Why And When We Speak Spanish Among Ourselves In Public Summary

The growth of English language has increased tremendously over the years and has become the most widely spoken languages in the United States. This observation aims to explore why when moving to the United States, many non-English speakers feel the social pressure to learn English and what difficulties they encounter. After my observation, I found that many feel the need to learn English in order to assimilate into a community, and though straddling two languages is difficult, it opens more opportunities, and language privilege.

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 Richard Rodriguez’s article Private Language, Public Language Rodriguez uses his introduction to language to show the difference, to him, between his home language, of Spanish, and that of what he considers public, that of English. Language as he says is separated by “Just opening or closing the screen door,” it was the difference between being home in his own language and being in the world of the gringos, or white English speaking person.

Summary- In her essay “Se Habla Español,” Tanya Maria Barrientos discusses her struggle of being an English speaker with Latino heritage, her story to search for a sense of belonging. In childhood, she tries to Americanize herself and stay away from any Latino features, including Spanish. Later in her life, as the society become more welcoming to different ethnic groups, it is natural for her to embrace her own group; but her limitation on Spanish causes Barrientos feeling distant. However, Barrientos believes that there are others in the same dilemma and she encourages those to take the pride to be who they are.

During his childhood, he felt English was an obligation to fit in. As his family’s proficiency with English increased, their close ties with being solely Spanish speakers diminished: “We remained a loving family, but one greatly changed. No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness,” (lines 127-130). Growing apart from his family illustrates native Spanish speakers lose bonds because their shared identity no longer separates them from American

“If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (280). The individuality of Anzaldua has almost been erased because others tell her that she needs to fit the ideals of an American. When people say speak American, they are stating that the person needs to conform to their culture. To do this, a person must forget or ignore previous values to fit into a new place. People may want to desperately remove others from what they believed before because they view the outsiders as a danger to their own culture. Therefore, the sense of danger comes from the idea that the uniformity they have in their country might shift to follow the needs of others. The fact that punishments and reformations were used to change Anzaldua show how people assume the cultures of others are harmful to their own and need to be corrected. Moreover, people are also told to go back to their country, which further proves society cannot accept the individuality of others that are not like them. Another example can be seen when the Latinos from Anzalduas original county go against her. She states that, “Even our own people, other Spanish speakers nos quieren poner candados en la boca…Chicano Spanish is considered by the purist and by most latinos deficient, a mutilation of Spanish” (281). The negative connotation of mutilation gives people the

“Bassackwards” by Jay Nordlinger, published by National Review Digital on January 29, 2007, is a short article arguing why immigrants should learn to speak English instead of supervisors learning the broken version of their language. Although Nordlinger wants immigrants from all around the world to learn English, he mainly focuses his writing on immigrants of Latin descent who speak Spanish. He talks about all the variations of Spanish that are taught to supervisors and business owners to help them communicate with their workers. There are classes such as “Restaurant Spanish,” “Fireman Spanish,” and “Health Care Spanish.” He then gives us an example of “Construction Spanish” which is the most popular, by

Though America does not have an official language, English is the most spoken language. First, English is the language of the forefathers; those who are the foundation and reason our country is still in existence today. Whenever the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution were written, the Englishmen wrote them in English. Nonetheless, English has been spoken for many, many centuries. To add to that, the English language is what ties the country back to it’s roots. Secondly, knowing the English language does not just stop at ordering food at a restaurant, it is the language that countries use to trade with one another. Immigrants who know English do not have as much trouble ordering food or trying to sell items to other people. English is the native language of the United States; therefore, learning the language should be a requirement.

Many people in the United States have a sense of comfort with their own culture and language to the point where they will not abandon those things in order to pick up a new language and lifestyle. In the article named, “Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public,” written by Myriam Marquez, she explains how her family continues to use the Spanish in public in the United States, even though they have lived in the United States for over 40 years. Marquez explains, “For me and most of the bilingual people I know, it’s a matter of respect for our parents and comfort in our cultural roots” (542). People are simply not going to change who they are and where they come from just so they can conform to the normal population of the United States. For the most part, people who come the United States are happy that the country has not implemented a national language law because the people who come here can

1. What does your word choice say about you? What if you did not say anything? These are some of the questions that I can help you answer by the end of your reading. In this paper, I will cover how Americans communicate verbally, nonverbally, and whether we use direct or indirect communication in our American culture. While understanding the topics that we will go over in this paper, it is imperative that we begin with the most familiar methods that we as Americans use daily, verbal and nonverbal communications.

In the United States, it is important for a person to speak English fluently because it is the official language in America and everybody communicates in English. Many people believe that English should be the only language in America and that sometimes people may face prejudice when they speak English with an accent. For some parents, the fear of prejudice makes them decided not to teach their children their native tongue. On the other hand, there are many other reasons why some parents want to teach their children their native tongue. Gabriela Kuntz explains in My Spanish Standoff why she did not allow her children to speak Spanish at home. Kuntz’s explanations are acceptable, but some research studies reveal that most young children can

There are emotional and legal concerns surrounding whether immigrants should learn to speak English. Domenico Maceri (2009), an award-winning author and foreign language instructor at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria California, states “I never met an immigrant in the United States who needed laws to be reminded that English is necessary to succeed” (par. 9).

Speaking a foreign language can be very beneficial. However, one must know the appropriate time to use it. speaking another language in front of someone who doesn’t speak

If one learns English by forcing his native tongue out of his life, the struggle to remember his native language can have a drastic impact when it comes to connecting to their non-English speaking family members. A gap grows between older and younger generations of the family, an alienation between both generations who grew up in two different languages. From personal experience, learning English was about talking to everyone in English with no reference of my native language of Tagalog and Pangasinan. As an advocate of bilingual education and a World Language Academy teacher, Jason Mizell states that a bilingual teacher should not be “stripping away [the students’] language, but...building on top of what they already have, and helping them to keep growing” (Carsen). Pushing away a mother language ends up with pushing away respect to a culture, the culture that one’s previous generations have grown up and English-only classes try to outgrow.

Language is something so foreign, yet simultaneously it is familiar to me. It might sound really odd at first, but this is what I really experience as an international student studying the United States. Upon reflecting on my experiences, I am very thankful that I already have a decent level of English speaking skill from my home country, Singapore. Having said that, my English skills at that time were not entirely grammatically correct likewise I had limited vocabulary in my own “dictionary” which needed a lot of polishing when I first came to the country. Now that I have lived here for a few years, I had overcome my initial struggles with English especially, since English is the predominant language spoken here it is strongly recommended that Non-English Speakers should have an adequate standard of English other than their primary language. Also, being bilingual is not a major issue not only has it’s own advantageous; it lets the Non-English speaking communities to keep their culture while acquiring another language.