I’ve been thinking a lot about language recently.
In my Understanding Rhetorics class, we read pieces of text essentially stating that language depends on perspective. I’ve hated every single text I’ve had to read for that class, and not because I have to do homework. But because when I read and understood the text, I hated what they were saying. Then, in my Writing for Tutoring class, we read a research paper and a personal essay about language. I discovered the problems with being labeled as “ESL” and speaking “broken” English in the United States. All things that I can connect to.
The context of language, specifically English and Spanish for myself, is something I have always known, but perhaps didn’t always realize.
My first language is Spanish. I grew up in a Mexican family where I had to speak Spanish to my mom, dad, mama, papa. But then, somehow, I spoke English overnight. In reality, I don’t remember learning it. I don’t remember having to practice it. I don’t remember having to sit down to go over English vocabulary. I just remember speaking mostly Spanish, and then speaking mostly English the next day. I can still, however, remember the fights with my mom where she was telling me to speak Spanish because “como le vaz a hablar a tus abuelitos?” and “y tus hijos no van a hablar Español?”
It was so frustrating having to speak two languages because life would have been so much easier if I only spoke one language.
If I spoke one language only, I wouldn’t have a sort of accent. I wouldn’t sometimes trip over my words and stutter when talking out loud because I’m nervous about the way I talk. I would be able to know how to say all the thoughts in my head in English, and I would never have to translate from Spanish to English. When speaking to someone, Spanish would not come out by accident when I really meant to say something in English. I wouldn’t have a teacher telling me that because of my accent, I am saying something wrong. Therefore, I wouldn’t feel stupid for the way I talk.
Because people who can’t speak English aren’t smart, right? They’re not intelligent people who can comprehend complex ideas. That’s why we have immigrant children or children of immigrants forced into ESL classes where the learning is so much slower, and they become so behind in their studies. It’s why someone who is incredibly smart from a different country can come to the United States, but because they don’t speak English, no one will listen to them. These are things that actually happen because these are things that have happened to people I know. I won’t say their names or who they are, but this is real. It happens to so many other people than just them.
We need to break away from this idea that English is the language that everyone has to know. No one should have to speak English, even in a country like the United States.
Forcing someone to speak a language that is not their native tongue is a tool of colonialism, and we all need to realize that.
