Patricia Muench                                                                                                                 9/14/08

Prof. Lecker                                                                                                         Study Group C4

What did you say? I can’t understand you.

            Rodriguez and Tan both grew up in a difficult childhood because of their bilingual lives. They both had parents that spoke “broken” or “simple” English. However, their feelings toward adjusting to American society were very different.

            The English language was a vital aspect of Rodriguez’s and Tan’s childhoods. Growing up in a household with one language, and a society with a different language, was very hard for the both of them. Both were forced to adjust their regular lives to what society thought was normal or acceptable. As they grew up, their relationship with their parents changed drastically. When learning more English, there grew a fight for them to keep intimacy with their parents. Tan describes her communication with her mom as, “It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with.” They both were able to understand their parents, but their parents had a hard time adjusting to the language accepted by society. They knew the language better than their parents because they got a bilingual education as a child. In both of their lives, they described briefly that their parents’ English hindered their learning possibilities when growing up. Tan provides us with, “Well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what Tom could have been and what Mary might have thought of him. So I never did well on tests like that.” This shows that although Tan learned the correct way to use English, her mom still diminished her learning ability a little bit. For Rodriguez, he provides us with the nuns asking, “Do your children speak only Spanish at home, Mrs. Rodriguez?... That Richard especially seems so timid and shy… Is it possible for you and your husband to encourage your children to practice their English when they are home?” This proves that because of Rodriguez’s parents not practicing English at all at home, Rodriguez was not getting the full learning experience. Rodriguez’s childhood and Tan’s childhood were very similar, including their relationships with their parents.

            Although Rodriguez and Tan had similar childhoods, they both built up different opinions of their own about when they learned English. Learning English was something they were both forced into, in order to be accepted by American society. However, Rodriguez felt as if learning English caused him to lose his private individuality. He provides evidence like, “Bilingual educators say today that children lose a degree of “individuality” by becoming assimilated into public society.” By saying this, he gives the impression that the necessity to learn a different language, other than his own, is not something he should be forced to do. Tan had a very different opinion. She even said, “I am someone who has always loved language. I am fascinated by language in daily life…Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all- all the Englishes I grew up with” By saying this, Tan gives the impression that she enjoys learning English. She is different from Rodriguez in the sense that she learns how to keep her individuality from society.

            Rodriguez and Tan also had very different relationships with their parents after learning English. Both people used different forms of English with their parents than with people in society. Tan never even thought of using past perfect tenses or conditional phrases in the English she spoke with her mom. Rodriguez had to speak slowly in order for his parents to fully understand what he was saying. Also, their intimacy with their parents was very different. At first, Tan was very embarrassed in public when her mom only had the ability to speak “simple” English. In the end, she succeeded in life when she expressed to the world her mother’s English in a book. Through this, she was able to keep her individuality and her intimacy with her mother. Rodriguez wasn’t the same because he never put in a good effort to keep his individuality. He just kept explaining his situation as, “As we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents.” Another example he provided describing himself was, “The young voice, frustrated, would end up saying, “Never mind” – the subject was closed.” These statements from him expressed that because something was difficult with talking to his parents, he would give up doing that task. Lastly, their stories ended differently with their emotions towards their intimacy with their parents. After Tan wrote the book using her mother’s English, her mother said, “So easy to read”. However, Rodriguez explained his situation as, “Once I learned the public language, it would never again be easy for me to hear intimate family voices.” This shows that Tan tried to use an optimistic view in the end, unlike Rodriguez, who had a pessimistic view on his relationship with his parents.

            Language was something that created much difficulty for the childhoods of both Rodriguez and Tan. The quality that separated the two people was perseverance because Tan kept her individuality, unlike Rodriguez who just assimilated into society. They had relationships with their parents, but Tan had more intimacy with her parent. Something that everyone can learn, from Rodriguez and Tan, is that the more hard work you put into something, the more good things that will come out of it. Language doesn’t matter in these situations. Language can be learned over time, but expressing your words through actions, everyone can understand that.  

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Patricia Muench

Professor Lecker

Every Step I Take

            At first, I was very afraid to attend college because it is a very big change in my life. The thing that scared me the most was the amount of work I would now be assigned. From the first day of school until now, I have been able to distinguish my strengths and weaknesses.

            Individually, I do have many strengths and weaknesses. I have many great ideas, but they need to be organized better. In an essay, I tell details rather than show details. Something that can be done to make this quality better is by making an outline. With my time management, it’s hard to make an outline at the beginning because I don’t have enough time to write my essay. So, one idea that I am going to try is to make an outline after I write an essay because then the outline would be able to point out if I am organized. I know how to write a great sentence, but I need to improve my vocabulary. That is something I can learn just by reading more than only what is assigned. Slowly, I’ve been able to read faster and comprehend more, but that is something I still need work on. I cannot read that fast, and it causes me to spend most of my time on reading. In my writing, I cannot write introductions that relate to the rest of the essay too well. I can write introductions, but not one that appeals to the reader. That is something I need help on from a teacher because it has not been working out too well when I try to fix the problem. Lastly, the main thing that I need to work on is time management. I have the right amount of time to work on assignments, but I spend too much time on one assignment, and not enough on the other. I feel like there are many strengths that I have, but there are also weaknesses that I need to improve.

            Working with a group has been interesting. I am more of an individual worker, so I tend to try and be the leader of the group. However, I know this is something I have a problem with, so I have been working on it by giving other people in my study group a chance to be a leader. I use my strength of having a lot of ideas and tell others of my group the ideas. I am trying to accept that not every group member will like every idea of mine. I also need to work on being more open-minded because it puts me into a bubble. I try to take ideas, but I say no many times to them. However, my group members have actually made it easier for me to work on this, and they give me helpful constructive criticism when I need work on something. My group members have evened out my strengths and weaknesses because whatever weakness I have, someone in the group has that weakness, but as a strength. I feel that in this sense, it is a good thing to work in a group. Groups actually help me work on improving my weaknesses, so it makes things easier when I do assignments individually because I am able to learn from others.

            Through being able to find my strengths and weaknesses, I have set some goals for myself. I want to have better time management. I am going to learn how to read faster, and actually comprehend things. I am going to work on being able to take in other ideas from people. I will try to become more organized within my work. Lastly, the thing that I want to be improved the most is my time management.

            After distinguishing my strengths from my weaknesses, I know that I have my work cut out for me. I know that working on improving my weaknesses won’t improve drastically overnight. Every step I take, and every move I make, will be the way I plan to accomplish all of my goals within the New Century College program. One step at a time is the way I have to go.