- Anzaldua believes that there is always someone in the world who speaks the same type of language as you. When you think that you’re alone and can’t fit into either group who speaks perfect English or perfect Spanish, and feel entitled to speak one or the other, think again because there is always a group of people who is in between, just like you are. As she states on page 74, “There is no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience. A monolingual Chicana whose first language is English or Spanish is just as much a Chicana as one who speaks several variants of Spanish.” Everyone is unique and it’s fine to be unique because there is always someone who is in the same universe as you are.
- In Anzaldua’s literacy narrative, her style of writing included both English and Spanish. Not only that, she mentioned all the different variants she spoke. To name a few, some variants she spoke include but are not limited to Standard English, Standard Spanish, Chicano Spanish, Slang English/Spanish, etc. Anzaldua was successful in making her narrative personal by including her personal experiences which help her audience relate to a closer level. She mentions how she often switches between English and Spanish in the middle of a sentence, and I can definitely relate to that when I speak Chinglish with my Asian American friends.
- Just like Liao, Sedaris both mention their struggles trying to fit in and the struggles nonnative speakers experience in the process of learning. For example, as Sedaris described, on the first day of class, both Annas “ were limited in terms of vocabulary, and this made them appear less than sophisticated.” However on their journey from “confusion to fluency,” they both realize that they don’t need to be fluent in the language to be able to understand. Their type of language has just as much meaning, broken or not. A convention in Liao’s piece that seems less important to Sedaris is that he didn’t really explain the change, or the process of learning like Liao did, in the end, he only mentions that he now “understands” the language.
- By the end of Manson’s essay, I feel like she was able to open up, or at least she attempted to get her point across to her friends and family. For example on page 87, Manson reveals, “I invited them into my world of unspoken feelings while continuously working to verbalize my thoughts.” Even though she is still speaking in small increments with simple vocabulary, she showed progress because instead of bottling up her feelings like she used to, she decided to share them. To me, that seems like a huge improvement.
ENG 2100: Writing 1 with Jay Thompson
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