Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

Anzaldua’s How to “Tame a Wild tongue” goes to great lengths to discuss her opinions on language, and how her communication with people from various linguistic backgrounds required her to change gears in a way. To “switch codes.” Each of us as we participate in different environments with diverse expectations and duties switch various codes of our own. In my life I most often switch between a normal code, a snarky code, and a business code.

In the essay, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldua uses her voice to speak about social and cultural difficulties Chicanos face. Her voice comes from many years of struggling to identify herself within society. She brings to light many issues, including sexism and racism. I think she is writing to give others a voice, who face similar challenges. Anzaldua writes about her experiences through many different voices including Spanish, White, Indian, woman, and feminist.

In the article ‘Mother Tongue’, Amy Tan outlines the significance of language discrimination. She observes language as a powerful tool which can ‘evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea or a simple truth’ (pp.1). Drawing largely upon the struggles she encounters with linguistic identity, cultural racism and discrimination, Tan notes the differentiation between ‘Broken English and Standard English’. Indicating that language has a powerful status in society, Tan describes her mother’s English as being ‘broken’ (pp.2). She

Currently, there are over 6,000 living languages spoken in the world. Even with these many languages spoken, people are still discriminated in America. Language is a part of many cultures and daily life, for example in Amy Tan's "Mother Tongue", Tan says "I've heard other terms used, 'limited English,' for example. But they seem as bad, as if everything is limited, including people's perceptions of the limited English speaker." Language should not be a border where people today are still treated as "broken".

Gloria Anzaldúa was a Texas-born, lesbian, Latina, feminist, that wrote about many of her personal experiences and views of the diverse background she grew up in. Growing up a certain culture at home and being in a country with a different culture, brings along a lot of self-identifying issues. Gloria Anzaldúa uses various strategies and languages to write this powerful piece by code-switching, quoting others, diction, and rhetorical questions. Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” speaks about the social issues that Latinos face involving identity, language, and sexism.

Language is an integral part of human existence. It is not only a crucial tool in which we use to convey meaning to others, but also a cultural construct passed down from previous generations that helps to define who we are and how we relate to others. Ultimately language defines our relationships with others, the way we use language is shaped by our own socio- cultural background and also that of whoever we may be communicating with. Self awareness of how our own use of language has been shaped by our background and an understanding of what shapes others use of language leads to better communication, understanding and empathy.

Language has been an integral part of human existence since the dawn of time. Our innate ability to communicate has guided the progress of civilization since its modest beginnings and facilitates our understanding of what it means to be human. The only practical way to thoroughly express one’s identity is through language, whether it be verbal speech or written text. It is only through this medium that we are able to fulfill our roles as a social people, who use discourse to cultivate relationships both on a personal and communal level. Language defines the human notion of self by revealing culture and beliefs, making individuality context-specific, and providing identity markers.

In Mother Tongue, I agree with Amy Tan’s claim that people value how you speak more than what you are speaking. Tan explained how her mother spoke poor English and this lead to others treating her mother as inferior. This belief has come to fruition in my experiences as well; I recall a time when I was waiting in line to check out at ShopRite, I noticed how the cashier gave the lady in front of me attitude as the lady bought her groceries. When I checked out however, the cashier was pleasant. Subsequent to reading Tan’s passage, it hit me that the cashier's negative demeanor was probably due to the fact that the customer in front of me spoke broken English with a foreign accent. The lady was attempting to learn a second language

In “How To (lower case to) Tame Your Wild Tongue”, Anzaldua’s project is to explain how one's language can be negatively associated by others with your value as a person. Her goal is to not only show the harsh judgment that can come with language differences (comma) but to explain the emotional effects of that judgement as well. “How To Tame Your Wild Tongue” is an argument being presented from a narrative stand point. In this writing Anzaldua defends her argument by discussing different means of linguistic terrorism that she has personally experienced throughout her life as a Chicana. Anzaluda was born in Texas into a family of immigrants from Mexico. The Spanish she spoke was a combination of both English and Spanish as they were not Spanish

Some people prefer to stay connected to their customs and language from their homeland. For Gloria Anzaldúa, a Chicana, who strongly believe to keep her culture and native language alive in America. She written a short essay called “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. It discusses about her going to the dentist appointment, and the dentist saying she can't control her tongue. When he said that, it made Anzaldúa wonder how do you tame a tongue. You'll either try to make it silent or teach it how to be calm. To do fact that many immigrants and their children living in USA for a better living, yet their acceptance isn't appreciate. So the USA tried to ease of who

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:

In Gloria Anzaldua’s essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Anzaldua expresses her experience of growing up in the United States with a strong Mexican background. She is quick to point out the prominent social and cultural differences within the dual cultural society such as language and culture. Anzaldua uses definition essay to demonstrate that language and culture is not always concrete. Throughout her essay, Anzaldua switches back and fourth between English and Spanish. It is clear that Anzaldua is proud of not only her Spanish language, but also her ability to speak both English and Spanish.

The passage How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua exposes the difficulties that many ethnicities of immigrants are exposed to, when they recently migrate to the United States. Gloria Anzaldua stands up for the minorities who are underrepresented, as well as talks of her own personal experiences. Anzaldua does not let linguistic terrorism be a negative influence, resulting in her own language being robbed from her, and pridefully speaks the language, regardless of the situation that she is presented with.

In addition to not protecting the language, Bryson also points out another worry for the future of the English language. “…A more pressing concern ought to be not with the English used by Hispanics and other ethnic groups so much as the quality of English used in America generally” (Bryson 241). Bryson explains that the English newly learned by people from other cultures is not a problem. The real problem is the quality of the English used. If people keep using this poor quality of English, then there will be some words that people do know and some words certain people do not know and this might result in a language

Standard American English (SAE) is benefiting ones and is discriminating others. In my opinion, people in the US are judged by accent they have instead of their personality or abilities. It is necessary to speak English in the US if you want good opportunities, but it is not acceptable to be oppressed because of your pronunciation or accent “do not fit the rules”. In the article “8 Harmful Examples of Standard American English Privilege”, Hernandez (2015), mention that people stop listening when they heard your accent pretending that you are not putting enough effort to speak correctly ( para. 12). Very often your accent it is viewed as aggressive or violent, people look at you differently when they hear how you speak making wrong assumptions. All in all, it is not correct to say that ones that speak SAE are smarter only because they are born in the specific area and discriminate speakers of other languages only because it happens to be born in a place where people speak different accent.