How to Tame a Wild Tongue

I agree with most of what says Gloria Anzaldua in How to Tame a Wild Tongue. I can relate to some degree to her experience has a Mexican American growing up talking “a patois, a fork tongue, a variation of two languages” like she says (p37). I felt at some point in my life a lost of identity because I wasn’t speaking English as well as I wanted, even though I have worked hard over the years to achieve a respectable level of English. I focused so hard on speaking English that I have forgotten to speak French in a proper form. I found myself in between both culture like I didn’t belong any where, using a French/English language not well accepted in both side. Over the years I also taught myself to do not be revolted about that lost of identity, after all I was living the life I wanted. My ideas and feelings differ from Anzaldua when she says “But for a language to remain alive it must be used” (40) and she declares that by the end of this century English will be the mother tongue of Chicanos and Latinos. Spanish, Tex-Mex, Spanish dialects will continue to be spoken, but the form will change over time and it is inevitable. Can we listen to purists keeping harping on and influence the rest of the society that it is bad on a linguistic point of view? I came to the conclusion that it is what happens when we are living in another country than our parents’ native country. Language evolves over time because of the movement of population from one country to another. I think that language have changed over time because of migration, commercial exchange between countries and other factors. We see this phenomenon growing faster because our society is evolving faster. Any how, I think that we should be proud of talking two or more language on regular basis even though they are considered broken by the purists. We still have advantages over the monolingual. I think so!

A World Without Print

The essay was interesting to read but I didn't learn much of anything new about how children acquire language through reading or writing. After a few psychology and education classes about children I'm not surprise to read that environment is the major compound in children's development. Though, i found interesting the way Jenny could locate new place asking over the phone physical landmarks such as the shape and color of a sign for instance (p410). How her life is restricted in a lot of ways like going shopping at the same stores because she knows their layout. I never thought about how difficult it is for people like her to live in our society, it like been imprisoned and free at the same time.
Even though the Appalachians have a heavy stereotype of uncivilized, ignorant and immoral people Purcell-Gates shows their life (Jenny and big Donny) not so different of what we have in mind of a "normal life style". Jenny cares about her children and wants them to learn how to write and read, she understand the necessity of it. She wants them to have a better life and it is what most parents want for their children. Donny shows manual skills beyond what most of children of his age can do and it is a prove of intelligence and this because parents teach them skills that are relevant of their "culture". It is interesting to see that our brain can be wired differently because of our stimulus in our first years of life. I wished I've read a little more about Purcell-Gates' study and how she proceeded to develop writing and reading skills with Jenny and Donny and the outcome after these two years of study....I was expecting more from this essay.