How To Tame A Wild Tongue Analysis

678 Words2 Pages

A lot of cultures fit in to the United States dominant culture because as an assimilationist,

America has excepted them. For example, people of Irish decent came to America hundreds of

years ago. Over time, they adapted to our culture and climbed social ladders. The first

Kennedy’s moved to the united states in 1848. As generations passed, they became successful

and one of them even became president. However, not all cultures want to be assimilationists.

For example, people of the Latino community have a different theory weather they should be

assimilationist. Some argue whether fitting in is a good idea or not. Cultural identity is

important. While there are reasons to value heritage, being part of a dominant culture is …show more content…

In the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anzaldua writes “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (6). She describes how language and culture relate to identity. Anzaldua explains how the dominant North American culture is taking over the Latino culture and soon “… English and not Spanish, will be the mother tongue of most Chicanos and Latinos” (6). She goes on saying that the Spanish language should be used in order for it to survive. Anzaldua encourages Spanish speakers to keep their language value heritage.

While there are reasons to value heritage, being part of a dominant culture is also important. While individuality should be valued, fitting in is more important. The sense of belonging is essential in life. Being understood and accepted by others helps a person work through problems and deal with emotional pain. Furthermore, being part of a dominant culture gives people the ability to communicate and be understood by others. By fitting in, people tend to be happier than those who …show more content…

Sometimes by giving something up, a person gains something more valuable. For example, those who speak English as a second language often struggle in public. They mix up words, mispronounce them, and use wrong grammar. In result, those with bad English skills often get discriminated and taken advantage of. It is hard for them to get hired because people just assume they are not smart enough. Therefore, learning English and letting go of a private language is a solution to an easier life because fitting in means being accepted by people and being accepted by people means success. In conclusion, it is essential for people to be approved by others in their public

Show More
Related

  • Richard Rodriguez Immigrants

    333 Words  | 1 Pages

    Immigrants have helped shape American identity by their languages they speak from their home country. Richard Rodriguez essay “Blaxicans and Other Reinvented Americans” reveals Rodriguez’s attitudes towards race and ethnicity as they relate to make people know what culture is really identified a person rather than their race. For example, in the essay, it states that Richard Rodriguez “ that he is Chinese, and this is because he lives in a Chinese City and because he wants to be Chinese. But I have lived in a Chinese City for so long that my eye has taken on the palette, has come to prefer lime greens and rose reds and all the inventions of this Chinese Mediterranean. (lines 163-171)”. Although Rodriquez states”he is Chinese”, what he actually

    Read More

  • The Chinese Experience In The 19th Century

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Immigrants such as Catholics, Italians, and the Chinese were not welcomed into America in the late 19th century and early 20th century because of their differences in beliefs and cultures. Irish Catholics were not welcome in America because of their different traditions which caused conflicts within the communities. Nativists were one of the main groups who

    Read More

  • Gloria Anzaldua's How To Tame A Wild Tongue

    575 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gloria Anzaldua, wrote the essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” communicating and describing her adolescence in a society brimming with sexism, cultural imperialism, racism, low self-esteem, and identity formation. The reason one comes to America is to finer themselves academically, and intellectually. One must learn to speak English to live among the American’s, because that is the language they speak. Though, no one has the right to deprive you of your familiar tongue. At a young age, Anzaldua was scolded, even mistreated for speaking her native “Chicano” tongue. Anzaldúa described this ignorance, cruelty, and discrimination when she states: “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess – that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler.” She overcomes this hostility throughout her life.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of How To Tame A Wild Tongue

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although our society is slowly developing a more accepting attitude toward differences, several minority groups continue to suffer from cultural oppression. In her essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Gloria Anzaldúa explores the challenges encountered by these groups. She especially focuses on her people, the Chicanos, and describes the difficulties she faced because of her cultural background. She argues that for many years, the dominant American culture has silenced their language. By forcing them to speak English and attempting to get rid of their accents, the Americans have robbed the Chicanos of their identity. She also addresses the issue of low self-esteem that arises from this process of acculturation. Growing up in the United States,

