Aria by Richard Rodriguez- Connections

Richard Rodriguez talks about how he grew up only speaking Spanish at home. Because of this,  he was always afraid to speak up in school because his school only taught in English. His teachers would pressure him to speak when he didn't even want to.  Eventually, he learns enough English that  he finally feels like he is a part of American society. While reading Rodriguez's article, Aria, I couldn't help but think of two articles: The Silenced Dialogue by Lisa Delpit and Teaching Multilingual Children by Virginia Collier. I also thought about my parents while reading this article. In this blog, I am going to talk about the connections between the two articles mentioned above and my family.

As a first grader, Rodriguez felt like an outcast because his teachers assumed that everybody spoke English all the time and everywhere.  Rodriguez himself writes "What they [the teachers] understood was that I needed to speak a public language." (pg. 34) Throughout the article, Rodriguez refers to English as the public language and Spanish as the private language. Reading this made me think of Lisa Delpit's article, The Silenced Dialogue, and her five aspects on the culture of power. Rodriguez's conflict in the classroom reminded me of Delpit's fourth aspect on the culture of power: "If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier." (A Silenced Dialogue, pg. 25) This relates to Aria, because by not speaking any English in the classroom, Rodriguez refuses to be a participant of the culture of power. His teachers give him a hard time when they wanted him to speak, which makes them have even more power in the classroom. Eventually, Rodriguez does speak up in the classroom and becomes a participant of the culture of power.

At the end of his article, Rodriguez, argues that there needs to be more bilingual education, especially in America, because "they do not seem to realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible for achievement of public individuality." (pg. 39) Rodriguez's point is that by adding more bilingual education, students who do not speak English as their first language, will be included and have the equal opportunity of success in American society. This reminded me of Virginia Collier's article, Teaching Multilingual Childen. In her article Collier, provides seven guidelines on how teaching English to second-language learners or teaching English speakers a second language can be an insightful experience. Rodriguez's conclusion made me think of Collier's fourth guideline: "Teach the standard form of English and students' home language together with an appreciation of dialect differences to create an environment of language recognition in the classroom." (pg. 227) Collier and Rodriguez want students to not only succeed, but want each student to be recognized as an individual, no matter what language they speak. I find it sad that as a child, Rodriguez did not receive the recognition that he actually deserved in his classroom and that his classmates were never taught a second language.

My personal favorite part of Aria was when Rodriguez and his family would practice their English and then all of a sudden switch to Spanish and so forth. Rodriguez mentions a memory in his kitchen where he heard his parent talking in Spanish until "at the moment they saw me, I heard their voices change to speak English." (pg. 35) This quote reminds me of the occasional times at home when my mom, whose first language was German because her parents originated from Germany, will call my Omi, (German for grandmother) and they will start to talk in English, but all of a sudden speak German and then back to English and so on. Whenever I hear these conversations, I feel like I am listening to a language symphony orchestra where the English language is like the brass section and the German language is the strings. My dad also didn't speak English as a first language either.  My dad's family came from Quebec, so at home, my dad spoke nothing but Canadian French. Unlike my mom, my dad hasn't spoken French in years. Even though both of my parents were born in America, my mom and dad spoke nothing but German and French respectively until they started kindergarten. Unlike Rodriguez, both of my parents have told me that their teachers were really  accommodating, including, and accepting. My parents never fell behind and caught up with the English language and their peers very well. I always feel guilty for not speaking a second language as fluently as my parents. In my opinion, learning a second language should be more imperative in America. Americans have a tendency to only learn and speak  English.

The points I would like to make is that no matter what country you end up living in, learning and speaking the main language should be required. It annoys me when people move to different countries and refuse to learn their native languages. I have great respect towards people that speak a second language at home, however when they are out and about, they need to speak the language of whatever country they live in. When it comes to educating students who do not speak English as a first language, we, as future educators, should include material in their language and have the English speaking students learn their language as well. This way, everybody can have an easier time communicating with one another and no student would feel left out.  I also think that students need to start learning a second language at a very young age, because learning a foreign language in high school or even middle school can be difficult and it comes to the point where it is too late to teach something that is completely new to students. It makes me sad and guilty when I hear that young children from other continents can speak more than one language fluently and we have the tendency to only speak our native language. I understand that people have American pride, but if we don't learn a second language, we look selfish and seem to not have any interests in  different cultures.