Aria - Richard Rodriguez
Argument
The author of this writing is sharing his experience trying to learn English in order to be able to speak it at school while living in a house that speaks Spanish only. Richard writes about being shy and how it was frustrating to have to have speak two languages. He considered Spanish to be his private language and considered languages like English and French to be a public language. Richard first questions why cant other students learn another language instead of him trying to learn and speak another language. He says that it would be a pleasure for his teachers to one day greet him and speak to him in Spanish. The reason that he was pushed to learn English was so he would be more understood in class and could participate more. While learning English he realizes that there are essentially two different worlds when it comes to the topic of learning another language other than what is spoken in your house. There is a language at school that you must learn, which would be more of a formal and structural approach, and then there is language at home, in this case would be Spanish and not as structured as a school setting. Richard eventually begins to start speaking English then notices that conversation between him and is parents is beginning to diminish. He realized that the more he spoke English, the more disconnected he was from his home values and family. Richard is saying that when you force someone to learn a different language than what is spoken at their own home, it starts to tear at the relationships inside that home, because it is not possible to collide parts of your private language to your public language.
great blog with main points
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