The Importance Of Language In Richard Rodriguez's Achievement Of Desire

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Recommended: The importance of learning multiple languages

There are so many languages around the world, so if someone has a chance to learn more languages, then they should take it. Language is used to communicate with others, but if a person does not know the other person’s language, then that person can’t communicate with them. A person coming from another country to America might forget their native language, if they are only speaking English. A person should practice both languages because that is a part of their identity. It doesn’t matter if some people don’t like the language a person may speak because all that matters is really what you think. Over time society has changed and has come to know many new languages. People are now used to certain languages and the many words that come with it. …show more content…

They begin to adjust to the living in America that they sometimes forget their roots. They become distracted and little by little forget their native language. In the essay Achievement of Desire, by Richard Rodriguez, the author mainly focused on his education. His parents could not help him and so he just spent time alone studying. Richard says “Proudly I announced – to my family’s startled silence – that a teacher had said I was losing all trace of a Spanish accent” (Rodriguez 174). I don’t think that is something to be proud of. Richard has lost something that he could have been identified with and that is his Spanish accent. Richard said that “The boy first entered a classroom barely able to speak English, twenty years later concluded his studies in the stately quiet of the reading room in the British Museum” (Rodriguez 173). There is no doubt that Richard is a successful person, but along the way he lost a part of his identity. Richard focused all his time on English, and his studying that he didn’t speak Spanish much. The effect of him not speaking Spanish was that he lost his accent. Now might not feel a part of the family because he does not that Spanish accent anymore. Coming to America Richard should have practiced both languages that way he could still have had his

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