The last six or so readings that we have had to read I found focused on recognitions of society. Which essay opened your eyes to an issue, or gave you a strong reaction to?
The essay that I found I reacted to the most was the essay with the two people discussing how everyone is American, and that the newest generation is American, not any other nationality. (Forgive me, I can not think of the name of it.) I have always prided myself knowing that my mothers family is purely Polish. My great grandmother was Polish, married a Pole, and had a large family of Polish children, but they lived in New York. I understand that I am American, and I don't take that for granted, or think that it is less in value. Reading that essay the first time made me a little upset, my thoughts were all based around the fact that I perceived his opinions as encouragement to leave your heritage behind, that it isn't worth anything now that you live in a free country. Reading the essay over, I can understand now that since we do live in a free country out heritage is what makes being an American so great. Being born a Jew, Catholic, Italian, or an African American is not a crime, and isn't any different than anyone else.
There is my two cents, what did anyone else think?
Maryssa
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Maryssa, I liked that essay, too, because I liked how it showed us how we were all equal on what we were, but we were different only in how we got here. The last few essay seemed to talk about social challenges in people, like how jazz was created to convey the emotions of the people to each other and how bop was made to release descrimination. Those two essay were my favorite because they talked about how different types of music were used to convey how they felt and to also cheer people up at the same time. It is kind of like how we listen to music today; we listen to stuff that describes us and kind of relates to what we are going through.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Maryssa on this one, and I reacted almost the same way. My mother is 100% German. Her family has lived in Germany for as long as they can remember, and she was the first to leave the country. At first, after reading the essay, I was thinking that I shouldn't listen to the author, and keep hold of my heritage. After reading it over again, I realized that saying that I'm American is not forgetting my heritage, but simply stating that I was born and live in America.
ReplyDeleteThe essay that I was most able to identify with was the Mother Tongue essay. As most of you probably already know from our discussion a few weeks ago in class, my mom is 100% Japanese but speaks fluent English. To me, fluency doesn't imply perfection, but her lack of "perfection" doesn't necessarily imply that she speaks "broken English" either. Just as the writer of this essay understood her mother perfectly, I understand every spoken word that comes out of my mom's mouth in English perfectly, while others may say they have a difficult time understanding her. As frustrating as it is for her, it is nearly as frustrating for me as well. The struggles that she faces and unfair treatment that she receives for not speaking "perfect English" hurt me emotionally each time. As I read the portion of the essay in which the writer spoke about her mother's diagnosis of having a brain tumor, I nearly found myself at the point of tears; one reason being that it broke my heart to see once again that somehow foreigners are less human than Americans because of the way the speak, or that they are somehow less intelligent because their language isn’t grammatically correct. But the part that hurt me the most was the fact that my own mother faces those situations on a daily basis.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in reading the essay a second time before writing this blog post, something triggered a question that Mr. Bruno asked me in class the day we discussed this passage. I said something about how I don’t speak the same English as my mother, and Mr. Bruno asked me how sure I was about that statement. At the time, I replied saying that I was positive, only because I remember thinking, well I definitely speak better English than my mom; after thinking about it some more, I realized that I do speak the same English as my mom, as well as another kind of English, depending on the situation, just as Amy Tan said that she speaks her mother’s English when conversing with her, and another English in academic situations. In any case, I agree that the degree of correctness in terms of grammar and/or fluency does not in any way, shape, or form determine the passion or meaning of the content.
The essay about heritage made me realize that where you're from isn't important at all anymore. It's cool to say I'm Italian, Irish, and German, but so what? I'm an American citizen, not an Irish, Italian, or German citizen. After living in Rome, I can say I probably live a lot differently than most Americans, but I'm still an American, and proud to be so. The United States is a nation of immigrants, with no single, dominant ethnicity. I have never heard someone say "I'm x% American." Being American is an idea, not a genetic trait.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the readings she discusses the different ways that she uses language in everyday life. She explains how around her family (her mother) she uses a simpler english then when at her job or with her husband. She recognizes that she can speak proper English but how she was raised has affected how she interacts with family. I believe that this article shows how culture has a huge effect on the person that we become later in life. Everyone has grown up in a different environment in a different mix of cultures and add their own special flavor to the world.
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