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In the essay “Private Language, Public Language” by Richard Rodriguez he made a comparison between public and private language. I believe he made this comparison because of the battle between their family and public languages. Rodriguez grew up in an immigrant family, and depending on the location they were staying in, they had a hard time using the different languages they had to speak at home and in society. In their lives they had two forms a language, the private language only spoken with the family and the public language with people outside the family. Rodriguez struggles to overcome the difference between his home language, Spanish and English. The purpose in this distinction is to illustrate the struggle with the different types of languages that the author had to adapt to in his childhood. Firstly, in the author’s childhood, he felt ashamed of his parents poor English. To support this experience, Rodriguez shows his embarrassment by saying, “I tried not to hear anymore… I …show more content…
shivered when he put his hand on my shoulder. The very first chance that I got, I evaded his grasp and ran on ahead into the dark, skipping with feigned boyish exuberance”. In the text it shows how Rodriguez’s experience indicate that he went through unwelcomed treatment towards his family by public society. Therefore, as a child, he eventually felt humiliated because of either racial discrimination or the difference in languages. In other words, he had to overcome language barriers in his life. In spite of the struggle experienced in the author’s childhood, Rodriguez admits that his private language forms the close relationship with his family.
Rodriguez highlights comfortable, soothing, and intimate sounds of his family language by saying, “Spanish seemed to me the language of home. It became the language of joyful return. A family member would say something to me and I would feel myself specially recognized. My parents would say something to me and I would feel embraced by the sounds of their words. Those sounds said: I am speaking with ease in Spanish. I am addressing you in words I never use with los gringos. I recognize you as someone special, close, like no one outside. You belong with us. In the family”. The private language is like an intimate secret code among the family. Despite the struggle with their family languages, the author understands that the private language being spoken has been a large part of their lives and has helped shaped their view of the
world. Rodriguez acknowledges more of the positive aspects of the private language such as intimacy and peacefulness. These two things reminds him of home greatly dominating both his childhood and adulthood while living among gringos. Moreover, the author clearly understands the importance of both by admitting the different usage of each language. Rodriguez states, “It is not possible for a child – any child – ever to use his family’s language in school. Not to understand this to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life”. This goes to show the difference between his two languages seems apparent to him. The author produces a boundary between private language and public language. Most of his childhood in America, he was much more familiar with Spanish rather than English because his parents were the immigrants from Mexico and they always spoke in Spanish at home: “During those years when I was first conscious of hearing, my mother and father addressed me only in Spanish; in Spanish I learned to reply. By contrast, English, rarely heard in the house, was the language I came to associate with gringos”. Having felt a deep sense of alienation from using public language, English, the author has since found it easy, comfortable, and pleasurable to speak his family’s language, Spanish. Language was separated by simply opening and closing the door of his home. The language was completely different from being home with his family’s language and being in the world of the gringos with public language. Rodriguez adjusts to his bilingual language by grasping his family’s sounds with pleasure and by relating it to intimacy. The author rather takes advantage of his private language to manage with public language. For the author, speaking in Spanish is within his comfort zone of language because it is more frequently spoken by those in his home and native community. The private language of his family and its sounds are components that define his relationship with the two languages. The author reminds us that the intimacy from his family’s language is an important and positive factor living in the public society. This factor has to be perceived as a separate zone with the public language: “Like other who know pain of public alienation, we transformed the knowledge of our public alienation and made consoling – the reminder of intimacy”. And so, the author uses the comparison between private and public language to illustrate the personal struggle with the different types of language. The purpose in this distinction is to illustrate the struggle with the different types of languages that the author had to adapt to in his childhood. Even though the author experiences a struggle with a language barrier around home, he perceived his private language in a different way. Despite the limitations of the public languages abilities and the language of intimacy, Rodriguez expresses his affection for his private language. It is not hard not only to distinguish the private language from the public language but easily to think the private language somehow negatively affects the public language’s skills. However, I think that one’s use of the public language has to be distinguished from that of the intimate family language, and the children from immigrant families have to utilize the comfort zone of the private language in adapting to the public language.
The story “Public and Private Language” was written by Richard Rodriguez. He is an American writer and a journalist with many of his publications widely known to the public. He is known for Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez, one of the best written creations throughout his career, which resulted him to grow a substantial amount of supporters, even today. In this story, I am well pleased that Rodriguez has written a memento in which many of the Latinx community could well relate to. Overall I concur with this story based on the fact that there may be two different identities a Latinx person could have throughout their life and that having a public identity could mean more achievements made. However I don’t believe that the more Americanization means the decrease of bonding with your family, finding this statement absurd.
