Analysis Of Lisa Kanae's 'Voices Merged To One Tongue'

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Forming an Identity Lisa Kanae’s Voices Merged to One Tongue “Standard English was imposed on children of immigrant parents, then the children were separated from native English speakers, then the children were labeled “inferior” and “ignorant” (Hughes 70) because they could not speak Standard English. In addition to feeling inferior about their second language skills, these students also felt inadequate in regard to speaking their own mother tongues” (qtd in Kanae) I come home from college and see my mom cooking dinner over the stove as I walk up the stairs. My tiredness sets in as I rush to my room to put down my heavy bag. My mom yells to me as I start to change my clothes. “Jam2 tong1!” “Okay! Ngo5 faai3 di1” I hurry to the kitchen …show more content…

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 …show more content…

Languages are formed through a structure of sounds in a way the college structure is formed. By piecing together a sentence, it can form a picture a lot like the collage pieces together to form an idea. From a page of Sista Tongue “Garrans da haole tourist at da haole tourist at da same counta going pay mo money fo rent one car. Despite its widespread use as a marker of local identity, HCE also carries negative connotation.” (Kanae) is on one page next to each other. A person may have trouble forming the words of their mother-tongue and their identity feel weak. The lines that cut through Lisa Kanae’s words can represent that broken identity. This can be shown from a quote “Reinecke points out that the formation of a Creole language met the need for a ‘medium of commu-nication between numbers of non-English speaking groups” (qtd in Kanae), the line cuts between ‘formation of a’ and ‘Creole language’ and the word ‘communication’ is cut in between to fit into another line. This shows the meaning of Lisa Kanae’s message in a visual form that Creole language is made up of different languages: English, Cantonese, and Hawaiian, to make one language. This collage form also emphases certain words and sentences. It is very similar to how bilingual people code-shifts from one language to another. I often switch between English and Cantonese with my parents to convey my message in a way the collage form Lisa

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