Being Bilingual Essay

The ability of speech itself has always been something profoundly valuable for me and my family, from living every day with a sibling who’s autism prevents him from speaking out his thoughts and feelings, but rather communicate through sounds, expressions, and gestures, we've hence developed a deep emotional and physiological stance towards verbal communication.

Coming from a small Hispanic family, there’s my mom, and my two younger brothers. My mother, a hard-working woman, has always stressed to us the importance of being bilingual and biliterate. She’s told us of her experiences when she arrived to the United States and of how much she struggled to communicate with others, yet also of the discrimination and judgments, she had to bare to learn to speak English. Because of this I personally believe I'm incredibly lucky to have been born with the privilege of growing up with a Spanish speaking mother while being educated to learn English as well; it highlighted how knowing how to interact, relate, and connect with others is a universal life skill.

Not only that but, it also maintains our strong family bonds and cultural traditions. For instance, it's been two years since I've visited my family in Mexico, yet I know that if I visited now I wouldn't feel strange or out of place; id feel at home, and that's incredibly warming to me. Without a language barrier, I recognize how I'm able to call both places my home. Whether I'm helping my mother by translating tricky phrases for her, or she’s helping me learn more proper Spanish, altogether we work to preserve and improve our linguistic