Talking Points #2: Aria

1. "The odd truth is that my first grade classmate could have become bilingual, in the conventional sense of that word, more easily than I. Had they been taught (as upper-middle-class children are often taught early) a second language like Spanish or French, they could have regarded it simply as that: another public language. In my case such bilingualism could not have been so quickly achieved. What I did not believe was that I could speak a single public language."


This particular quote really made me think. Bilingualism is a valued trait, it allows for one to communicate with different people, opens up doors to many job opportunities, along with many other benefits. As Richard says, many young children are taught other languages and are very much encouraged to speak them. It is therefore ironic that Richard, along with many other ESL students like him are made to feel like their native language is something to be ashamed of, that it is meant to be used only in a private setting. A student learns best when (s)he is encouraged and therefore his classmates learning a second language would have picked it up more easily. While his classmates were being encouraged to speak both English and Spanish (or any other language) Richard was made to feel that he had to abandon Spanish altogether. He consequently was made to feel fearful of the English language, as if he wasn't good enough to use it, and thus was able to learn as easily as he could have.


2. "At last, at seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American Citizen"

This quote really struck me and made me feel bad for Richard. What he means by this statement is that until he was fluent in English, at age seven, he did not consider himself to be an American Citizen, even though he was born here and was just as much a citizen as everyone else in his class. It is sad to think that because English was not Richard's native language he was made to feel like so much as an outsider that he didn't even consider himself a citizen of the country he was born and raised in.
This quote made me think of Lisa Delpit's article and how she would have handled this situation. Unlike Richard's teachers, Delpit would have told Richard that his native language is important, to be proud of his culture, but at the same time would have taught him the importance of learning English. If Richard had been taught in the way Delpit advises he would have, most likely, had a much easier time learning English and would have felt he was a citizen all along.


3. "After English became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents. The old Spanish words (those tender accents of sound) I had used earlier- mama and papa- I couldn't use anymore. They would have been too painful reminders of how much had changed in my life....As a result, I never used them at home. Whenever I'd speak to my parents, I would try to get their attention with eye contact alone. In public conversations, I'd refer to 'my parents' or 'my mother and father'."

This quote demonstrates, as Richard says, how deeply the transition from Spanish to English affected his life. The author's life was altered by his forced learning of English so much that he no longer knew how to refer to his own parents, he felt as if even referring to his parents in his native tongue was 'wrong'. This quote also made me wonder why his family was forced to completely abandon speaking Spanish. It was his teacher's job to teach him English. Home should have been a place where he felt safe to speak freely and yet it was turned into an environment where he was apprehensive about how to even refer to his parents all because his teachers went about teaching him English the wrong way.
This quote also reminded me of something in my life. My family is French, but we live in Johnson which has the highest concentration of Italian people in the United States. Whenever the kids around me referred to their grandparents they always used words like "Nana, Nonna, Nonno, and Pappa" but my family calls our grandparents by their French names: Memere and Pepere. Whenever I referred to them however, my friends, and sometimes even adults, would look at me in confusion wondering who I was talking about. After a while, I got sick of explaining, and felt too awkward using those words so I began calling them 'My Grandparents' or 'Grandmother and Grandfather' like Richard similarly did with his parents. Although what I felt was nothing compared to how the author felt doesn't even begin to compare, it does help me somewhat grasp what Richard went through as a child.

I found this article to be very easy to read. The article was a real life portrayal of Delpits points just as Kozol's article was a real life example of Johnson's. It was interesting to see how a student is affected by the way English is presented to them; in many of the other articles that we have read the story is told from an educator's point of view. Richard Rodriguez's story helps to reinforce the ideas Delpit presents of how we should teach students and the importance of teaching students English while still preserving their culture.
One of the things I didn't understand, as I mentioned before, is why Richard's family completely stopped using Spanish if not speaking Spanish at home meant not being able to communicate with the each other. They went from being a close, loving family, to a family filled with silence and I just cannot understand why learning English in school had to result in not being able to communicate with his loved one's at home.
-It is the teacher's/school's job to teach the student English, but to what role, if any, should the parent's play in helping their child learn English?