Analysis: The Language Of Silence

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Language has the capacity of bringing out many emotions in people. Whether those emotions are good or bad, it’s beautiful to be able to express our most remarkable ideas through language. When a barrier is presented in language, some people give up in trying to learn. Others are able to overcome the complexity of language and find freedom through the process. The articles “The Language of Silence” by Maxine Hong Kingston and “Living with Dyslexia” by Gareth Cook, are both pieces of writings that convey a struggle followed with a success that I can relate to. English is my second language, so the process of learning was dreadful. I struggled to read, write, and speak English, but after practice, this language is what I primarily use in my daily …show more content…

In “The Language of Silence,” Kingston was a Chinese immigrant who was timid in her early years of school. The thought of having her voice heard in class made her feel insecure to read or even shed a word outside of class. Kingston mentions, “When I went to kindergarten and had to speak English for the first time, I became silent.”(167) In other words, because she couldn’t speak English fluently, she began to use silence to protect herself from sounding “dumb.” She knew that the English language that came out of her mouth, differed from everyone else's. For children who possess another language, challenges will be presented in school because not only we have to learn the material, but we have to learn an unknown language to us. Perhaps just like Kingston, I struggled to find my place in the English language. When I was little, Spanish was the language I dominated which made me feel really smart. My feelings changed when English was introduced to my life. I encountered myself in a puzzled world, with beautiful pieces because English is a beautiful language, but I just didn’t …show more content…

According to Cook, dyslexia was a struggle that made him feel extremely ashamed. Cook’s childhood humiliations made him grow insecurely and afraid that people would judge based on his disorder. A book, Overcoming Dyslexia, influenced Cook to share his story, as a motive to encourage others to pursue their dreams because although he struggles with dyslexia, he is now an award-winning journalist. A close cousin of mine, Angel, struggles with dyslexia and is in the process of coping with it. At an early age, he repeated the second grade which was the start of his insecurities. Letters move around to him and after reading and rereading, he still feels so empty in knowledge. Angel is now in high school and gets easily frustrated so he uses anger as a defense mechanism. When he feels like teachers put him in an uncomfortable position with questions he doesn’t know answers to, he abruptly gets out of class. He responds to his frustration with anger to avoid the thought of being embarrassed in front of the whole class. Now that he is in anger management therapy, he is diminishing these anger outbursts and improvements are reflecting in his grades. Unlike Cook, Angel actually feels like his classmates and family members show more support when they are aware of his condition, so he doesn’t mind people knowing about it. Language is harder for people with a learning

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