Essay about The Languages Of Embarrassment

Submitted By tkuo1
Words: 752
Pages: 4
Open Document
Kuo 1

Tiffany Kuo
Prof. Click
Eng 100
18 Feb 2014
The Languages of Embarrassment
In America, a lot of people learn English as their second language. Richard Rodriguez is the author of “Public and Private Language”, and he was raised in a working­class Mexican immigrant family. Certainly, the immigrants come from different countries, and sometimes they do not feel comfortable speaking their native language in public since people naturally want to speak the language that most people will understand. Likewise, they like to speak their native language to their friends or family because they would feel closer to each other. Most of the time, immigrants like me would worry about how people think when we speak English; we are afraid because English and American culture are very strange to us. Nonetheless, people should never feel embarrassed to speak their languages because everyone should be proud of their cultures and who they are.
The immigrants often do not feel confident with a new language. In “Public and Private
Language” Rodriguez points out that he felt “dazed, diffident, afraid” (Rodriguez 169) when he had to speak English in public. Rodriguez did not feel he had the rights to use English as his language because he did not know how to speak it. He was a new American citizen; English was strange to him because he only knew how to speak Spanish. Accordingly, when he went to school, he did not want to answer questions in class because he was afraid that people were going to judge him. At home, his family tried to practice their English; they felt uncomfortable

Kuo 2

and weird when they do not speak Spanish to each other. Therefore Rodriguez admits, “a language foreign to us, so we felt drawn as strangers to it.” (Rodriguez 170). Language is a very amazing thing because when we are using a foreign language, we will have different sounds, tones, and meanings. There will always be a distance between different languages.
From my personal experiences, I can understand how Rodriguez felt. I came to America when I was fourteen years old, and I did not know how to speak English at all. At the same time
I was scared, stressful, helpless, and afraid that my teacher would call on me to answer questions.
It was the worst feeling ever because even though I knew the answers, I did not know how to say them in English. Just like how Rodriguez points out, “In Spanish, he [his father] expressed ideas and feelings he rarely revealed in English” (Rodriguez 173). Rodriguez knows that his father is a very talkative and outgoing person, but he is not an outgoing person when he speaks English because his English is not fluent. I have this same situation with Rodriguez’s father because I felt ashamed of myself when people laughed at my horrible English, so I would rather not express my ideas to the public. In this condition, it is really hard for immigrants like me and Rodriguez’s father to have any confidence to speak
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about The Languages Of Embarrassment

essay on education understanding

inequalities and says that there are two types of codes restricted and elaborated. Restricted being for the working class elaborated being for middle or upper class. way of accounting for the relatively poor performance of working-class pupils on language-based subjects, when they were achieving as well as their middle-class counterparts on mathematical topics. Interestingly, it was stimulated directly by his experience of teaching in further education.Social class may have an impact on the way learning…

Words 855 - Pages 4

Personal Narrative: The Great Depression In America

at a family photo with rays of sunshine spotted on everyone’s face, I did not expect that the warmth and harmony became like dandelions, leaving me all of a sudden with a miserable attack. Ever since my parents decided to divorce, the pain and embarrassment have became overwhelming to the point that I wanted to throw in the towel for countless times. However, the depression didn’t last long because I always want myself to be positive and optimistic in the face of hardship. Instead, it reminded me…

Words 264 - Pages 2

Amy Tan Mother's Tongue Summary

how her mother’s way of speaking English led her to improving her own speech. The first thing I recognized was Tan’s approachable tone that seems to drip off the page. This may partially be due to the fact that I find Tan’s adolescent embarrassment, about her mother’s “fractured English” and the way people reacted to…

Words 159 - Pages 1

White Privilege Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack

article, Peggy McIntosh's 1988 now-famous piece, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, while I did not seem to have a real alarming response to reading this article, out loud, in class, in front of everybody – inside I cringed with embarrassment and guilt for being a white female. It is…

Words 1268 - Pages 6

Carmita Wood

shame and embarrassment to which she had been subjected in her place of employment. This is the moment, Fricker argues, when Carmita Wood struggled and was unable to describe her experience, that she became a victim of hermeneutical injustice. She failed to find adequate language to describe her experience owing to the fact that there was a gap in the collective hermeneutical resource. There was a lacuna in our collective social understanding where we now have the concept and language of sexual harassment…

Words 480 - Pages 2

Essay about Stain, Stain, Go Away!

now the viewers who lose the option of turning away from its fluent gibberish. The camera then pans over to the employer with his gaze fixed upon the stain. The expression on his face radiates confusion about the situation and embarrassment for the applicant. His body language and facial expressions show that he is definitely not hearing anything the young man is saying. The interviewer moves his head to the side and furrows his brows, displaying his disbelief. The interview comes to the finale with…

Words 1278 - Pages 6

The Language of Fruit Essay example

sense of themselves through the changing circumstances the world presents. As an immigrant whose first language is Chinese, Lee introduces the dilemma of feeling the need to shift his behavior in order to assimilate into the social psychology of those he is surrounded by. In his youth the language barrier caused Lee to feel the need to change; however, through his loved ones he discovers that language is not the only way to communicate. Lee ponders his psychological transformation away from the comfort…

Words 1428 - Pages 6

Unit 203 Outcome 1 1 Essay

with children and young people, it is important that your behaviour and communication is adapted so that the child is able to approach you. Listening skills – give children your full attention when listening to them. This can be shown through body language, facial expression and speech. It is important that teachers and teaching assistants listen to children and then respond to the child appropriately; these skills are modelled to children through listening and speaking. Positive behaviour – if a child…

Words 661 - Pages 3

Bus 521 Unit 7 Paper

BUS 5211 – Unit 7 Portfolio. As the world continues to shrink through globalization and become more and more connected to a normal market, associations that can never ignore the effects of globalization, therefore, have expanded mobility of work across public and social boundaries. In this context, multifaceted differences have become a significant source of benefit for some associations and their representatives who have gone abroad to work (Andreason, 2003a, 2003b). The fundamental issue that…

Words 1950 - Pages 8

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Skills for the Healthcare Professional Essay

type of communication can consist of hand gestures, body language, this can also be displayed by certain facial expressions, your body posture, and eye movement, these types of nonverbal signals can be done unconsciously. “Communication consists of 93 percent body language and paralinguistic cues, while only 7 percent of communication consist of words themselves” (John Borg), when you are in a conversation with someone, your body language can show the sender just how you may feel about the message…

Words 974 - Pages 4