Talking Points #2: Rodriguez

“Aria” By Richard Rodriguez This article is about… Culture Citizen Language Americanization Family Voice Disadvantage Embarrassment Bilingual School English Education Prejudice Home Society Public Acceptable Individual Tone Sounds Author’s Arguments: Richard Rodriguez argues that bilingual education must be taught so that the student gains the knowledge of the dominant language of the society in order for them to succeed in that society, and also to continue to speak the language that the child already knows and is accustomed to. This not only leads to the students being comfortable in the classroom, with their peers and in public, but embraces their cultural differences as well as similarities with the dominant culture. 1. A sense of culture and your heritage enriches your mind; you shouldn’t have to throw that away in order to participate in the dominant culture. For example, the three nuns came into the house to tell the parents to encourage their children to speak English when they are at home. As much as they have to try to speak English because that is the dominant language and if they don’t it would be harder to succeed, but they shouldn’t have to loose their individual self while they are learning a new culture. pg 35 2. Americanization is the most important thing, but also is a sense of culture and a sense of self. We should embrace a new culture, just as other cultures embrace the American culture. Americanization is about differences in each other, and if we were all the same then we wouldn’t be America. pg 36 3. Family is lost because the children are learning more about the dominant culture then the parents are, and because of this their own culture has taken a backseat and has become an embarrassment, which lead to the loss and strength of their family. pg 37 When my dad was younger he was part of a large Italian family, with many aunts and uncles who came over from Italy. My dad and his cousins were all around the same age and when my grandparents heard him speaking Italian to his cousins, they would tell him to speak English. The same went for his sister and the rest of his cousins. The adults would speak Italian to each other, but English to their children. They wanted their children to succeed in this society and that started with the language. Now my dad can understand bits and pieces of what others are saying when speaking Italian, but not everything and he can no longer speak it himself. Now he wishes that he could speak the language because it is apart of his culture. A sense of culture should be brought into the classroom because it creates diversity. Without diversity we wouldn’t be able to have the meaningful experiences that make us who we are today. Just like in Aria, Richard was told to loose part of his culture, maybe the most important part, the language, and become devoted to American culture. However, being diverse and having a different heritage from others is what this country is all about. So why do we try to make everyone Americanized, when our ethnic differences make us the country we are today?