Most individuals are apprehensive about changes, but there may be no reason. Changes can bring benefits to those who experience them. In the essay “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” Richard Rodriguez explores his life as a bilingual child. He discusses the many changes he experiences as he goes from being fluent in Spanish to being fluent in English. Rodriguez dissuades the reader against bilingual education which is the education of nonnative English speakers in their native language. Rodriguez begins his life as Spanish speaker at home and an English speaker in public. A profound change occurs in his life after the nuns from his school visit his parents. They insist that English be spoken at home. He writes, “The moment after the …show more content…
He believes that in order to fully thrive in American society a person must have both types of identities. Those for bilingual education advocate more towards private identity, but public identity is just as important. Rodriguez makes his point clear when he says, “They[those for bilingual education] do not seem to realize that a person is individualized in two ways. So they do not realize that, while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by being assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality” (457). A loss leads to a gain, and in this case the gain is more significant than the loss. Essentially, the gain of public individuality will result in fitting in. Rodriguez states, “In public, by contrast, full individuality is achieved, paradoxically, by those who are able to consider themselves members of the crowd” (457). In order to thrive and be considered ‘normal’ in today’s society a person must have developed a strong public individuality. Bilingual education can deter the development of a public identity in child whose native language is not …show more content…
After he had become fluent in English, Rodriguez began to see that communication is more than just language. Following the struggle of trying to translate his grandmother’s words Rodriguez begins to understand how intimacy and communication are related. . He writes, “The problem was, however, that though I knew how to translate exactly what she had told me, I realized that any translation would distort the deepest meaning of her message: It had been directed only to me. This message of intimacy could never be translated because it was not in the words she had used but passed through them. So any translation would have seemed wrong; her words would have been stripped of an essential mean¬ing” (460). He realized that a person’s words are not dependent on what language they are being said in. They are dependent on their meaning. People are brought together by the ideas themselves, not the language the ideas are being said in. Rodriguez notes how intimacy cannot be confined by language as his grandmother spoke to him one last time before her death. He expresses, “I can tell you some of the things she said to me as I stood by her bed, but I cannot quote the message of intimacy conveyed with her voice” (465). It is not possible to replicate another person’s intimacy. It is not traded through language, but, instead with intimates. People for bilingual education do not
“Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez highlights the differences between public and private language use. Within paragraph five of his essay, Rodriguez claims, “[i]t is not possible for a child–any child–ever to use his family’s language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and trivialize the nature of intimate life–a family’s ‘language.’” Rodriguez builds his claim through the use of amplification throughout. With attention to this, it can be shown that this is essential to his piece, with respect to this particular claim he is making.
Rodriguez’s viewpoint in “Aria” and Thiong’o’s ideas are similar in a way that they both agree with the fact that having non-native English speaker to learn English by abandoning their mother language will hinder their close relationship with their culture and family. However, Rodriguez believes that the most effective way for immigrants to learn English is to totally leave their mother language behind because this allows the immigrants to learn English in the fastest way, and the immigrants will have the confidence to fit into the American society when their English is fluent. However, Thiong’o sees more cons than pros regard to the idea of letting non-native speaker to learn a second language in a forceful and extreme way. First, he states
Hunger of Memory is a memoir of the educational experience of Richard Rodriguez and his journey as a first generation Mexican- American citizen. The book is compiled of a prologue, in which he states his reasons for writing, and six chapters with no specific chronological order. Richard Rodriguez grew up in a white, middle-class neighborhood and attended a Catholic school. He describes his early childhood as a war between his “public” and “private life”: a war between school and home. He struggled when he first started school, because English was his second language and he felt insecure about his shaky ability to communicate through it.
By referencing “the legal duties to educate…children,” the author establishes a sense of responsibility into the reader to help these kids, further promoting bilingual education (Carsen). This message calls out to everyone to make a difference in kids’ lives, and acting otherwise questions one’s morality. The author also includes a message of Baltazar speaking about her dream of graduating high school. This heartwarming bit of the article persuades readers to advocate for bilingual education. Further reading about other children’s struggle in academics due to language barriers underlines the need for that program.
At the end of his excerpt, he speaks on the loss of family dynamic, he never “rushed home after school anymore.” Spanish was the main principal in his family, and after being forced to brush off the Spanish language, his family was troubled. Rodriguez wants his readers to know that the issue wasn’t the setbacks in learning English but the setbacks in his loving family. This is an important aspect of bilingualism for American society to understand because no brave soul decided they wanted to speak on it. Me, I can because I haven’t had to endure such pain.
