"Aria" By: Richard Rodriguez Reflection

When I first started out reading this piece by Richard Rodriguez I was not sure to expect. I was shocked by the second sentence of the reading that stated that children not being taught their family’s language are a “social disadvantaged child.” I have never thought about learning another language of a social disadvantage. When I think about learning another language I picture it to be an advantage because now you can talk to people of all different languages instead of just your native language.  As I read on about the disadvantages the narrator had I began to understand why he started out saying it is a social disadvantage to the children. After the teachers had come to the narrators house to explain to his parents that they needed to encourage their children to use more English at home I could not believe the changes that could occur in a house just because of the different languages being spoken. The narrator explains that at first the family just thought of learning to speak English as a joke and they would always have that Spanish language connection in the family and learning English would not change that. Little did they know it was going to change their family life drastically. One part of the reading that really said something to me was when he was unsure of what to call his Mother and Father. He no longer wanted to call them mama and papa because it reminded him of home much his life had changed but he did not want to call them by the generic names Americans called their parents. He tells us that he just did not call them anything and hoped to get their attention by eye contact. I felt like he was almost confused about what to call his parents due to the two different languages he had learned because one was no longer existent to him but the other one his parents could barely speak. I never thought about how this could affect bilingual children in a negative way. I could not even imagine not knowing what to call my parents or having to just look at them to try to get their attention. One more part that I really liked reading about was when he explains how much his family dinners had changed because his siblings and him no longer spoke to his parents due to the difference in language. I thought this was awful because I know in my family when I come home from school I enjoy having family dinners and talking to my parents about everything in my life. I think it is really unfortunate that some children have to go through the struggles learning to speak English come with. I think the reading really sent a message that something needs to be done to eliminate the cons of being lingual and illuminate the pros of speaking two languages. I really liked Richards’s message in his reading and the way he wrote what he wanted to say by telling a story.