Blogger Entry #2

Nancy Gomez

A. Reyes

English A

September 21st 2015

Multiple Languages And Their Connection To Identity

In different parts of the world there are a variety of languages and various identities. What is language? As defined by dictionary.com, language is a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. Language defines who we are in every aspect, whether we are in the United States or in Europe, at home or at work, with friends or coworkers. Language makes us different from each other, though we may have English in common in the United States, we may or may not use the same form of English. As stated in “3 Languages” by Jamila Lyiscott there may be more than one way we can speak English. Whether it is proper, improper or broken English. We are all entitled to our culture and our language roots and because of this we attempt to keep our roots and our right to freely express what we feel through our own form of speech including writing. Not only we can communicate but we can also relate to the words of a language make us feel. "Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious

experience of the self inside." - Gershen Kaufman in “How To Tame A Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua. Identity plays a big role in who we are and if we were to all be deaf I believe we wouldn’t understand each other as much as we understand each other now. Of course, sometimes, as human beings, we struggle with our understanding of certain topics or issues because language is a barrier. As a foreigner in Europe, we tend to rely on those who know more than one language and let a tourist guide us through a city tour, but what if the tourist was lying? How would we know the tourist lies or what if the tourist is telling us more than what we should know? Well it is the job of the tourist to tell us what we need to know about certain areas of the city and the tour. Without knowledge of our language, which in this case its English, we wouldn’t know what is going on and we would most likely feel lost in what is a different culture and language. Same way with acquiring and performing the English language.

Most of us are expected to speak a certain way in different situations, with different people and in different places. If we are in school we are expected to speak academically, if we are with our parents we are expected to speak properly and respectfully. If we are referring to our siblings we would probably not be expected to talk academically because it would throw out the whole concept of being a sibling and would be out of the ordinary. Some of us are Hispanic, some of us are African American, Asian, Jamaican and our accent does define who we are. Our accent sometimes is a barrier and keeps others from understanding and listening to what we have to say.

“At Pan American University, I and all Chicano students were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents.” Some individuals were raised in different countries or in different languages and often speak with an “accent” and here in the United States we re expected to speak with a well educated “tongue” needless to say, formal English. We may or may not meet the standardized rule of the American language, but regardless of what language we speak, we are entitled to our own identity.