Eber Orellana
Reflection Paper
English composition
The untaught language and forgotten culture.
Throughout this entire semester in English class, I have discovered many ways about language, whether it is communicating, expressing oneself and also feeling. We all know that language is the best way to communicate with each other, but not all of us speak the same language. It is very challenging to communicate when there are too many languages spoken, and in a city like New York City where there are so many different cultures, language is both plentiful and valuable. What surprises me the most is how people use language. Although many people use it to establish connections and express or teach their culture and language, many also use it to discriminate against people who are not like them, whether in terms of nationality or culture. People’s ability to communicate through language is something that remains constant, regardless of where they live or whether they need to learn a new language to change who they are. People’s ability to communicate through language is something that remains constant, regardless of where they live or whether they need to learn a new language to change who they are. A person like me who uses English as a secondary language makes me feel happy but also makes me integrate into a new society and a new culture to which I don’t belong, but the use of language makes me think about how it discovers new forms to communicate and understand. The use of this second language can demonstrate intelligence, but it can also cause your first language to lose its identity.
Languages or language is not something that can be erased or forgotten from one day to the next. As a person who uses English as a second language, it is very likely that I forget some words in Spanish. But it is not like that, I use Spanish every day since I get up and go to bed. And I only use English when I need to communicate with someone in English, I would not change my first language for another, but it is something necessary to survive. A phrase that interested me the most from Toni Morrison was “Is it living or dead?” is not unreal because she thinks of language as susceptible to death, erasure;” (Toni Morrison, 1993) I have met many people from different cultures and different words or ways of expressing themselves, but I am surprised to see those people whose culture is not that of America but who do not know the language of their own country. Something like this could be due to their parents not wanting their children to get involved with their culture because they want them to be part of the American culture to be more like Americans.
The rejection of a person’s culture leads to actions to forget about this culture. Many people want to appear to be another person that they are not or from a culture to which they do not belong. Many people pose as Americans because they don’t want to be a part of their culture. Some Latino people see themselves as American but many people can identify a person from their own culture or from another, like a saying in Mexico “se te ve el nopal en la frente”. This saying refers to when a person identifies a person who does not want to be identified as Latino, for example if they say “do you speak Spanish?” and respond with “no” this phrase will follow after this typical question. Some give up saying that they are Americans, but there are others who don’t. The use of the language takes many forms, but also not speaking the same language people can communicate and feel what this person wants to say.
For me the use of language is a way of expressing myself, of what I want, I like or I don’t like. Not knowing English very well, before I only copied what I heard on the street from other people, even so without knowing what it meant. In this process of learning I realized that learning takes time and practice, but even so, even if I copy what others say and say it, I will not be that person. In this class time in the semester I have learned not to be afraid when speaking English or saying something wrong, or when I learn new words or words that do not have any translation into Spanish, I usually ask my best friend what it means.
Toni Morrison – Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach 1993. December 7 <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/lecture/>
