A country has its own history and culture. A country often also has its own language. The history, culture and language are all there to make a country unique. The citizens in the country are often proud of their country’s history, culture and language. The fact that it is possible for a bigger or stronger country to take control over another country can have a big effect on the citizens. They often think it is a sign of weakness and it creates a sense of inferiority and shame. Wales is an example on a country who had been “destroyed” by a stronger country, England, according to Tom Law, a freelance writer and journalist, who has written the article “Cachau Bant: Mind Your Language”.
English has been a dominant language for centuries and that obviously frustrates Tom Law. That is shown already in the beginning of his article. Over the past 150 years Welsh language has slowly been destroyed by English and according to Tom Law it has also begun to tear the whole country apart. He thinks Wales has become a husk of a nation because of the decline of the language, the stripping away of links to its history and culture. As he says: “It’s a country which no longer
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Some people might think that he is exaggerating when he compares the situation with the British Imperialism but if you look at the way the Welsh language had been “destroyed” by England it is comparable to Ireland, Singapore and so on. We’ll have to look at it from a native’s point of view: A whole country’s history has been torn apart and this is how he, as a native, sees the situation. It’s not easy for citizens in a country where patriotism is dominating to let go of something which has had an importance to the country’s history. For a patriot the fact that your country had surrendered to a stronger country is a sign of weakness and you can’t avoid a vertain sense of
With national anthems and poems helping the cause and putting bright spirit into the citizens, nationalism was inevitable, especially during war. Also with the Russian National Anthem involving Christianity, which is the largest supported religion at the time. How can pride and nationalism not be shown by the people (doc 5)? Furthermore, the “Rule Britannia” alone supports the claim that Great Britain is the chosen land. And that its people have and will not lose, in anything.
They don’t understand that each country has their own style to speak and use their words. The author is trying to state that it all works that way. It doesn’t matter how you speak the language and the important thing is that we all understand each other. She is trying to get her point out in her essay on how her life was knowing that she grew up speaking and understanding it that way. The author states, “repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self” (Anzaldua 39).
After having spent three or four years in England, a large part of that time at sea, Equiano considered himself “almost an Englishman.” (Equiano 77). He was able to speak English tolerably well, and able to understand everything that was said. He now “felt [himself] quite easy with these new countrymen” (Equiano 77). While the language barrier was down, he continued to search for a way to speak authoritatively within the “white” culture.
The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 was a masterpiece of the 19th century. It represented the grand facade of glamour and American achievement. The World’s Fair was a spectacular event, bursting with bright lights and daring sights that left visitors speechless, but The World’s Fair wasn’t the only phenomenon happening in Chicago during this time. Innocent people were being brutally murdered alongside this brilliant piece of American good fortune. Architect Daniel Burnham and psychotic serial killer H. H. Holmes are the two main characters of this story and embody the light and the dark.
Selena Quintanilla’s father once said, “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.” In today’s society, many have encountered the challenge of not being able to be who they really are because they fear not being accepted by others, more specifically their culture. But, what happens when an individual is part of two worlds that have just as many rules? Gloria E. Anzaldúa was a Mexican-American writer and poet who made a major contribution to the fields of cultural, feminist, and queer theory. Anzaldúa identifies as a Chicana and speaks different variations of Spanish, some of which she exhibits in her works.
The passage “On Seeing England for the First Time” by Jamaica Kincaid uses repetition and figurative language to convey her resentment toward England. Jamaica Kincaid uses repetition in her passage to show how her attitudes toward England as it slowly erased the Antigua’s culture. Kincaid uses the words “Made in England” to express how the English had dominated their culture and their way of life; the Antigua people had been asphyxiated by the English and their culture so aggressively and for so long that they began feeling inferior for not being English which made them try even harder to strive and be just like them because they considered that their main goal, to be able to be part of the magnificence that was the english culture. She goes on to explain how she had to change personal aspects to be more acceptable by her society
Why did Sir John Davies only criticize the inability of Irish people themselves rather than England’s imperial colonization method in explaining why Ireland was never subdued? Why doesn't Davies see a fault in the approach? In the beginning Davies brings up a “defect that hindered” was that “a barbarous country must first be broken by a war before it will be capable of good government; and when it is fully subdued and conquered, if it be not well planted and governed after the conquest it will soon return to the former barbarism.” Davies claimed that the Irish were “like wild fruit trees” in their old traditions to become one with England. When I read the document I expected details such as military faults in leadership and strategy, but it
The House on Mango Street Message Not many of us can say that we have lived up to the expectations given to us and internally benefited from it. In the book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Esperanza struggles with growing up with many expectations placed on her. She lives in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago with many neighbors who teach her important lessons. Overall, the story has a message that you should not rely on expectations and the author shows it by using the characterization of Esperanza and through figurative language.
She refers to “Made in England” on numerous accounts to show exactly how much of her world revolved around this “perfect” ideal place everyone wanted to live up to (33). Explaining how everything but “the exceptions being the sea, the sky, and the air we breathe”, Kincaid is portraying a sense of dictatorship over her own life (33). Her tone grows stronger with more anger towards this control England had on her life as her essay goes on. Using this tone reinforces her argument of showing the reader that England was not as splendid and fabulous of a place people have depicted it to
The novel Uncle Tom's Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe depicts the reality of slavery while simultaneously pushing the idea to Christian audiences that they should show compassion and put an end to slavery. Stowe exercises the Christianity of the character Uncle Tom to strengthen the idea that acting as a Christian can abolish the institution of slavery itself. In addition, the destruction of slavery is narrated through the character George Harris who's a runaway slave. In particular, Stowe sets up the scene where Harris walks into a bar under the alias of Henry Butler passing in society with his "Spanish complexion" appearing equivalent to the Caucasian community (Stowe 151). However, Harris expressing to his former boss Mr. Wilson his
The article 'Mother Tongue ' by author Amy Tan is about the variations in the English language the author uses in her life. She describes her English when giving a speech to a other people, English she uses when speaking to her mother, and English she uses in her writing. She tells of difficulties faced by both her mother and herself from these many differences. Amy 's goal in this article is to show that a person does not have to speak proper English to be seen as smart or intelligent.
Her article, Britishness, and Otherness: An Argument, uses ethnohistory, nationalism and cultural methodologies to express how those in the British Empire rattle and are protective of their identity. In her article, she discusses how British identity waves since identity exists in a ven diagram and not in the black and white roles of the past. Religion, gender, race, ethnicity and many other identities exist in various combination depending on the individual. She asks why little attention has been focused on how or why the British population defines themselves against both real and imaginary enemies. That identity seems most important when being threatened.
Staying Strong or Giving In? Language is an integral part of every distinctive culture. It represents a way of life and a way of communication among those that share similar traditions, values, and heritage. The Irish people have consistently been faced with foreign cultures encroaching on their land and threatening not only their culture but also the Gaelic language itself.
To open-minded people, cultural differences define the identity of a country, which is unique to that one country. This world would be too boring without many countries with many
Often when one is prompted to think of an empire, the Roman Empire comes to mind. The Romans started from a small piece of land along the Tiber River in central Italy, and within a millenia amassed an unprecedented territory comprising of parts of all 3 known continents of the ‘old world’ and dozens of countries, peoples, cultures, and languages. This massive empire certainly had a large impact on its peoples during its power; however, even today one may find the massive impact of the Roman empire in various languages, governments, and religions all over the globe. Language is one of the most important aspects of a culture. Language dictates how and what people literally and figuratively speak to one another.