Identity

Marissa Lehnert
Engw 1100_34
Prof. Young
How to tame a wild tongue

Identity

 

When the article opens up, Anzaldua is sitting in the dentist's chair.  Her tongue was moving all over her mouth and the dentist basically started saying that her tongue was crazy and she needed to tame it so he could finish up, just like her teachers wanted her to "tame her tongue" so she would only speak English.  Anzaldua uses Spanish within the text to show how she lives and speaks to the people around her.  Chicano Spanish is more slang and laid back because there are so many different countries that use it, so the words themselves vary.  This shows identity by the way they speak because you can tell what country they are from by their accent or the way they say a certain word.  Learning to speak and write in English is important because kids need to learn Spanish before they get older and it is too hard to learn.  Most of the people in America speak English, so learning English could only make their lives easier.  There are many types of English identities through people's accents.  For example, people living in the Bronx speak differently than people living in Long Island just by their accents.  That is identity by allowing others to be able to tell where and which part of that location they are from.  Personally, I don't use any secret language to talk to my friends.  When I speak to my friends and family, I use non-standard English because I know that it doesn't matter and they don't care, but when I talk to my teachers, I use standard English to not sound improper.  "I am my language" means that you are culturally involved with your language(it is your identity, it shows who you are), you don't just speak another language for fun.  The introduction and conclusion of this article connect by tell facts and information about the past and culture.  Language is a part of your identity.  It is who you are.  Identity is important to me, everyone has to be their own person.  Everyone is different in their own way.