Talking Points #2

Richard Rodriguez
"Aria"

1. "What they seem not to recognize is that, as a socially disadvantaged child, I considered Spanish to be a private language. What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right and the obligation--to speak the public language of los gringos."

- I chose this quote from Richard Rodriguez's "Aria," because he says that he had "the right and obligation" to learn and speak English. I do not know how many times I have heard racial slurs about Spanish speakers needing to learn English. I for one think it is important to expand your horizons and learn another language. So why can't white people learn Spanish. I do know that language barriers are often hard to over come, but I don't think that Spanish speakers are OBLIGATED to learn English however much it may or may not benefit them. America has been called over and over, a melting pot of cultures. This implies to me that all cultures are welcomed and added to the pot. People need to open their minds and maybe learn something that other cultures have to offer.

2. "Sentences needed to be spoken slowly when a child addressed his mother or father. (Often the parent wouldn't understand.) The child would need to repeat himself. (Still the parent misunderstood.) The young voice, frustrated, would end up saying, 'Never mind'--the subject was closed."

- This reminds me of myself as a child. However, my family speaks English at home. This resonates with me because, I cannot begin to count the times that I have gotten frustrated trying to explain something to someone before I finally gave up and said "never mind." I see my younger brother and pre-teen sister do it often too. Yet, in our situation, it usually isn't a miscommunication due to language, but instead it is failure to correctly articulate our thoughts. Even as a mature adult (mostly, ha ha), I still find myself getting that same frustration when people can't quite understand my point of view. This often does end with a "forget it." The harm in this is that sometimes things that need to be said are "lost in translation" and important things are not always completely expressed, kind of like a "silenced dialogue."

3. "So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality."

-To be honest, I am confused by this quote. When I first read it, I took it as assimilation makes it possible to achieve in a society where the public language, English, is dominant. But when I typed it into my blog to explain what I thought at first, I realized that when I read it i worded it wrong in my head. I just do not understand what Rodriguez is trying to say about "public individuality." Like what is "public individuality? I was just wondering if anyone else had some thoughts on that to help me better understand.

I found this document easy to read through, I just didn't really like the way it was written. It seemed like Rodriguez switched back and forth from talking from his point of view to the point of view of an outsider. It kind of confused me, but mainly, I just didn't like it as a reader because it wasn't smooth to read.
Parts of this document reminded me of Lisa Delpit and her "Silenced Dialogue." The part where Rodriguez was talking about children getting frustrated and giving up made me make this connection. I didn't make so much of a connection to Delpit's text as I did with the title of her piece. When the frustrated child does not get his or her point across, what is needed to be said is silenced.