Personal Narrative Analysis

Words: 982
Pages: 4

In the state of California, there are 289 Speech Language Pathologists who can speak and treat in more than one language; however, of these, there are only 6 Japanese-speaking SLPs. This is although there are 141,000 Japanese-speaking individuals in California and 46% of them show low sufficient English literacy levels (ASHA, 2017). This was brought to my attention when I encountered a Japanese lady at my church who has aphasia. She had had a stroke and is now able to communicate only in English, despite the fact that her first language is Japanese and she strongly desires to restore her ability to communicate in Japanese. I can only imagine how frustrating it can be for one to have an inability to speak in the language that they grew up with. …show more content…
Before I majored in linguistics, I was not aware that such disorders existed, and I believe that it applies to numerous people who are not studying related fields. This is one of the reasons I want to pursue my degree in Speech Pathology. When I took a class for language and communication disorders, I conducted a survey where I asked several people on campus if they knew about aphasia, and not surprisingly, a substantial amount of people have never heard of the word aphasia. Some people do not even know who speech pathologists are and what they do. After I complete my degree or even while I am studying, I want to spread the awareness of language and communication disorders, and the existence of speech pathologists, so that individuals with communication disorders can seek help easily, and other people can treat them …show more content…
As I am interested in bilingualism and communication disorders, I have developed some research in the area as an undergraduate student and would like to continue in my years in graduate school. I am highly interested in brain function and bilingualism, in which many aspects are still unknown. My goal is to expand that research in my graduate school years and afterward so that not only Japanese-English bilinguals but bilingual individuals in various different languages will have appropriate