Hunger Of Memory Analysis

When Rodriguez’s brings up his bilingual childhood, at the time when he had difficulties with English, he tells about how he only spoke Spanish while at home using it as “my private language, my family’s language,” informing the reader that while at home he was able to speak Spanish with an ease feeling that he belonged (Rodriguez 573). However, whenever outside of his house he sensed that “the sounds of the gringo, reminded me that in this so-big world I was a foreigner,” still new to the language, he felt that he did not belong (Rodriguez 593-594). Only after his parents began speaking to him in English and asking him “speak to us en ingles” Rodriguez felt encouraged to learn classroom English, which led to him taking a leap and answering a question in class giving him “the calming assurance, that I belong in public,” feeling part of the classroom when he was understood by the others (Rodriguez 577). He also had thoughts like “I finally came to accept what had been technically true since my birth:

Richard Rodriguez had faced a lot of problems that most students in America do not have to deal with. Richard had to deal with parents that couldn’t help him in school and wanting to be successful academically. He had become embarrassed of his background and where he came from and did not want to embrace his culture.

In “The Good Immigrant student “, Bich Minh Nguyen talks about how her life was a child and how her life was like living in a white neighborhood in Michigan. At first when they had recently move to Michigan her Latina stepmother had a strong belief on bilingual education so Bich and her sister were sent to a school that had a bilingual educational program because her step mother feared that they would forget how to speak Vietnamese. There for the girls attended that school but there problem was not that they didn’t understand English but it was that they had trouble understanding Vietnamese they decided to not attend their bilingual classes anymore and the stepmother realized that the girls weren’t interested in learnig both languages.

In this short film titled IMMERSION, Moises, an immigrant child with less than proficient English language skills, is seen in a real world context as he struggles with academics, specifically math, in a public school setting in the U. S. The “structured English Immersion” program, which is in place to assist children like Moises falls short of providing the supprts necessary for immigrant students to master a second language while they are also expected to build on academic skills. In this film, school leadership has failed to recognize and back one teacher’s pursuit of providing supports to ascertain whether the student is able to complete the assignment in his naïve language or does he not understand the concepts. Even after advocating for himself and asking for the test in Spanish the young boy is told not to worry as the test is not important. Unfortunately, Moises knows the test is significant and is then faced with a no win situation at school.

On the other hand, Nguyen talks of the language difficulties that she experienced being a Vietnamese in the United States. At first, she is enrolled to a school far from home as it offers bilingual education to help her integrate with the system of learning. She works hard to raise her academic performance with hopes of falling in favor with the teacher. However, as the teacher knows her Vietnamese origin, she manifests her stereotype on Nguyen’s comprehension in literature readings. For instance, while it was her turn to read, the teacher would interrupt her making sentiments such as “you are reading too fast….things she did not do to other students” (Nguyen, 35). She also faces a “school-constructed identity” together with her sister with all sorts of jibes thrown against them. As Vollmer puts it, “such assumptions affect the interpretations made of student behavior and school

Growing up with immigrant parents, I understood how it felt like to go home and ask your parents for help on the homework but they could not help me because of the language barrier. I had to stay after school to do my homeworks just in case I needed help because I knew my parents would not be able to help me. Rodriguez faced similar problem. For example, Rodriguez 's father tried helping him one night with a math homework but he couldn 't because the instructions were in English, “I was oddly annoyed when I was unable to get parental help with a homework assignment. The night my father tried to help me with an arithmetic exercise, he kept reading the instructions, each time more deliberately, until I pried the textbook out of his hands, saying, "I 'll try to figure it out some more by myself” (pg 563). This shows the language barrier between Rodriguez and his parents. He was frustrated that he wasn 't able to get help from his parents. He wanted his parents to be just like his

In the essay about Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood, Richard Rodriguez reflects his childhood memory and challenges the idea of bilingual education. As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety in his noisy home full of Spanish sounds. Spanish is his family's' intimate language that comforts Rodriguez by surrounding him in a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed using the Spanish language. Throughout his essay he represents the power of the individual to defeat the language barrier and how he overcame this particular problem as a child. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking English clearly will help him to adapt to the modern society.