    Read More

  • Anzaldua How To Tame A Wild Tongue Analysis

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    By providing those words, Anzaldua confirms that a new variant of Spanish has appeared. One possible purpose Anzaldua may have in mind is protecting their language from the Anglo Americans, by doing this she is fighting the idea that there is only one sole language to learn. Anzaldua provides a list of a few variant languages spoken to offer as proof. For example, she listed “standard English, working class and slang English, standard Spanish, standard Mexican Spanish”. When Anzaldua mentioned “standard English and slang English”, she was referring to how we speak differently towards people, there’s a difference to the way someone speaks at work and with their buddies, and Anzaldua emphasized this to show that everyone has a variant language. By providing a list complied of English and Spanish sub-languages, it’s clear that Anzaldua is targeting – those who speak the sub-languages – as her audience. I agree with the direction she is taking regarding the viewership, because the issue mainly concerns those who speak a variant language. Anzaldua’s use of her variant language reinforces how much she really understands concerning the alienation of the language. At the end, Anzaldua states “…yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable, we, the mestizas and mestizos will

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Internalized Racism In America

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    Internalized racism has hit the individual level where half of all Hispanics consider themselves as white. One Mexican American asserted that he felt “shame and sexual inferiority…because of my dark complexion.” He also described himself with “disgust” loathing his appearance when he sees himself in the mirror. Stereotypes play a huge role in the Latino culture in the U.S where often the usual stereotype is that Latinos are job-stealers, uneducated, poor and illegal. “Envidia” or jealousy sabotages the Latino community because Latinos begin to question the qualifications of other successful Latinos. No one has the positive thought that Latinos can achieve and triumph in any field; they just can’t believe that. Latinos just stamp other Latinos with those stereotypes Americans say. Because of internalized racism, Latinos and Hispanics distance themselves from the Spanish language to support the English only movement. They are embarrassed of their inherited language and rather choose English to complete assimilation. “Almost 40% of Latino/a respondents prefer English as their dominant language…” (Padilla 20). Where I currently live, I always see on the day to day basis Hispanics and Latinos that immigrated to the United States from other countries sounding “white.” I speak to Hispanics; even Latinos in Spanish and they respond

    Read More

  • Patel's Immigration: Assimilation And The Measure Of An American?

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Assimilation means adapting to a society or culture by learning there ways of life. In this case, for the immigrants based in the United States, assimilation is the key to being accepted as an American. In the early 1960s the U.S had formed strategies that limited the amount of immigrants coming into the country; this mostly favored the Europeans from the North. Later, the Immigration and Nationality Act was approved and this allowed more Asians, Africans and Latin Americans into the U.S. this resulted to an increase in influx of both illegal and legal immigrants allowed in the country.

    Read More

  • The Earthboy Place by James Welch

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    Back to the American history, "assimilation" policy was introduced to the Native Americans during the earliest colonial times. During that time, all American Indians must either adopt the White's lifestyles or perish. With the declaration of the Dawes Act, a goal of destroying all tribal structure and their communal life were summoned. Tribal lands were divided among natives and the Westerners, leaving the natives, a land surrounded by the foreigners. With such acts, the American Indians were slowly assimilated into the White's culture and without their own people around them, they will have to communicate with the Westerners with their language instead of their indigenous languages; they ...

    Read More

  • Immigration in USA

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Immigration to America began when Christopher Columbus discovered the new land now called the American continent. Immigration increased in the 17th century when people came from Europe, Africa, and Asia to the new land. There were many colonies, such as the British and Dutch. When people came they go to their people and find jobs as farmers. The first immigrants were in the east coast around 1607 to 1775 after the number of immigrants increased. In 1790 - 1850 there were few immigrants who came to America, but in 1850 to 1930 the number of immigrations increased (Dolan 4).

    Read More

  • Gloria Anzaldúa And Mother Tongue Essay

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, both essays reflect how the language they spoke intertwines with their identity and how it sometimes has an impact on the way they interact with society. The effect of the language on their identity is demonstrated through what the authors may call their “different languages.” Although Tan uses more of a personal narrative style than Anzaldua, Anzaldua uses definitions and quotes to demonstrate how her identity was influenced as well. Anzaldua mentions the examples of the different languages by describing “Home tongues”, “Chicano Spanish”, “Chicano Texas Spanish”, “Pachuco” and many others. She uses personal narrative to describe the “Home Tongue” by stating it was the language she spoke with her sisters and brothers.

