Summary Of Aria By Richard Rodriguez

The United States is full of people from many different cultures and traditions. Without the official native language, it enables immigrants to stick to their origins and adopt their heritage. In “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez, he grew up in a closely Spanish spoken household. This made Rodriguez feel safe in his private life, which prevented him from learning English. What encouraged him to assimilate English was his understanding that he’s an American. In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, she grew up knowing both English and Mandarin in her household. Tan adopted English and felt effortless translating for her mother. This motivated her to learn English at her best potential at school. What inspired her to learn English were the challenge and the

For bilinguals, education normally starts off as a challenging time when little English is spoken in their home. Rodriguez, a first generation Mexican American, had a limited exposure to English because Spanish was entirely spoken together with his family. Therefore, he considered it to be his private language because he felt most comfortable and confident using it. Due to Richard’s insufficient practice with English, he suffered developing and speaking with others outside of his household. As a result, Rodriguez’s parents took awareness and encouraged him to speak in English at home. He stated that, “the family’s quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents” (988). Rodriguez felt that he no longer have that strong bond with his family

It’s the easiest way to communicate and socialize with others. It would benefit our knowledge of each other’s culture if we were capable to speak and learn from one another. Rodriguez believes that inspiring bilingual students to speak in English at school in a welcoming manner would generate a great impact. He indicates that, “Supporters of bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a great deal by not being taught in their families language. What they seem not to recognize is that… I considered Spanish to be a private language. What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right…to speak the language of los gringos” (985). Rodriguez justify that if he weren’t forced by his teachers to speak in English at school, he would have never had the chance to master it. As a result, practicing English at school settings would be helpful for bilingual students and motivate them to use it more frequently. Tan believes that it’s significant to be inspiring and supportive of individuals who are learning the English language. She learns that describing beginners English as broken, is discouraging and would negatively influence them. Tan declares that, “I’ve heard other term used limited English, for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people’s perception of the limited English speaker” (Tan par. 7). Therefore, she is certain that viewing people’s