Talking Points #2 on Rodriguez "Aria"

Premise:
This article discusses...

• Bilingulaism
• Individuality
• Americanization
• The American Melting Pot
• Adapting to the societal way of living
• Daily struggles that certain types of families may go through
• Identity loss
• Loss of family interaction

Authors Argument:
Rodriguez argues that if students are bilingual then they tend to loose a great amount of their individual characteristics in their families. They become more accustomed to the characteristics in a public society, which in return can damage the family structure.

Evidence:

1. "Fortunately my teachers my teachers were unsentimental about their responsibility. What they understood was that i needed to speak a public language. So their voices would search me out, asking me questions. Each time I'd hear them, I'd look up in surprise to see a nun's face frowning at me. I'd mumble, not really meaning to answer. The nun would persist, 'Richard, stand up. Don't look at the floor. Speak up. Speak to the entire class, not just to me!' But i couldn't believe that the English language was mine to use. (In part I did not want to believe it.) I continued to mumble, I resisted the teacher's demands. (Did I somehow suspect that once I learned the public language my pleasing family life would be changed?) Silent, waiting for the bell to sound, I remained dazed, diffident, afraid."
2. "Three months. Five. Half a year passed. Unsmiling, ever watchful, my teachers noted my silence. They began to connect my behavior with the difficult progress my older sister and brother were making. Until one Saturday morning three nuns arrived at the house to talk to our parents. Stiffly, they sat on the blue living room sofa. From the doorway of another room, spying the visitors, I noted the incongruity - the clash of two worlds, the faces and voices of school intruding upon the familiar setting of home. I overheard one voice gently wondering, 'Do your children speak only Spanish at home, Mrs. Rodriguez?' While another voice added, 'That Richard especially seems so timid and shy.' ... With great tact the visitors continued, 'Is it possible for you and your husband to encourage your children to practice their English when they are at home?' Of course, my parents complied...In an instant, they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness. The moment after the visitors left, the change was observed. 'Alhora, speak to us en ingles,' my father and mother united to tell us."
3. "Matching the silence I started hearing in public was a new quiet at home. The family's quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents. Sentences needed to be spoken slowly when a child addressed his mother or father. (Often the parent wouldn't understand.) The child would need to repeat himself. (Still the parent misunderstood.) The young voice, frustrated, would end up saying, 'Never mind' - the subject was closed. Dinners would be noisy with the clinking of knives and forks against dishes. My mother would smile softly between her remarks; my father at the other end of the table would chew and chew at his food, while he stared over the heads of his children."

Questions/Comments/Points To Share:
I kind of understood how it was very difficult for the author to learn a completely different language from what he was used to speaking. Since I have been working with ESL children in a fourth grade classroom I can see how it would be difficult for him to learn the characteristics of the English language along with the academics of it. But, what I do not understand is why would learning a second language make him loose his family structure. I know many people who are bilingual and are still very close with their families. I mean sure your lifestyle will change a little bit. You will become more open with others due to the fact that you will be able to understand them and make friends with them, but that should not stop you from being your own self and being close with your family. I think that just because you become more Amercianized then what you used to be does not mean that you should give up on your individuality.