A Voice To Be Heard
When a person catches a glance of another, their brain immediately conceives an opinion about them. This mechanism, while not always a positive attribute, it protects us from possible dangers. We as humans like familiarity, people that appear to be the same as us. When we come across a person who can’t speak our familiar tongue, we label that person as an outsider. That person, being an outsider, is treated differently. And now that they can’t speak, they have no opinion or defining quality, meaning they have no identity, they are a nobody.
The situation above is an occurrence that happens every day for everyone. It happens almost instantaneously. Thanks to this mechanism (or you could say no thanks), society looks down upon those who don’t speak the dominant language. In the United States, it is English. For foreigner in this country to regain or create an identity in this kind of society, they usually must learn an additional language. By knowing more languages, your identity in society(s) becomes more prominent; whereas if you know none of the languages society wants you to know, your identity in society disappears.
In her essay, “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan talks about her experience dealing with learning languages while growing up. During her childhood, she was taught to speak English. While ordinarily her mother would have more power over her, Amy Tan knew how to speak English. Because society looks down upon those who cannot speak English correctly, Tan had to speak for her mother in society just so that her mother could accomplish things. By knowing more languages than her mother, Tan had more society power than her mother. Sometimes my parents will be confused about ‘today’s’ terms and I would have to clarify what a ‘blog’ or an internet ‘troll’ was. Although my experience isn’t as dramatic as Tan’s, the internet language I know is something my parent’s do not. By knowing the language used on the internet, I have more power than my parent’s when it comes to that situation.
Another writer, Gloria Anzaldúa, writes in her essay “How to Tame A Wild Tongue” what it was like to learn different variations of a language. She writes that as a child she got punished for speaking impure Spanish or English. But because she learned different variations of language, she was able to communicate with many people of her ethnicity. Over time she was able to speak Spanish and English without mingling the two together. As a whole, her identity in society was much more powerful than it was when she was younger. All of her tongues encompass who she is, which means she can only get more powerful due to this knowledge. Personally, I think I speak fairly good English since it’s my primary language. I’ve seen classmates who have trouble with English receive less respect than I do. If and when they become proficient in English, they will be able to use both languages they know and have more respect and power than I would.
With the understanding that more languages known equal more power, then the opposite is true as well. Richard Rodriguez, the author of “Aria”, had similar childhood scenarios as Tan and Anzaldúa. He at a young age was forced to learn English. If he did not then he was not permitted to say anything at all. Unlike his family, who adopted English because they wanted to be accepted in society, Rodriguez remained silent. Rodriguez continued to be resilient with his teachers. He held onto the only identity he knew of, and didn't want an identity the "outsiders" of his life had.
I know that if I were to give up English and my family went along learning another language, I would feel the same as Rodriguez. I would have felt that my family were not the same people anymore, since English is the only language I know. I wouldn’t know how to react to that kind of situation, having my only identity being stripped away for one that is likely not as powerful.
Despite knowing English, which alone is considered a powerful language in society; I can still relate to the other author’s. I grew up in the Bay Area, which is one of the most multicultural places in the country. Even though I am white and know how to speak English, I grew up pretty much as a minority in my schools. The majority were Chinese, Filipino and Latino people. I would hear other students speaking Chinese, Tagalog and Spanish, not having any idea what they were talking about. Even though in my situation I wasn’t required to learn any of these languages, I still felt out of place. I felt that these people would never know about me, meaning my identity wouldn’t mean anything to them. They knew at least two languages, which in these times is considered a plus. But often times their accents or their knowledge of English wasn’t perfect, so they were hindered in that sense.
Sometimes I was envious of some my peers. Like Rodriguez, they had a private language that was usually only spoken at home. I wanted to have a language spoken only used with my family, something that felt special. English was pretty much my ‘everything’ language. After reading Anzaldúa’s essay though, I realize that the language I speak at home and the language I speak at school or with just certain friends is different. The language I use at home is different, because at home we have special meanings and made up words that were created in the past that only we would ever know about. Even though it’s not as different as English to Spanish, I understand now that I do have different identities just within one language.
Language is a constantly changing. Some languages die out while some are created. Even though there are those who know many different languages, we all know at least two languages. We do not speak to teachers as if they were our family. We do not speak to an employer the same way we talk to our friends. While it is possible for our voice to be lost in a more dominant language, or that we are silenced to not speak our native tongue. We cannot completely lose our identity. It can be weakened or strengthened, but it cannot completely disappear. Because there will always be someone else there to listen, even if it’s just yourself. As long as someone (or yourself) understands what you are saying, your identity can never be taken away from you.
- 2008
