Thursday, October 6, 2016

Voices and Silences: Language is Power

This reading is called "Aria", it was written by Richard Rodriguez. Richard Rodriguez and his family were immigrants from Mexico, in coming to America they adopted the English language as their main language. Rodriguez explains in his writing that all That all immigrants should try and adopt English as their main language because they will be more successful in their new country. It will be hard and it will be difficult but it is rewarding in the end. At school he spoke mainly English and even though his teachers said that he wasn't speaking as well, the family did everything that they possibly could to help them in school. By doing this and taking on this challenge the family spoke complete English at home. It led to frustration because the parents weren't as advanced as the children in the English language. This led to a strain in the family and their family closeness was lost. "So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality" (Rodriguez, 39).
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/report/2010/09/01/8385/assimilation-today/

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