Rodriguez describes his youth as a child of Mexican immigrant studying in America, where he had difficulty communicating at school because he did not understand the public language, English. In the beginning, he was shy and afraid at school because he was feeling uneasy with the English language, but with his parents and teacher’s help he “raised his hand to volunteer an answer”, from that day he” moved very far from the disadvantage child…” (987).

Ever been in a situation where you were the only person who couldn’t understand a specific language? Ever been in a situation where you felt no one could understand you? Do you remember how it made you feel in that moment? Imagine feeling that way all the time; alone, isolated, and misunderstood. Jimmy Santiago Baca and Maxine Hong Kingston do a great job of conveying these feelings in their articles. In the article “Coming into Language”, Jimmy Santiago tells his story as a troubled young man who never saw the value in reading and writing. And in the article “The Language of Silence”, Maxine Hong Kingston tells her story as a first generation Chinese American who struggles with speaking English. As for me, I’ve always struggled with

The mediocre speakers are tasked with translation between their family and the rest of the world. They learn about handling adult responsibilities and protecting their families from the world's criticism before they even finish elementary school. These children learn that there is an unspoken dynamic of us and them, with their families being the underdogs. The world is pushing them to adapt to this new society. Their surroundings preach conformity to this new nation. All the while they try to maintain connection with their past world and rich culture. They endure torment from ignorant peers, are labeled terrible names, and constantly face underestimation from those who view non-native speakers as incompetent. This kind of environment feeds their insecurity and requires repeated effort to disprove the assumptions of others, but where most would give up their efforts, immigrant children persevere. They learn to use their environment to their advantage. For them, the media is now an interesting way to pick up on the language and slang the other kids use. With these newfound words and knowledge the children have more confidence to approach new people and attempt to make

Hunger of Memory is an autobiography of the writer Richard Rodríguez and his transition from youth to manhood told through a series of recollected stories. The premise of his writing was centered mainly on his struggle to maintain both his Mexican heritage and closeness to his Spanish-speaking family, while at the same time being assimilated into American culture and obtaining an advanced education. Within the book Richard Rodríguez illustrates his contempt for affirmative action and bilingual education, two practices that had directly burdened his life while growing up. One of his main conflicts was grounded in his own family unintentionally being pulled away from him by

    As I read the “Hunger of Memory” I noticed that we share a lot in common with the protagonist Richard Rodriguez, who is also Mexican and faced a similar situation like Thai immigrants (Rodriguez, 1-5). In fact, we have a couple of common interests and ideas regarding education, race, and language. As the prologue begins, Richard narrates how he feels a disadvantaged boy due to the tension between the public and his private identity. He regrets having adopted the English language the fact that is has reduced the intimacy

What Jessica’s discovers about her German-American immigrant ancestors is relevant to her growth as a teacher and a person, they expand her one-sided view on being white, and being a teacher to Mexican-American students. As Jessica became more comfortable with her ancestors she became to discuss them more in social aspects, “‘I was just struck by how easy it was for him to get so many acres from the government back then.” “Well it probably wasn’t easy,” she stammered. “I mean, he had to came all the way from Germany, […] “It was easier for him than it was for my people,” Vic said earnestly, unfazed by Jessica’s sudden discomfort, “without even going into a comparison of how your people and my people got across the Atlantic. You said your ancestors

The teenage years and transition to adulthood is in itself a very difficult period. Blending or fitting in are omnipresent issues that must be dealt with. For children of immigrants, this difficulty is only intensified through language. Both Amy Tan and Khang Nguyen strategically use narrative anecdotes and employ several rhetorical devices to illustrate this struggle in their works, “Mother Tongue” and “The Happy Days,” respectfully. Amy Tan chooses her childhood home as the primary setting of her work. This allows her to focus primarily on her conversations and interactions with her mother. However, she also gives several anecdotes in which her mother’s background and improper English negatively affected her, outside the home. Through

Although the narrator’s parents are keeping him from learning or speaking their native languages, which is what most of his family members speak, in order to stabilize his English proficiency, there are many negative effects of doing so. The narrator constantly feels