Aidan Smith
9-3-16
Professer Young
ENGL 1100
Writing Skills Workshop
1. The opening scene talks about the dentist trying to control her tongue because it keeps pushing out the cotton in her mouth. This connects to the overall story by that America is trying to control her tongue (language) as well, trying to make her conform to speak english.
2. Anzaldau's use of spanish made sense to me throughout the story. I believe her purpose was that of preserving her native tongue which she wants to do and also showing us how it feels to have to try to understand a language that isn't your mother tongue.
3. Chicano can be described as non standard because most Mexican Americans don't identify as Chicano. Referring to ones identify as standard to nonstandard can make one group feel inferior to the other group.
4. Yes speaking and writing is a necessity in ones identity because thats how they communicate and write and express there feelings. That is a big part of there identity.
5. There is only a few English types of identity I know and they are Canadian, Australian, and British.
6. Yes me and my friends have some slang words we use and inside jokes only we understand also we each have nicknames we all use.
7. My friends and I all use non standard English when we speak to each other. I make sure to always use proper English when speaking to parents or a Professor because I don't want them to think of me in a bad way.
8. " I am my language" this connects one to there identity in more then one way. Your language is how you speak to people and communicate with friends and family, also this is how you will learn and write. Your language will be used everyday of you life and will shape you identity.
9. The introduction talks about how her tongue is stubborn and won't stop pushing out the cotton balls, and she thinks how do you train a wild tongue. In the conclusion she talks about how her people have been hammered down and are some of the only people left out of many cultures that have disappeared. They have been persistent and have not given up, so they are still around. This is just like how her tongue was stubborn and would stop pushing the cotton balls out.
10. Yes I believe that you language can be a part of your identity. When you speak certain ways or languages people judge you on what type of person you are and can be an identifying characteristic of a person.
11. Identity is very important to me. Anzaldua does believe that is is important to have identity as you can see in text. Two examples are the quote she uses in the text "Identity is the essential core of who we are as individuals, the conscious experience of the self inside." Kaufaman. Her putting this quote in the story shows that she has a deep understanding about identity and cares a lot about her own as well. Anzaldua says " There are more subtle ways that we internalize identification, especially in the form of images and emotion. For me food and certain smells are tied to my identity, to my homeland." This quote shows she loves her homeland which is also a big part of her identity so she must care about her identity a lot.
