Questions on Writing Strategy
Answer 4) People who have never been exposed to a foreign language or the ones who have had
point of view and hence would most probably dislike the essay. The prime reason behind their
dislike for the essay would the lack of first hand experience of the issue author so firmly and
extensively discusses about in his writing.
Questions on Language
Answer 2) The words public and private have been used on number of occasions throughout the essay for different contexts. While public has been used for the foreign language and its listeners, private has been used to symbolize author’s private world, his family where he felt intimate and comfortable and also for language he used in his as his own i.e. Spanish.
Answer 3) The author very symbolically expresses a transformation when he says, “More and more of my day was spent hearing words, not sounds”. He draws a sharp contrast between the times when he hardly understood and spoke English and concentrated more on sounds than words to make sense of what people were saying and the times when he was as proficient in the language as an American and only words mattered to him.
Questions on Meaning
Answer 1) Rodriguez’s essay records his personal experiences from his childhood about his schooling and encounter with English while arguing the case of bilinguals and the problems they face as foreigners in a different land and hence it acts as both a Memoir and an effective argument.
Answer 2) Rodriguez often felt nervous and troubled when he saw his parents talking to “log gringos” and in the process struggling hard. He would feel his trust in them weakening and would at times try to ignore these interactions.
Answer 3) The author signifies his helplessness in coping up with two languages when he says, “I was a child longer than most”. At the age of 6 when other kids hardly concentrated on sounds and words as different components of a language, author exposed to two different languages was an exception.
Answer 4) The use of Rodriguez children’s use of English had rather contrasting impacts. It lead to withering and fading of intimacy that the family once shared leading to alienation of their parents from the conversations. The sense of security that each of the family members experienced in each other’s presence was slowly replaced by the more tolerant attitude towards the American people and society.
Answer 5) As a kid Richard used to feel pushed and frustrated due to the continuous attempts of the nuns at the school to make him learn English well, but the adult view by Richard claims this insistence by the nuns to be the prime reason behind his acceptance of English and America by terming their actions fortunate.
