After hearing the audio essays of my classmates, I observed similar themes being addressed in each one of them. The majority of the essays mention a sense of regret between the writer and a language. This regret was either not knowing their native language or not learning another language besides their own. While the stories may differ, each person highlighted an important experience in his or her life that best displayed this feeling of regret. Common examples included difficulty when it came to communicating fluently with relatives and/or friends, using language to build stronger relationships, or shamed themselves for learning it too “late”.
Some aspects I noticed that were similar to my essay were the turning points mentioned. These turning points usually indicated a shift in the narrative. We used these transitions to further emphasize how a specific experience had influenced our lives to motivate us to pivot from the path we were traveling. For me, it was being exposed to people who were rude to non-fluent English speakers. Thus, motivating me to learn and speak English and defend those who didn’t know the language enough to do it themselves. Both Nick’s and Elaine’s motives came when they arrived in a new country. Nick strived to understand the people in the Dominican Republic and Elaine with the people in the U.S.
There were so many different terms people used to describe themselves or their form of communicating. Matthew referred to himself as a Ginzo- a person of Italian descent. Prior to hearing the recordings, I knew Spanglish wasn’t the only mixture of English and another native language but, I’ve never heard of the actual names and usage until my classmates mentioned them in their own personal experience. Chinglish was one that stood out to me most. Both Jenny and Joan emphasis how their use of Chinglish was used to their advantage in helping them express themselves, and how they overcame this feeling of regret. Once Joan was able to communicate in both English and Chinese, she served as a translator to her family. Even though I don’t speak Chinese, I related to this because we both extended our knowledge of languages to communicate with a broader community. We also shared the mutual feeling that we didn’t become translators for fun but, felt the need to best help our families and others since we understood the struggle they were engaging in. Joan also highlighted a time in her life when she thought English was unnecessary. As a kid I had a similar mentality, for I refused to learn or speak English. As many of the stories touched upon, knowing a “foreign” language serves a greater purpose than just for oneself.
The fact that this piece was more informal than previous works done before, helped to establish a better sense of who people were. Language can be an important part of one’s identity. I think that by allowing this informality, people were able to write more comfortably about themselves and express their own writing style. It helps makes the writing more personal. Mixing audio elements into the project also helped me formulate a thought. It is different when we read someone’s work because we like incorporate our own voice. The audio puts the literal voice of the writer and adds this extra layer for us to break down as we connect to and analyze these stories even further.
Jose, Thanks for these thoughtful comments. I agree that the relative informality of this assignment allowed people to explore using their voice in different, perhaps more authentic, ways. I appreciate your attention to the ways in which people are often pre-judged or mistreated on the basis of their language use. It is an important point.