As someone who has always straddled two cultures, Albanian and American, I know what it means to participate in two different language codes. One code, the private code, has to do with speaking a more intimate language. At home or in my local church, my parents have a more comfortable, personal approach when it comes to speaking. They usually speak in Albanian to one another or when they encounter an Albanian native. In this way they both can express themselves easily and have have a better sense of communication. The second code, however, is a more public code which has to do with speaking in a outdoor setting, preferably in a work field. When my parents are out in public or encounter a person who is not of Albanian descent, they have
…show more content…
Tan describes how her mother insisted that “she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing.”(Tan). Like the narrator in Tan’s essay, I had to jump in and help my mother solve a problem by speaking English. While the problems we were trying to solve were different, the language barriers were the same. Through this assignment, I realized how much standardized language creates power structures in society and how frustrating it can be for people unable to conform. My parents struggle to feel as comfortable in public as they are at home also reminds me of Richard Rodriguez’s essay “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. In the essay, the narrator is a boy of Spanish descent did not know one bit of english and felt very self conscious and uncomfortable around english speaking people. However, at home he has a more intimate tone with his family member’s because they speak Spanish and are able to connect with one another. In the essay, a statement reflected to what my parents go through on a daily “In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant., accented, and not always a grammatical English.”(Rodriguez). I chose this statement because of how it relates to my family. Whether it’s around the house or at church, they feel more comfortable speaking their native language rather than english since they have a hard time with it at
Tan describes how her mother insisted that “she had spoken very good English, her best English, no mistakes. Still, she said, the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing.”(Tan). Like the narrator in Tan’s essay, I had to jump in and help my mother solve a problem by speaking English. While the problems we were trying to solve were different, the language barriers were the same. Through this assignment, I realized how much standardized language creates power structures in society and how frustrating it can be for people unable to conform. My parents struggle to feel as comfortable in public as they are at home also reminds me of Richard Rodriguez’s essay “A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez. In the essay, the narrator is a boy of Spanish descent did not know one bit of english and felt very self conscious and uncomfortable around english speaking people. However, at home he has a more intimate tone with his family member’s because they speak Spanish and are able to connect with one another. In the essay, a statement reflected to what my parents go through on a daily “In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant., accented, and not always a grammatical English.”(Rodriguez). I chose this statement because of how it relates to my family. Whether it’s around the house or at church, they feel more comfortable speaking their native language rather than english since they have a hard time with it at