Talking Point #2

Aria
Richard Rodriquez

Context/Premise:

• Children
• Parents
• School
• Languages
• Home life
• Struggles/Difficulties
• English
• Silence
• Private
• Public

Argument:

Rodriguez argues that children feel safe with the language they grow up speaking. Being forced to learn a new language changes their individuality when they completely stop using the one they have known for their whole lives.

Evidence:
“Unsmiling, ever watchful, my teachers noted my silence”
Rodriguez tells about how he didn’t like talking in class. His family mainly spoke Spanish at home so he didn’t talk in school. (“Did I somehow suspect that once I learned public language my pleasing family life would be changed?”) He was pushing off learning English because he knew that this would change his lifestyle.

“…the clash of two worlds, the faces and voices of school intruding upon the familiar setting of home.”
This was when his teachers came to talk to his parents about speaking in English because Rodriquez was so quiet. This must have been so hard for him to see that his family, his safe place, would now start talking the language he had put off.

“They do not seem to realize that there are two ways a person is individualized. 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.”


Other Stuff:

I do believe that English should be learned for people living in America. However, I think Rodriquez is right when he says “Had they been taught a second language like Spanish or French, they could have regarded it simply as that: another public language.” Children that are born and raised speaking Spanish are dramatically changed when their private language is replaced with English (the public language.) I would be a different person if my school and home life changed to a different language.

He also talks about his father and how he knew that even his dad didn’t like talking in English and was much more enthusiastic when he talked in Spanish. “In Spanish, he expressed ideas and feelings he rarely revealed in English.” It’s hard enough to notice a change in yourself never mind the notice of change in your parents.