Language Is a Bridge of Communication

1001 Words5 Pages
Language is the bridge of communication people use language to connect to their identities and to communicate their values to themselves and to the world. I believe language is important because people use it to express their thoughts and beliefs though language can create a barrier when trying to communicate with others. This may cause you to be judged because you have an accent it can both influence the way a society interacts with the world. Ray Gwyn Smith said ”Who is it to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than a war”, both taking away their language and being in war is a way for people to not feel free to live in their own skin. In both “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua and “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan gives various examples in how your identity influences your language. One contributing factor is your family and friends, but especially your parent’s influences the way we talk. My parents do not allow my siblings and I to expand their vocabulary and improve our English because, they strongly want to maintain our cultural values, traditions, and language in the new country. In “Mother Tongue” Amy Tan state’s“all the forms of standard English that I had learned in school and through books, the forms of English I didn’t use at home with my mother”. This statement from the reading “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan influences the most to me because I was raised by immigrant parents whose English is there 2nd language. Just like Tan helped her mother translate I had to translate for my mother, at a very young age not knowing certain words made translating for my mom very difficult. Tan stated when a person is at home, surrounded by their loved ones, they let their guard down. Its true the language we speak around our families are different from the ones we use in the professional world in school we have to speak and talk perfect
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