Honestly Speaking

Michelle Barreto

Professor Dr. Maria Jerskey

ELL 101.0971

9/15/10

            While growing up I remember one afternoon, I was digging through some old folders filled with my kindergarten and first grade school work. I recall it mostly compiled of colorful drawings and pictures, until I came across a school letter informing my parents that my English speaking skills were in need of improvement and they recommended my parents to help me out at home. The letter humored me at first, but then I became upset because, how were my parents supposed to help me if we were a Spanish speaking family, and  they were new to the country and barely spoke English themselves?. Although, I apparently wasn’t such a great English speaker, I am glad to announce that I am fluent in English and have the benefit of also speaking Spanish, thanks to my parents.

            I suppose that Spanish would be considered my first language, since it’s what I grew up speaking, but at this moment I would say that English is my first language since it is what I feel most comfortable with. However, I do understand, speak, and read Spanish fluently but unfortunately I can’t write it as well. Since English is more in my comfort zone, it’s what I speak on an everyday basis at school, work and with my friends with the only exception being when I’m at home. When I am with my family I mostly speak Spanish, I’m saying “mostly” because I do tend to speak “Spanglish”. After all the years of  regularly speaking English I have come to forget  and mispronounce certain words in Spanish which has made my mother feel a shred of disappointment on the grounds that, her future grandchildren will not speak the same language as her.

             I believe that language is something that occurs naturally, not the language itself but how we learn it as children. I can’t seem to recall a point in time when my parents sat me down and actually attempted to teach me Spanish, I feel as if I just picked it up along the way, even though I know this isn’t the way it works for adults but it’s similar to how it happens with younger children. To this day I do not fully understand how children learn to speak and process a language so easily with no consideration of  the complexity of the language whether it’s a gendered or geographic language. As Guy Deutscher’s article “You Are What You Speak” has made me realize that languages are not just different in the way they sound and are read, but they also vary in terms of space and time. Recently I have uncovered that the Japanese don’t use the same sense of time as English speakers do, and that they are not as concerned with details as Americans are. This was a huge surprise since details are what make a story, as well as a conversation all the more appealing to the reader or listener. Deutscher’s article has brought to light how different and intriguing each language can be.