My Bilingual Analysis

Bilingualism, the act of being fluent in two languages, plays an essential factor in my life. To me my bilingualism represents my connection to the culture, traditions, and history of my family. A majority of my family and I speak English and Castillo, a dialect of Spanish. My bilingualism and those languages make up an important part of my identity for due to my bilingualism I get a mixture of cultures and traditions that I believe influenced my personality as I grew up. One of the traditions that my family has that ties into our language and culture is the family parties on holidays where all distant relatives and family friends are welcomed. From our family gatherings and my introduction to distant relatives that were strangers to me, I grew to lose my shyness relatively quick when I meet new people. This tradition and the many other traditions …show more content…
One of the disadvantages of my bilingualism is the stereotypes that follow along with my Spanish-Mexican heritage. When people discover that I am part of that heritage, many are surprised and start criticizing me. A majority of the comments that I receive have to do with my skin color being “too light.” When they discover that I loathe beans, some people state that I am lying and there’s no way that I am the race that I state I am. This greatly affects me for it feels like they are rejecting a part of my identity. Other than the criticism, another disadvantage of my bilingualism is the expectations of my family. The older generation of my family has high expectations for my fellow younger generation cousins, nieces, nephews, and sisters. Their expectations come from their memories of the struggles that they faced for the benefit of themselves and the future generations of the family. Their expectations place quite a bit of pressure and stress on us to fulfill and exceed their