English The Proper Way? - Maria Boleaga

Maria Boleaga

Expository essay

March 23, 2015

English The Proper Way?

     When many families move into a new society they began to encounter new languages. In order for them to fit into society they need to speak the new language fluently. It won't be easy for parents to learn a new language, however the youngsters will need the support from their parents to be able to speak it fluently and become part of the new society. Since the eighteenth century people from different countries began to migrate to America.  Most of these immigrants did not speak proper English. Speaking a foreign language can be easy to the person who had a lot of practice learning it but not for those who are new to this country.  Adapting to a new society can have a positive and/or negative effect on an immigrant’s family communication.

     Learning a new language can take time and patience, but along with learning this new language a family's communication can change. Many families tend to ignore the importance of being able to communicate with each other without having to eliminate their primary language. Author, Richard Rodriguez, in his memoir "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" writes of how speaking his primary language feels comfortable once he's at home with his family. When speaking his primary language his family is united. However, when his family stopped speaking their primary language things changed. He states "…As we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents" (578). He explains that overtime the relationship within the family rapidly changed. The change happened when the nuns came to his house to advise his parents to provide more English at their house so he can be able to learn it quickly. Speaking a foreign language can be difficult, especially when your primary language is different. Reasons why it can difficult is because without no help from someone who knows proper English to teach them then the family just acquires their primary language. Rodriguez's family changed after including a foreign language in their lives. Once he arrived at this new school, in this new country he felt that he would need to stop speaking his primary language, in order to get use to the new one. However having both primary and foreign languages can bring the family together.

     Adapting to both a primary and foreign language can have a positive and negative affect and unite the family. Once we have adapted both languages children can have advantage by helping their parents. Author, Amy Tan, in her essay "Mother Tongue" writes of how her mother use to make her call the stockbroker who her mother works with pretending that she was her mother. In a way this relates to me because at times I have to pretend that I am my mom so the other person at the end of the phone line can understand what my mom is trying to say. Being able to have two languages does help me and my family to understand the society. It can be annoying trying to pretend I am my mom but I look back and think that if I didn't learn proper English then people would take advantage of my mom. Similar to what Tan stated "…the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her" (78).She expresses her feelings of how it bothered her when people won't take her mother's words as one of the people who can actually speak proper English. The anxiety I get when my mom is left alone at home while I am in not present to help. Tan's mom spoke English but not the proper way, my mom may not be able to speak English but she is always willing to say some words and when she does people look at her weird. But I am proud because speaking both my primary and foreign language has helped my family unite and that only between the family can understand each other. As Tan states "…but to me, my mother's English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It's my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery" (77). Yet, while adapting both a primary and foreign language can have a negative effect in the family.

     Learning a new language can also have a negative effect between the family's communications. Not being able to speak the foreign language with each other is frustrating. Taken by my experiences, I speak English with my siblings but I only speak Spanish to my mother because that is the only way to communicate with her. While learning this language my mother gets irritated because she doesn't understand a word I am saying in English. However, when my mother tries to speak English in a few words I feel embarrassed because of the way she is saying it. Similar to Tan she states "…my mother's "limited" English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say that is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect…" (78).  She explains that her mother’s English was not proper, so whenever her mother spoke she would feel embarrassed at the way she would talk to people. Since Tan's mother had an accent when she spoke English that made Tan feel even more uncomfortable. As in my experiences my mother too has a heavy accent when she says a few words in English and sometimes I feel uncomfortable because she can't say it right. Similar to Rodriguez's family, he states "in public, my father and mother spoke hesitant, accented, and not always grammatical English" (572).  He explains that since their parents primary language was not English then it was hard for his parents to grasp the English accent. Hearing our family speak a foreign language can be uncomfortable especially when there is accent to it. But, however this negative effect can also be a positive effect.

   Whether we speak our primary and/or the foreign language I this new society there can be a positive and negative effect on the family's communication. Many families move to this country without learning proper English. Our family is the support in order for us to learn this new language to be able to fit in society. There can be times when people can take advantage of the family who can't speak proper English. However, since the children are learning proper English they began to adapt to a new language to help translate the English to their family. Most of the people living in this society learned to adapt both their primary and foreign language, which can help themselves understand the foreign language better. It can be difficult for children to express themselves in English to their parents because their primary language is different from the foreign language. By learning a new language there can be a positive and negative affect in the family's communication, but we learn a new language to fit in society alongside with our family.