Interview with a Bilingual

“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 need for bilingual education is not directly related to the need for the student to have a more pleasant learning experience, but based more on the increasing need for these individuals to learn about their heritage, how they can present themselves to others in different scenarios, and being knowledgeable in both languages at a dual equivalence. The key

Bilingual education offers a completely different world for students of different ethnic background and thus creates a comfort zone limiting the risk-taking factor necessary for the maturation of a child to an adult. Rodriguez argues supporters of bilingualism fail to realize "while one suffers a

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

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.

Interviewing a wide range of people will ensure that I have enough information and knowledge on bilingualism and the role it plays in educational development.

Although bilingual education has some merit, avoiding the implementation of the more popular language of a community is detrimental to the incorporation of mostly you people in society and hinders their ability to develop a keen sense of identity. For example, "language gets learned as it gets used (7).” In other words, one masters the language as he speaks it. Speaking and language skills tend to sharpen if they are used regularly. Rodriguez argues that learning both languages and using them rather than leaving one begins to lead to a better sense of identity and freedom. But according to Rodriguez it makes one become insecure, growing up

Speaking two or more languages is like a country having an atomic bomb during a war. The first situation is advantageous to a person and the second situation is advantageous to a country. “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” is a memoir of Richard Rodriguez’s bilingual childhood and it was originally published in Hunger of Memory in 1981. In Rodriguez’s memoir, he discusses why he disagrees with bilingual education. His audience is bilingual or anyone that has an opinion towards bilingual education. The purpose in Rodriguez’s memoir is to inform people of the effects of bilingual education and persuade bilingual educators why bilingual education shouldn’t exist.

Introduction - Being a part of a bilingual speaking family, like with my mom and dad who are Chinese immigrants, is an experience that no one can imagine unless you are part of a bilingual speaking family. Experiences such as knowing a language that not many of our neighbors don't know can be frustrating for both sides. Being young in my early years, learning English was not only a struggle for me but for my family. I noticed that my parents struggled learning english and communicating with the outside world. From buying groceries to paying for the bills, I observed the painful experiences that my parents persevere through all these years. I was glad public schools gave me the opportunity to not only learn English but to help my family live in this English superior society.

“Aria,” by Richard Rodriguez took his life as an example of on how the bilingual system takes effect on people just like him. He puts his life as an example to show that if the bilingual system actually works, by walking us through his life experiences growing up from an immigrant, family not knowing English, but later developing the language and noticing that he gained something valuable, he also lost something important in return. Rodriguez believes that the bilingual educational system takes “a degree of individuality” from children,(19) also explaining why his tone changes towards the end of the article. The way Rodriguez used his personal life as a personal credibility for the bilingual education, although he does not provide logical appeals which show facts that the majority think what he believes, he uses his personal life as piece of research.

This essay will demonstrate the research that is implemented on children with bilingual ability; discussing three main issues in bilingualism which is: the maintaining children’s first language, social and cognitive benefits, also why bilingualism should be in cooperated into school programming/curriculum.

Before reading this book, I never placed much emphasis on the correlation between language and identity. I have come to the realization that for many of my students, their identity surpasses academic concerns. The first language a child learns is critical to his or her identity because it contributes to positive self-esteem. Reading the first four chapters, I understand the importance of maintaining the native language and the benefits associated with them. As discussed in Translating Childhoods, there is a connection between maintaining bilingualism and students performing at higher achievement levels. As educators we should utilize bilingual students to expose other students to different languages during activities, providing an opportunity

Why should people nowadays see languages as a big prize? A person speaks more languages have more opportunities are skewed to him because he benefits the profit comparing to a person who speaks only one standard language. It is time for globalization and its effects on children for speaking other languages as a must. In two articles “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez and “Whose Voice Is It Anyway?” by Victor Villanueva, the two authors both expressed their opinions on native language and how the assimilation impacts a child. However, Rodriguez believed that the assimilation was beneficial for him as he had grown up in the English-speaking world and he disliked bilingual education which created many controversy.

In the early and mid-20th century, there was a notion between researchers and the public alike that bilinguals were not equivalent in terms of cognitive abilities when compared to monolinguals. Harsh statements such as the one by Epstein (1995) said that bilingualism was a “social plague” and that it was “a hardship devoid of apparent advantage,” (Yoshioka, 1929), as cited in Hakuta & Diaz (1985). The research conducted in their time concluded, “Bilingualism acted as a handicap that affected a person for their life in terms of cognitive development and intellectual advancement,” (Saer, 1940). However, it should be noted that the early studies that were conducted had many limitations. For example, whether or not the person was actually fluent in their second language was not a criterion in sample collections. In some extreme cases, the extent of one’s bilingualism was measure by where they lived, surnames, and the extremeness of the parents’ foreignness. Another weakness present in the methods implemented by these early researchers was that the social and economic, or socioeconomic state of the subject was not accounted or adjusted for as observed by Mcarthy (1930). She found that the majority of the bilingual children present in these early studies were those of immigrant laborers while the monolinguals

Bhatia, T. & Ritchie W. (June 9, 2008). The Handbook of Bilingualism. John Wiley & Sons.