which the person being asked the question would usually respond with “bilingual.” It goes on to ask about those who speak three or four languages, but then there is a kicker. “What does one call someone who only speaks one language?” to which the punch line is “an American.” According to the 2006 General Social Survey, only 25 percent of American adults are fluent in a foreign language, while only 7 percent cite the source of this education to formal schooling (Devlin 1). Large amounts of evidence point to the benefits of being multilingual. Although the United States has a few laws that help immigrants assimilate through dual language programs, there is little to be

As a child, I was simultaneously immersed in three completely different cultures. My mother was Chinese, yet spoke Vietnamese, my father was white, and I lived in a predominantly Spanish community. These contrasting lifestyles and cultures truly showed me the difference between a public and a private identity, and the importance behind bilingualism in the world today. However, before I can recount what I’ve learned, we must first discuss two contrasting concepts about bilingualism from two very accomplished and controversial writers: Martín Espada and Richard Rodriguez.

Rodriguez builds a formidable case against bilingual education with his bilingual childhood experiences. Rodriguez grew up speaking Spanish, but then learned how to speak English later in life so he knows what effects bilingual education has on bilingual kids who grew up speaking a private language at homes. When Rodriguez first came to the United States in Sacramento, California he understood “about fifty stray English words” (Richard Rodriguez “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”). He was a Mexican immigrant whose family only knew how to speak Spanish. The neighbors of Rodriguez’s family didn’t like them, so when they were out walking they would tell Rodriguez’s parents “Keep your brats away from my sidewalk!” (Rodriguez 571). Rodriguez loses the “special feeling of closeness at home” when he learned English (Rodriguez 577). Personal experiences are what makes him a credible author. Rodriguez used strong ethos and pathos appeals, but he didn’t use strong logos appeals. He didn’t use facts or reasoning in his memoir to prove his points against bilingual education.

Christine Bowman, writer of the essay “Undocumented Lives: Migrant Latinos in America”, presents a strong response to a book of a similar name. Bowman’s authority is already shown without having to read her review at all due to her choice of topic alone and how controversial it is. She brings up the stereotypes and misconceptions about immigrants and how they are exploited for their hard work, challenging the idea that migrants are only here to take away American jobs (Bowman 261). Along with this, she argues against the complaints relating to the miscommunications between our languages and reminds us that migrants are “scared because they do not speak English” (Bowman 262). As proof of her credibility, Bowman cites a quote that further expands on the language barrier. Her use of I throughout the essay adds a personal touch, allowing her to bring up the things she feels are most important, including how migrant workers should not all be treated as they’re part of the same story (Bowman 260).

After 1975, she learned to speak, read, and write in Vietnamese. She is now comfortable with English but still uses Vietnamese. Her siblings learned Vietnamese first and then learned Mandarin or Hainanese. Now each child uses a different language with each other and their elders. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate that even families can be separated by language.

In this research, we talk about discrimination in the United States due to Spanish. First, we add some anecdote of Mexican immigrants and their first encounter with English language, after that, we will explain the lack of knowledge between Americans with Spanish. Also, we are going to present the social rejection to Spanish language use and facts that ensure that language is a target of discrimination. At the end, we will talk about the children of Mexican immigrants and how they live with this kind of the discrimination. In the annex, we add the outcomes of the survey that we made.

The microcourse “Language Matter: Essays and Arguments” contains the essays of Martín Espada and Richard Rodriguez. Each author depicts their definitions of bilingualism. Espada portrays it as the right to speak multiple languages, including keeping and developing a passion for it: “Defending the right to use the tongue of their history and identity creates in me a passion for Spanish itself”(4). According to Espada, in order to maintain a language, people must fight for the right to speak it. On the other hand, Rodriguez defines bilingualism as assimilating a private language with a public one, consequently causing a necessary loss of intimacy between struggling English speakers. In the essay, Rodriguez explains that his