An Education In Language - 3188 Words

An Education in Language by R. RODRIGUEZ Born in 1944 in San Francisco, California, Richard Rodriguez grew up in a home in which Spanish was the first language; consequently, like millions of Americans he learned English as his second language. As a child, Rodriguez experienced an oftimes painful struggle to master English, which he calls his â€Å"public† language. As an adult, he attended Stanford University in California and Columbia University in New York, following which he did graduate work at the Warburg Institute in London and the Uni ­versity of California at Berkeley. Best known as a writer and lecturer, Rodriguez cur ­rently lives in San Francisco. Some educationists have recently told me that I received a very bad education. They†¦show more content†¦(No longer so desperate for the consolation of intimacy.) My brothers and I didn’t rush home after school. Even our parents grew easier in public, following the Americanization of their children. My mother started referring to neighbors by name. My father continued to speak about gringos, but the word was no longer charged with bitterness and suspicion. Hearing it sometimes, I wasn’t even sure if my father was say ­ing the Spanish word, gringo, or saying, gringo, in English. Our house was no longer noisy. And for that I blamed my mother and father, since they had encouraged our classroom success. I flaunted my second-grade knowledge as a kind of punishment. (â€Å"Two negatives make a positive!†) But this anger was spent after several months, replaced by a feeling of guilt as school became more and more important to me. Increasingly successful in c lass, I would come home a troubled son, aware that education was making me different from my parents. Sadly I would listen as my mother or father tried unsuccessfully (laughing self-consciously) to help my brothers with homework assignments. My teachers became the new figures of authority in my life. I began imitating their accents. I trusted their every direction. Each book they told me to read, I read and then waited for them to tell me which books I enjoyed. Their most casual opinions I adopt ­ed. I stayed after school â€Å"to help† – to get their attention. It was their encouragement that mattered to me.Show MoreRelatedLanguage Education And The Language Classroom Essay1264 Words   |  6 PagesAs a language teacher and researcher, I am always on the lookout for useful books which draw not only on current theoretical issues, but also on pedagogical knowledge for the language classroom. Given the advent of technology and recent advances in linguistics, use of te chnology in language education are considered beneficial to the teaching and communication. I have found the book â€Å"Fundamentals of Formulaic Language: An Introduction† by David Wood an insightful and comprehensive account of formulaicRead MoreDual Language Education And Education1247 Words   |  5 PagesEven though Brown v. 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