Se Habla Español By Tanya Barrientos Summary

Competition between peers makes people strive to try and be better than their opponents, and can be healthy or unhealthy depending on the competitors and their responses to the competition.

There are many rivalries between siblings and Everyday Use by Alice Walker teaches us this. For example, in the short story, the narrator states that “This churn top is what I need” (pg 1318). Dee thinks she deserves everything. When she wants something, she gets it because she thinks she is the favored child. Parents often favor one of their kids and get them whatever they want while the others have to sit and watch the mom and dad care about that kid more than them. According to Spratling, the negative consequences of the family favorites are more common in politicians and athletes. Sometimes favoring a child can have positive affects on that child, but then cause them to feel bad for their siblings.

In the descriptive narrative “Se habla Español”, Tanya Barrientos illustrates the difficulties she faces as she struggles to fit in her own culture. Barrientos begins the story by letting the reader know a little more about her background. Barrientos was born in Guatemala, a Spanish speaking country, but her family moved to America when she was three years old. With the use of vivid language, she explains that at the time American people accepted immigrants only if they were willing to forget their culture and embrace American culture. However, times changed and Barrientos had no ties to her culture other than her brown skin and immigrant parents. Throughout the narrative, the author expresses remorse for not appreciating and embracing her

Yes, it was actually very difficult competing with my younger and older siblings. They were all very competitive in everything that we did. That even includes our wardrobe, sometime even our looks. Another thing that I had to work harder for to get was being my own person and not living off of my parents, unlike my younger siblings.

Siblings always compete. It is part of human nature. However, in my case, my parents played an important role in fostering completion between my brother and I by signing us up for the same activities. For a long time, I did everything with Bennett. Any basketball, soccer, or football team I was on, I can assure you that Bennett was there too. It is not as if my mom and dad intentionally put us against each other. Looking back, I know that any reasonable parent with two sons the same age would do the same thing, but competition, and losing, would become an important influence in my relationship with Bennett because of this.

Jose understands at a young age that in order to escape the indentured life of working in a sugar cane plantation like his ancestors before him, he must do something different. In the classroom, Jose is a very bright student as seen through his peers and especially his professor who eventually helped Jose get into a prestigious school because of his academic excellence. He assures his grandmother who is his sole provider and family that one day she’ll no longer have to work tirelessly in the sugar cane plantation. Jose dreams of taking work in a more profitable and higher field then the plantation his community is chained to all being done by attaining

How he was treated differently, and was neglected by everybody around him. He knows that he is different. And he knows that's why he was bullied by everybody else in school, or in his life. He pitied everybody else, but in retrospect he also pities himself. “ I sat back and watch them grow skinny from self- pity. Back on the reservation, my mother stood in line to get us commodities. We carried them home, happy to have food, and opened the canned beef that even the dogs wouldn't eat. But we ate it day after day and grew skinny from self pity.” (Sherman Alexie.) He is pitying everybody else, but retrospect he is pitying himself. Everybody has their own opinion on somebody, even if it's wrong or correct. They use their own judgment to judge other people. “ Hey,” he said. “What's that boy been drinking? I know all about these Indian kids. They start drinking real young.” Sharing dark skin doesn't necessarily make two men brothers. (Sherman Alexie.) The Chicano teacher is judging the boys based off of his own view, of what he thinks is correct. What he thinks are his beliefs, aren't always

The article that I had to read was “Se habla español”. This article was looking at the future of the Spanish language in the United States. To summarize, prominent scholars of español came together to hold a meeting at Harvard’s “Instituto Cervantes Observatory of the Spanish Language.” They concluded that, “Spanish is not going to fade away and will stay the second-most-common language in the United States.” The scholars state that more American high school students choose to study Spanish rather than French or German as a foreign language. Also, businesses actively recruit bilingual employees thus upping the need for Spanish speakers. Politicians are also making bilingual efforts to appeal to Hispanic voters. Although, the scholars believe

The kid is a foreigner in his school because of his ethnicity, an American Filipino. He regularly it's bullied at school because of his ethnicity, the kid is often teased by his archenemies, Brandon DeStefano and Tenzil Jones because of his ethnicity. After reading the paper that the kid had written, the kid mentions that archenemies, “added an accent that isn’t mine. Then he looked up at me, shaking his head in disapproval,” (Tenorio, 105). As result, the kid finds himself always oppressed by those around him, this forced the kid to take a new perspective on the outside world, and turn him into an outcast. For this reasons, the kid makes it much tough to trust that he can overcome his oppression of being

No matter how great my graders were, how much I accomplished, or how amazing of a student I was, I was always the reason they argued. My older brother, Mark, isn’t the dream child. He’s made mistakes in his life; he’s been caught drinking, smoking, and ditching classes, but even then I’m considered worse than him. I’m the one who learned Spanish, the one who listened to Latin music, who attended Catholic masses. I wasn’t like my siblings, I never cared to learn Arabic, go to church with my dad, or spend time practicing the culture with my cousins. I was the child who took a stance for the things I believed in and argued with against my dad. The child who never made him proud. Nonetheless, I woke up every morning thrilled to go to school and escape it all, to learn, go to college, and become something, someone, so I wouldn’t end up like my

Who am I? Who are we? Where do I belong? What is self identity? These are a few questions that people will ask themselves within their lifetime. Self identity is the way in which one person identifies themselves within a social environment. In How the Garcia Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez, we are able to see four girls who move from the Dominican Republic to the United States where they begin to lose their heritage and values of being Spanish women, and create new lives. When moving to a new country one recreates their identity through language, they endure the struggle of not fitting in, and they also become isolated from society.

Modern day Spanish language also known as castellano in Spanish first appeared in the small Christian kingdom of castile in northern Spain during this period of Islamic domination over most of the Iberian peninsula. As a result Andalusian Arabic influenced the language practically from its inception. Arabic imprint on the langage increased as the kingdom of castile expanded into muslim lands where the Castilian language had never been spoken and as Arabized christens (mozarabs) from Al Andalus emigrated northwards during times of sectarian violence, and paritculary as a result of the Almoravid conquest in the 12th century. Arabic was used among the local elites and local Arabic-influenced romance dialects, known collectively as Mozarabic were

Having a large amount of older siblings stimulated my competitive nature in sports. My father had eight children and I was the sixth one. Three out of the five older siblings were athletes and I wanted to be around them all the time. The three athletes were six,five, and three years older than me. Growing up, I hated playing sports with them. They

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies for the hardest victory is over self” (Aristotle). Aristotle was a philosopher and he felt that a person who can put away their desires to accomplish what they need to do is a stronger person. That is an important lesson. Literature not only is for entertainment but is used to teach lessons. Lessons help a person grow. Throughout Latin American literature there are many themes. However in Mexican literature, the theme of a personal journey is frequent. Throughout personal journeys, one goes through an early stage of memories, changing of self and then remembering the hard times and their past self.

Spanish is one of the most common languages in the world. Many people can read and write in Spanish, but some people aren’t able to speak in Spanish such as me. Even though I struggled with Spanish, I overcame it by practicing every day and getting help to speak it correctly. Back in high school, I did well in all my classes including Spanish. I understand the meaning and grammar of some Spanish words, but I struggled to speak it. My teacher wanted us to present in Spanish. I heard that I was worried because I’m not the best at presenting and especially speaking in Spanish (of course). In a matter of seconds, I decided that I need to practice if I want to get a good grade and boost up my G.P.A.