Carlene Carmichael's Teach Them Spanish Early, Too

Decent Essays
Carlene Carmichael, in “Teach Them Spanish Early, Too”, argues that Americans in California should be taught Spanish at a young age. Carmichael supports her argument by saying that young Americans should have the chance to learn basic Spanish (reading and writing) and learn together with other children who speak and know Spanish. She also says those who learn Spanish will have a greater opportunity to compete for jobs that require both languages. Therefore, Carmichael asserts that Americans who do not speak Spanish are at a disadvantage because some jobs require them to speak Spanish. I agree with Carmichael because several jobs require people to speak Spanish and English, but often Americans just speak English. People sometimes do not get

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez is an essay that shows the readers a part of life that many have never experienced. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood tounderstand English. He faces society while forfeiting his happy home life trying to become a typical English-speaking student. He establishes a connection with the audience through his personal experience as a child. He uses imagery and narration to clarify his opposition to bilingual education .Rodriguez…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story Saying “Adios” to Spanglish Leticia Salais writes about how she was embarrassed to speak Spanish in public places. She explains furthermore that her reasoning stems from her poverty growing up. When she had her first son ,she didn’t want her son speaking Spanish, “I never spoke a word of Spanish around him…his grandparents asked why he did not understand what they were saying , I made excuses…in reality I didn’t want him to speak it at all”( 180 Isaacs et al). While working at a nursing home Salais felt at ease with the patients, she met that spoke both English and Spanish. After realizing that being bilingual is a good thing, she started to teach her second son Spanish while her husband taught him English.…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Discrimination against bilinguals manifests in the issue of bilingual education. I support bilingual education and access to it. Lack of access to bilingual education inhibits bilinguals’ ability to learn. I agree with Espada’s position to teach bilinguals in the language they prefer because doing so grants bilinguals a more equal access to education as English speakers. Providing bilinguals with a more equal access to education is essential in bilinguals’ battle for equality.…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Spending time on your first language only takes away from the second language you are trying to master. They give examples such as Richard Rodriguez, whose biography, Hunger of Memory, tells of his arriving in kindergarten not speaking English. In spite of this, he went on to achieve a high level of English proficiency without any special program (Porter, 1996). Bilingual education programs are seen as a dead-end. Because students become stuck in such programs, they underachieve in both English skills and content mastery (Rossell, 2000).…

    • 1561 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Rodriguez discusses the challenges the norms of society, setting himself apart from the majority of immigrants that overly promote separateness and individuality. However, at the same time, Rodriguez displays the struggle that bilingual speakers face to find their place within the education system and the American english-speaking…

    • 1317 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Today in America, the issue of immigration has become a major concern of citizens and politicians alike. In particular, the issue is whether to only give visas to high skill workers and refugees and whether other immigrants cause more harm than good. Some argue that they are taking much needed jobs, are criminals and will never assimilate to our culture here. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez seeks to show lives of immigrants which counter these common misconceptions by sharing realistic immigrant stories. Though I can see potential problems with adding many more people to our population, I believe that immigrants are a vital part of both the American economy and culture.…

    • 1312 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bilingualism In Latina

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The advocation of English-only laws is one institutional example of how the United States racializes the Spanish language and attempts to suppress it. Due to living in close proximity to various Spanish-speaking nations, and immigrants largely grouping together in tight-knit communities, Spanish retention is generally higher across generations than that of other immigrant languages, which seemingly sparks some animosity towards the Latino community. The close Latina/o relation to their mother countries, serves as a unique resistance to the “hegemonic force of English,” which is met by many Americans as an opposition to their way of life, but in reality is simply how Latina/os choose to organize (Davis and Moore). Spanish is racialized in this way, the language being looped in with this American image of…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Texas Education Agency. “Texas Academic Performance Report.” Division of Performance Reporting. Aug. 2013. Web.…

    • 1836 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thanks to my parents migrating from Mexico to the U.S., I had the opportunity to be raised in South Texas or, as locals call it, “el valley”. Growing up in el valley is different than growing up anywhere else in America. The community is made up of primarily Hispanic Spanish-speakers who live in lower-class neighborhoods. At an early age most children from the area, including myself, are taught a skill that is valuable in today’s society, which is being bilingual. I recall going to school where I spoke English and then going home where I spoke Spanish.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I recall on one time when I was instructed to read aloud a whole section of writing in my freshman Spanish class in high school. As I read, I would often drop endings and say words in the spanish that I was raised with. After I was done reading I was told was that my style of speaking was different. The way I expressed myself through words and phrases were different than those of Mexican descent, but expressing myself this way was the most comfortable for me. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, she voices that “Chicanas who grew up speaking Chicano Spanish have internalized the belief that we speak poor english.”…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Being born and residing my entire life in the bordertown city of Laredo, Texas, most of my life has been spent surrounded by hispanic culture. Both of my parents come from hispanic roots, and were unable to fluently speak or understand English. Consequently, as a child, I was not taught nor was I able to practice how to become fluent in English anywhere other than at school. Not being able to speak english posed as an enormous problem for the majority of my social and academic life at school, but despite feeling dismayed, I refused to give up.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Hunger Of Memory Summary

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages

    After interviewing a close friend of mine, and listening to the interviews from my peers in class, I am deeply overwhelmed. This is because their case is very similar to Richard Rodriguez’s reading, Hunger of Memory, the Education of Richard Rodriguez. Rodriguez talked about assimilating into the American culture, and adopting English as his first language. He described how his family stopped speaking Spanish to him, and continuously promotes English language in the house. Initially, I see no harm in learning a new set of language, or trying to fit into another culture.…

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Conclusion With this research, and with the surveys that we did, our hypothesis that the Spanish language in the US is one of the principal factor of discrimination toward Mexicans and their family was confirmed, also, we learn about problems that people who speak Spanish in our neighboring country suffer and how this affect in the decision to teach children Spanish as a second language in this country.…

    • 68 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why a Second Language Should Be Required Imagine traveling to a different country and getting to communicate to the land people. Imagine a person applying for a high paying job and getting hired because their brain able to retain and study information. Imagine a person’s brain being so far along compared to others that it delays the onset of diseases. All of these things are factors students will receive when learning a foreign language. Students should be required to learn a foreign language in school because it better equips their brain, knocks out competitors in the job market, and improves brain health.…

    • 1794 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ever since I was born, I was raised by the same Latino family. I was taught how to speak both Spanish and English; Spanish was their primary goal mainly because it was our family’s main language. When I started kindergarten, no one else could speak Spanish so I really didn’t have any other choice but to stick to English. Later, however, we noticed that I got too comfortable with English. It eventually got to the point where I was beginning to become monolingual instead of bilingual.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays