Aria by Richard Rodriguez
Option: Hyperlinks
I found the article Aria written by Richard Rodriguez to be a very different point of view of how people have to understand a different language and how it changes your family lifestyle. With not having to deal with this at my home, I'm not really sure exactly what it would be like. Before reading the assignment I had read
Finding classroom success in noisy mix of Spanish, English by Sara Garland, I thought it was interesting because the author talks about an elementary school in California that teaches bilingual students 90% of the day in Spanish and then once the student reaches 3rd grade they integrate more English.
I thought it pertained a lot to the articles that we had to read this week for class. In Aria the author empasizes a lot that it was really awkward at home with his parents having to speak English so much so he was able to understand it in class. I think the system back then was also very religious because now in our society we don't have nuns coming to our houses and there is less communication between parents and teachers. In the Sara Garland article she writes that many parents are getting involved with trying to help their students.
Opinion/Questions Paragraph:
Did many nuns help people try to speak English back in the day? I feel like being involved in a certain religion also helps to connect people, that you have a common interest and more people are connected. Thinking about the nuns and helping his family to try to speak English around the children, makes me think of when I went to Camden, New Jersey for a mission trip with Assumption College and it was a great experience working with people of different backgrounds and the friends you make while living under the same roof. It taught us what it was like to live on 3.00 of food for a day and giving so much to the people. I got to go to a nursing home/rehabilitation center, an adult daycare and I walked around the city of Camden handing out flyers to help students that wanted to get an education. It was an amazing experience.
I used the same article in my blog http://lostinstereo8.blogspot.com/ and I found it to help me alot! I also was not brought up having to learn two languages and I can only imagine how awkward it would be for the parents!
ReplyDeleteTo answer one of your questions (to the best of my ability), I associate nuns with Catholic schools. When I was younger, I was taught by nuns in a Catholic school and I would assume that like any teacher they would try to contact the parents to help their student in class. I don't think they taught in "all" schools, but perhaps the author of the article went to a Catholic school (there is no evidence of what type of school he attended).
Sounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is bilingual. Polish is his primary language while, English is his second. He found it overwhelming and nerve racking to come to America. He was scared and intimidated while in school. It took him several weeks to comprehend his teacher and classmates. He has learned to balance both languages and is fluent in both. I agree that parents should be involved in their childs education, but for those bilingual parents, they should make time to help their child both languages and not focus on just one. I enjoyed the article as well :).
ReplyDelete