Rodriguez uses the public vs private analogy multiple times in his essay. Spanish being the private language meaning that fewer people speak and know it, and that because it is private, people who speak it are at a disadvantage. He says, “What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right- and the obligation- to speak the public language of los gringos. ”(6-8) In the first grade, Rodruguez had to alter his personal life and individuality because English had to no
Primarily, the idea behind bilingual education is that ““primary and secondary school students who do not speak English well or at all should be taught in some or all subjects in their native language while they learn English” (Skrentny 179). The law targeted limited English proficiency students and especially the Hispanic community who had the high rate of dropouts at schools. While Gann, Duignan, Moore and Pachon insist on the role of Hispanic movement in supporting bilingual education, Skrentny's analysis of bilingual education demonstrates that Hispanics claimed bilingual education as a civil right issue after the emergence of bilingual education. He does not deny the role of the Hispanics but does not put the merit of bilingual education on them. In fact, Skrentny explains that the strongest support for bilingual education came from organizations such as the National Education Organization which argued that forcing immigrant children to give up their mother tongue and native culture in order to assimilate might cause important damage on the self-esteem of the children.
In the autobiography ‘Hunger of Memory’, Richard Rodriguez offers a nostalgic portrayal of his past and an evocative analysis of his life through his words. ‘Ricardo’ Rodriguez, the child of Mexican immigrants who relocated to America for a better life, was quick in analyzing the effects the cultural change brought on him. He recounts the memories of his youth and digs into his childhood on how his education in America impacted him as a person. Although his experiences are his own; the message of this book is rather universal, highlighting the synergistic relationship of culture and education. To be an ethnic American is a culture all on its own.
Rodriguez stated in the first portion of his essay, “Proudly I announced that a teacher had said I was losing all trace of my Spanish accent.” He wanted to be more like his teachers and less like his parents. People started to tell him, “Your parents must be so proud!”, and all he could do was smile awkwardly. This is one of the first moments in the essay where you get the sense of Rodriguez’s conflicted feelings. He knew that his parents didn’t really understand all of his awards and they didn’t understand his obsession with knowledge and authority that he’s teachers possessed.
However, in order for one to truly understand the arguments made by the authors they must also understand the context behind these arguments; therefore, knowing how the individual authors’ definition of bilingualism lets the reader truly absorb what points they’re trying to make and why. In Espada’s essay, he defines bilingualism as a way for a person to remain in contact with their different cultural identities. There are many areas in the essay where the reader could interpret this definition from. However, the most significant piece of evidence appears at the beginning of the essay where Espada mentions his friend Jack Agueros’ analogy to describe his bilingualism “English and Spanish are like two dogs I love. English is an obedient dog.
There are two type of families. There is one family that speak only English and the other one that speak their home language and English in their household. Those type of families that speak two or more languages in their household are mostly immigrants that move to the United States. Their child or children will grow up speaking perfect English while their parents will speak poor English. In Amy Tan “Mother Tongue”, she talks about how without proper English it is sometimes difficult to get through daily life.
Rodriguez’s English was not the best, and because of that he would either be silent or quietly mumble when asked to participate by one of the nuns (73). Since his lack of participation was noticeable and showed little progress, some of his teachers visited Rodriguez’s home to ask his parents to “encourage your children to practice their English when they are home?” (73). Rodriguez one day walks in on his parents speaking Spanish, but when they see him they switch to English, which offends and over the days that follows angers him enough to decide to seriously learn English. Rodriguez even willingly decides to participate in class (74).
Being born to parents who speak Chinese, my first language was Chinese. Growing up, I struggled learning the complex language of English. I had to be in ELD, English Literacy Development, class for years and only until I went to middle school, did I not go to ELD anymore. I was relentlessly made fun of for my grammar in school and I was always afraid to bring Chinese food for lunch because I was scared of people making fun of me.
They must have misunderstood far more than they understood of each other.’ After years of marriage, they still had practically no language in common. Thus, Carlos started to retreat into silence. It is very probable that he became simply tired of being constantly misunderstood and mocked by his wife because of his weak English. In his case it was more a self-preservation than creating the identity by conscious abstaining from expressing his opinion directly.
The fact that a large percentage of the world’s population is bilingual is because there may be no realistic way to be monolingual (Macrory, 2006). Therefore, as the number of bilingual students increases in classrooms around the world, educators at all system levels and across diverse settings