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.
Both authors write about the confidence the main characters receive from their culture. Rodriguez talks about his “private language” being Spanish. A language that makes him unique. He is adamant in his pride of not belonging to the public society of the “gringos”. In Tafolla's poem, Richi is introduced as a boy who is strict about the pronunciation of his name.
In his essay, Rodriguez, a Mexican, reasons that when he is learning the new language, English, he faces the difficulty to balance his own native customs with the new culture he’s absorbing, causing him to slowly forget his own Mexican traditions. Since Rodriguez and his family now live in the United States, he decided that he should
“Se Habla Español,” is written by a Latin author, Tanya Barrientos; and Amy Tan, a Chinese author, wrote “Mother Tongue”. In both literate narratives the authors write about their experiences with language and how it impacted their lives. In This essay we will be discussing the similarities as well as the differences in the stories and the authors of “Se Habla Español” and “Mother Tongue”. We will discuss how both authors use a play on words in their titles, how language has impacted their lives, how struggling with language has made them feel emotionally, and how both authors dealt with these issues.
“Se habla Espanol” wrote by Tanya Maria Barrientos. She is growing up in Texas, but she was born in Guatemala. That causes she cannot speak Spanish like Latina. In the article, she talked about what the feeling as a Lantana without the ability to speak Spanish so well. Her parents give her a few of knowledge about speaking Spanish. Because, she grew up in a special era, which Mexican Americans were considered dangerous radical. Nowadays, this theory is politically incorrect. The author wants to find some people that like her, does not fit in Spanish culture and help them, giving them a big mental supporting. I’m from China, growing and living in different places, which have different language and culture habit.
How to tame a wild tongue is an essay by Gloria Anzaldua. This essay focuses on the different types of Spanish people spoke, and in this case, Anzaldua focuses on losing an accent to adjust to the environment she was living in. The issue that was applied in this essay was that the Spanish she spoke wasn’t exactly considered “Spanish”. The essay was divided into different sections as where the author tries to let people know, her Spanish speaking language should be considered valid just like every other Spanish speaking language out there.
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
Some relatives have strong relationships. They stay together, having their own language which accompany them to grow up. Personal language expresses their life. Their language can be understood by each other but can not be understood by strangers. It can not be captured by language test; it also can not be understood easily by language research. It is like mother’s speaking, only being captured by sons and daughters, can not be understood by teachers, professors, and researchers, “I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of thoughts.” (Amy Than 139) Author, never expressing her love and feeling by writing, uses personal language to show her affection to her mother, since personal language is more genial than normal communication language, and witness the growth of each
Agosin, Marjorie. "Always Living in Spanish: Recovering the Familiar, through Language." The Norton Field Guide to Writing. By Richard H. Bullock. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2009. 21-24. Print. 11 Nov. 2013
In the article, “Public and Private Language”, Richard Rodriguez argues that bilingual education delays learning a “public language” and developing a public identity”. I can relate to Richard’s story because my family and me moved to America when I was young and we also had the same struggle learning a new language. I agreed with Rodriguez when he expressed that he didn’t feel like a true American until he mastered the English language because English is the first and main language in America.
Another struggle for identity with Latinos is their struggle with the Spanish and English languages. While some Latinos may speak Spanish in their homes, the language may not be conversationally used in their schools. Some Lat...
Hispanic America language has some strengths and weaknesses as observed in the article and this makes it one of the influential groups in the United States. It is also important noting that those who belong to this group originated from various parts of the world. The strengths in the pattern of communication make this language one of the most adorable languages in the world as many people feel respected whenever they talk to someone from this particular group. The weaknesses that can be identified only show how people tend to believe they are shy, but it is as a result of respect for
Many people immigrate to the United States from different countries to begin a better life. Once in the American territory, the first step for success is to learn the English language. Richard Rodriguez, the writer of "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" describes the language decisions he faced as a child: "Outside the house was public society; inside the house was private" (16). The English language is the primary language in the United States, and it must be learned to be able to communicate with the public world. The language that we speak at home is considered to be private because it is only used in the presence of the people we feel comfortable with, our family. Families immigrate to the United States from Mexico to find and give their children a better opportunity to succeed. The children of immigrants who have been raised or born in the United States were able to adapt much faster to the English language. The Spanish language, in the case of Mexicans, is part of our origin that most of us inherit from our ancestors although in the United States many, including me, seem to add a new language, which gives us better opportunities.
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.