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Politics and the English language read
Importance of language in communication process
Importance of language to communication
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Recommended: Politics and the English language read
“Language, any language has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture” (Thiongo). With the reading Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, the group discussions and lecture, I have a better understanding of the importance of language. If you take away someone’s language, you take away their culture. Thiongo raises an interesting point that the “final triumph of a system of domination [is] when the dominated start singing its virtue.” With this quote, I thought about my own culture and the language used. I wondered if Filipinos were subjected to language suppression, in what ways were they under the colonizer’s control and are they were working on decolonizing their minds.
According to an article, Background Notes on Countries of the World: Philippines, there are 87 languages commonly used nationwide. The top three languages spoken are Cebuano, by people in the Visayas, Tagalog by people around Manila, and Ilocano spoken by people of Northern Luzon. There are numerous resources giving different amounts of languages and dialects presently used in the Philippines. They range from 87 to 171. According to Wilson, there are 171 languages, some close to extinction, only spoken by fewer than 100 and some spoken by millions. The majority of the languages are used by a limited population, mainly those who are isolated away from the urban areas or by indigenous people. This wide range shows the wide diversity of the Philippine people. These languages often overlap with each other, they can include different variations, and most are based on the influence of the colonization of Spaniards and Americans. Many languages spoken depend on the region or area the people are from. Al...
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Lee, Jamie Shinhee. "English–Taglish Mixing." World Englishes 24.1 (2005): 107-109. Academic Search
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Reyes, Portia L. "Fighting Over A Nation: Theorizing A Filipino Historiography." Postcolonial Studies
11.3 (2008): 241-258. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
Thiongo, Ngugi Wa. "Chapters 3-5." Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African
Literature. N.p.: Heinemann Educational, Heinemann Educational Books. 172-79. Print.
Walter, Stephen, and Diane Dekker. "Mother Tongue Instruction In Lubuagan: A Case Study From The
Philippines." International Review Of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift Für
Erziehungswissenschaft 57.5/6 (2011): 667-683. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
Wilson, Kip. "Filipino Or Tagalog?." Faces (07491387) 27.4 (2011): 16. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 5
Feb. 2014.
It is interesting for Lisa Kanae to use three different voices in her book, Sista Tongue. The structure of Sista Tongue is different from standard books as if to make her words flow and become active. Her message still holds truth in today’s society. In many homes, younger generations face the inadequacy of being unable to understand their mother tongues while their parents struggle with learning English. Code-switching is natural for bilingual people and those that speak to other sub-cultures. Lisa Kanae’s different voices are similar to
For this summary I watched a video called Voices of the World: The Extinction of Language and Linguistic Diversity. The video starts off with how people believe that there are about 6, 000 languages. David Crystal talks about how with all these different languages half of them are endangered of becoming extinct. Each different language offers a different point of view of the world and culture. He said that if different languages are lost then “we lose the meaning what is it to be human.”
In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, an excerpt from her book Borderlands/La Fronter in 1987, she demonstrates that identity can be asserted through language. You can tell a lot about a person by their language. Language is your way of representing who you are as a person, and most importantly, your culture. Culture defines the most about a person. Anzaldúa shares her aggravation of not being able to speak her language, “until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself" (Anzaldúa 378). Being seen as an individual of English as Second Language (ESL), Anzaldúa does not appreciate how she has to assist in translating to English or Spanish, where she would rather speak Spanglish. “[A]s long as I have to accommodate the English speaker rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate” (Anzaldúa 378). Talking bad about her language severely impacts her identity, “I am my language” (Anzaldúa 378). A person’s identity should not be seen less because of the language they speak. Anzaldúa states that she will have her voice, though she cannot express her passion for her language with the restraint of no freedom act to embrace it, she will. Her audiences that she is reaching to are those who share the same struggle of their identities just like her, and also speaking out to people who do look down upon people like her because of where she is form and what language she speaks.