    Read More

  • Zora Neale Hrston Essay On Discrimination

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like many Chicanos, she developed a strong sense of cultural belonging. This is primarily due to discrimination amongst neighboring Mexicans, whites, and anyone in between. Latinos and latinas would attack her, saying “...cultural traitor, you’re speaking the oppressor’s language, you’re ruining the Spanish language” (Anzaldua 412). It was this ethnic struggle that drove her to latch onto her cultural background so strongly. In the personal narrative “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua, Anzaldua states “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours. We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture” (Anzaldua 419) when referring to the resilience of her native people. She states this in response to other cultural groups having abandoned their language, meanwhile they retained theirs. The Chicanos are aware of the harsh standards of North American society. By saying “When other races have given up their tongue, we’ve kept ours,” she means that even when other ethnicities have been pushed to eliminate their languages, her ethnicity stayed strong; they refused to cave in. Likewise, when Anzaldua states “We know what it is to live under the hammer blow of the dominant norteamericano culture,” she draws pride from her culture’s ability to fend off even the most suffocating adversities. In this way, Anzaldua conveys

    Read More

  • Immigration And Immigration: The Second Generation Of Immigrants

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    Assimilation, different from accommodation, implied that the “outsider” group actually came to accept and inter­nalise the values and culture of the native group which usually shows up at second generation of immigrants. They grow up with two different cultures and they will have to face the difference between these cultures and form their own opinion and tendency which may eventually coming out a behavior stander of the combination of two cultures. People in this period will have more individual understanding because they have chance to choose they life they want to live. It also means this period is not only the most important time for assimilation but also the most struggling time. Just as what Eric’s mentioned in “Notes of a Native Speaker”, “Being an ABC certainly affected me another way. It made me feel like something of a greenhorn, a social immigrant”. Most offsprings of immigrants will have the same confusion because they get their early education from their parents, but after experiencing social contacts(generally after they go to school), a new sense of value from the society will refresh their brains. Some people says that these kids are blessed because they have chance to aware two cultures and get benefits from both, but some would say they are cursed to live in a life like this because they have to face so many confusions in a young age. What

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of How To Tame A Wild Tongue

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    The essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua is relevant to today’s society, because it brings to discussion important social issues such acculturation, racism, and sexism. A major social event that she lived through and was an advocate of was the Chicano movement, which influenced her in her writing. This essay is not only written solely using her intelligence and research, it also comes from personal experience. Furthermore, she says that she will not be silenced anymore, that all people deserve the right to freedom of speech and the freedom to their culture. Not to have to submit to the dominant cultures found here in the United States. This essay is directed towards two groups

    Read More

  • How Does Language Shape The Way We Think

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...xpressing her Chinese culture. Mastering a second language allows her to articulate her and her mother’s thoughts; it is a foundation for her pride and a foundation to express herself. For Gloria Anzaldua, instead of choosing one language over the other, she chose a mix of the two and fights for it. She realized the value of her language when she lost it and now treasures it. The kind of Spanish she speaks is neither English nor Spanish, but both. It is overflowing with culture from Medieval Spain, France, Germany, etc., just from the origins of the words. It is her pride and a representation of herself, fighting and living. In conclusion, in addition to Lera Boroditsky’s article proving that the structure of language affects how we think, the articles by Eric Liu, Amy Tan, and Gloria Anzaldua show how language is a foundation for a person’s culture, pride, and self.

    Read More

  • Adapting to a New Cultural Environment

    1289 Words  | 3 Pages

    At some point in our lives we experience a culture as an outsider by moving from one culture to another.In the world today there are so many different cultures and not one of them is found to be the same.Instead they all have something that makes them unique, whether its language or even the clothes they wear and their behavior as well.The differences they have is what separates them from one another and who ever joins that particular culture must get accustomed to their way of life.In the society today we have many people immigrating to the United States to start a new and better life but what they soon begin to realize is that it’s a whole new world out there and in order to survive they have to get accustomed to the new way of life which is much different from their lives before.

    Read More

More about How To Tame A Wild Tongue Analysis

Open Document