When we were assigned to do this audio essay, I felt nervous and annoyed because I didn’t want to share the personal struggles that I faced with language. However, after sharing and listening to everyone’s audio essays, I realized that everyone at one point of lives had problems with their linguistic identity. A common theme in all of the essays was the theme of shame and regret because of the struggles they faced when they were communicating with family, friends, and community. This element in their essays made a strong impression on me because in my own personal experiences with language I also faced problems with the language barrier. My story was similar to both Simon’s and Maria’s essays because our stories involved the struggles we faced when we were at school. I can relate to Simon’s story because both of us were excluded from the rest of the class and we both felt isolated. I can also relate to Maria’s story because we both felt scared and lonely because we were unable to talk with anyone.
Another common theme I observed during the class essays was the problem with family. The inability to speak to family members had caused many problems with the relationship between the children and the parents. I personally enjoyed Jenny’s essay because the way she talks to her parents is similar to how I talk to my parents. Like Jenny, I also speak in Chinglish (combination of English and Chinese) in order to communicate with my parents because of my lack of Chinese. This causes many problems because I am never able to fully convey what I want to my parents and it causes confusion between us.
Overall, this was an unusual experience for me because it was nerve-racking to share my story with everyone and it was weird hearing my own voice. However, after hearing all of my classmate’s experiences with language, I realized how similar our stories were. By hearing their stories, I had learned more about my classmates on a more personal level and the struggles they went through. This audio essay had shown how similar everyone is when it relates to language.
Gary, I’m glad that this experience turned out to be positive for you, despite your initial reaction to the assignment. I agree with you that it was powerful to hear how much overlap there was between different people’s stories and to recognize how much people have in common in terms of their experiences with language.