In the story “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan, Mrs. Tan talks about (in the book) her life and how she grew up with different Englishes was very hard and how it has affected her today. The setting of the book goes from being at lecture to the past of Amy Tan and her mother along with the different Englishes she had to come accustomed to. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, the author’s attitude towards the “different Englishes” she grew up with is fascinated. Amy Tan conveys this attitude through wanting to learn all different kinds of Englishes, her use of Englishes in her novel, and the acceptance she developed of her mother’s broken English.
Anzaldúa's main point in the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is that Language is important and part of who we are. People should not be forced to speak another langue or criticized for speaking their own language. Anzaldúa says “So if you want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language”. (pp.416) Language defines who we are. and when we are forced to change out language we are forced to change who we are.
Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue." 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. 4th Edition. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 417-23. Print.
Theme three focuses on the Filipinos use of culture as a resistance or domination. In this context, Filipino culture and tradition is used as a method of maintain Filipino identity while resisting assimilation into the concept of ‘whiteness’. Specifically speaking, Filipino culture is used as a tool to point out the flaws they see in American culture. Additionally, it is a tool they use to steer their children away from the temptation of acting in a way that American culture is said to act; that is,
When I finished reading a piece of ‘How to tame a wild tongue’, I went on a journey to recall if I had a similar situation. In the reading Anzaldua implies that her language has been alienated through constant heat from both sides (English and Spanish), through this quarrel emerged a new language that was neither English nor Spanish “but both” (Anzaldua, 77). The journey – proves Anzaldua’s point - recalled past events that clearly pointed that what I speak is neither English nor Spanish but a variation of both. This occurred to me when I would talk to friends, I would include words that were officially incorrect in English or Spanish, but they were a part of my culture. For instance, when I would speak to my friends, we would use certain
Language is more than just a means of communication; it is part of one's culture, self-expression, and identity. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” is a chapter from the book ,Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza ,written by Gloria E. Anzaldua. In this chapter, Anzaldua talks about her Chicana life in a period full of immigrant controversies where Latinos living in the United States were struggling to find their national identity and a language to speak freely without feeling any shame and fear from others. She expresses the dilemma she had to face about her own language in which she was often criticized and scolded for her improper Spanish accent. From these experiences she labeled these attacks on languages as “Linguistic Terrorism”. Anzaldúa
‘Speaking in Tongues’ exemplifies these differing ideologies by focusing on a conversation between the uncle of the Cantonese-immersion student Kelly and his mother. Kelly’s Uncle shares the hope of all the families of language-immersion students, that the language skills gained will follow and aid their children throughout their lives. When prompted, parents explained the hope that through language-immersion children might maintain a respect for their heritage, form a competitive edge in the job market, grow into responsible and respectful world citizens and find a door to a higher class
‘Mother Tongue’ is a short story written by Amy Tan for American literary magazine, The Threepenny Review (Shea, n.d.). This text raises ideas around the way we speak or use language throughout our daily lives, and what truly counts as ‘proper’ English.
“Mother Tongue” is an essay that show the power of language and how Amy Tan uses the many forms of English and the different ways in which the language she knew impacted her life. I feel connected to Tan’s essay because I also come from a multilingual home. I have smart emigrant parents who are educated, but even though they are educated they still need my help with communicating with people occasionally. I believe the most important idea in Tan’s “Mother Tongue” is the limitation that an imperfect English can cause in a society and the richness that such English can bring to
Spain is also home to 3 main languages other than spanish, which are Catalan, Galician, and Basque. Spanish is spoken by 74 percent of the population as their first language and is the national language, which makes sense as it is the most prevalent by far. The main riff is between spanish speakers and catalan speakers, as there is diversity in state whether the land that Catalan speakers dominantly occupy should be allowed to have independence from Spain.
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Across Cultures. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Singleton. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. 26-31.
The idea to include L1 as part of the language teaching system has been debated upon in recent years. The strong anti-L1 suggest on a complete prohibition of L1 in classrooms, while many others see L1 as a tool to better students’ learning of the TL. This section will highlight the pros and cons arguments for using the L1 in classrooms, along with further evidence supporting the advantages mother tongue bring to the language learning, and teaching process.