As I grew older, I began to question why my mother would give such bizarre advice. I did not think there was anything wrong with my Persian boyfriend, but my mother thought otherwise. It was from then on that I realized; when someone is prejudice against your race or culture, it can be extremely difficult to change his or her negative opinion about you. When Pat Sumi is retelling her childhood, she tells Ryan Yokota, “It was not a negative stereotype, but it was a stereotype nonetheless and it made me aware at a very early age how your looks and your background could be twisted by people who wanted to make assumptions” (Interview with Pat Sumi, Yokota p.17). In the past, I have never really considered stereotypes as being either positive or negative, it was always just negative to me.
Barrientos depicts the hardships and discriminations of the growth of a child coming to America from another country and being forced to speak English and not her native tongue. She knew she was not white like the other children and although she was living the American dream with her family, her parents put her into a position to be English speaking where as they spoke in Spanish to one another but English to the children. As she got older she realized she wanted to be a proud Latina and felt like an outcast from her people because she didn’t speak the language. As her efforts continued she felt discriminated upon by the very people she sought out to teach her. Page 58 she says the registrar called her and her brother, “you people”.
Even her daughter as well as society later refers her mothers English as broken. And because of that in her younger years, Amy felt somewhat embarrassed by her mothers English. And felt that her view of her mother was legit because of instances as such in (3rd paragraph 507). “I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear
In other words when Tan spoke with proper English she was treated differently opposed to how her mother was treated for speaking her limited English. So what I’m trying to say is sometimes people that speak different languages don’t always get the proper service that they should because of Linguistic Terrorism. I’ve found an example of Linguistic Terrorism online: A recent case in which a Hispanic man lost custody of his only daughter because he tried to teach her Spanish against the wishes of his Anglo wife. He lost the case- not because he was an abusive father, not because he was neglectful, but because he tried to teach his daughter more about her culture and the language of her relatives and ancestors. Where is the freedom of speech there?
In paragraph four, Esperanza used a synecdoche to show that even though she inherited her great grandmother name, she did not want to follow the same path as her. Esperanza stated, “I have inherited her name, but I don’t want to inherit her place by the window “ (110). Her great grandmother was trapped in a compulsory marriage and longed for an escape. Esperanza was also teased at school she said, “At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” (110). Meaning the kids at school had a difficult time pronouncing her
The difference in the two is that although Amy’s mother did have a hard time speaking the language clearer that the average English speaker she was able to have a language with her family that was English but they had a certain bond with it. Richard Rodriguez on the other hand was told he had to speak English even with his parents but his parents were no more an English speaker than he; so, once he began to understand the language better and speak it with his parents, his parents were the ones
I think there were other reasons also, but the story points to this one in many places. First of all, Connie was not happy at home. To me Connie felt ignored by her dad and the other family members because they could give her the attention she wanted. This sort of relates to John Hughes movie "Sixteen Candles" Sam Baker struggles to get through the day on her 16th birthday because her entire family has forgotten about it and gave there attention elsewhere, to her sister wedding. Her father was most of the time at work and when he was home he didn't bother talking much to Connie.
As time goes on, Rodriguez realizes that he must know English to “fit in” with the society. He becomes frustrated that his parents do not know English, so they cannot help him in school. Eventually, Rodriguez pretty much forgets Spanish and has some difficulty conversing with his family, however he is still able to communicate with them. 7. As previously stated, narrative and first-hand accounts of situations allow us to further understand Rodriguez, which helps amplify the magnitude of his
For English speaking countries and so forth, the school and education influence how we speak as individuals. In the earlier part of my life, I never thought of Jamaican patois (patwa) as a language, and I never really liked speaking patois as it sounded so crude. Like many Jamaicans, I thought speaking the patios dialect was simply speaking badly. By the time I got to my teens I had stopped using the dialect altogether. This approach made sense to me because many Jamaicans look at you differently when you speak Standard English.
Just like adults like speaking to each other in their native languages, teenagers use slang as if it were another language because it is what they are more comfortable using. If we all sounded the same, and spoke the same language, we wouldn’t be unique. We would all be the same. Whatever the reason may be, everyone has had that time when they wanted to tell one of their friends something, and did not want someone close by to understand it. I know that when I am on the phone with one of my friends, I do not want my mom to hear or understand some of the things I am talking to my friends about.