Capice?

Authors Nancy Sakamoto of “Conversational Ballgames,” and Richard Rodriquez of “Private Language, Public Language,” discuss language barriers in each of their articles. Sakamoto experienced these difficulties while living in Japan with her husband and Rodriguez struggled with them as a Hispanic child growing up in an American middle class neighborhood. These articles have several similarities and differences. They share common ground in that they both illustrate language difficulties yet they vary in regards to style and focus. Both of these articles depict the authors’ endeavors to bridge the language barriers they encountered. “Conversational Ballgames” reveals the author’s struggle to communicate in Japanese. Sakamoto states, “I began to notice that often, when I joined in [a conversation] the others would look startled and the conversation topic would come to a halt” (529). She goes on to say, “It became clear that I was doing something wrong, but for a long time I didn’t know what it was” (529). Likewise, “Private Language, Public Language,” shares a glimpse into the life of a Hispanic boy straddling two worlds: English speaking America in public, and Spanish speaking Mexico in his home. Rodriguez begins to relay this conflict with the statement, “In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant, accented, not always grammatical English” (536). His portrayal continues when he says, “At five years of age, I knew just enough English for my mother to trust me on errands to stores one block away. No more” (536). Rodriguez reveals that he spoke English poorly, and that he did not know enough words to express a complete thought (536). Ultimately, both of these articles are good illustrations of language as a barrier rather than a bridge. In contrast, these articles are written in starkly different styles. Sakamoto approaches her point from an analytical angle. In spite of the obvious struggle to communicate, she uses lighthearted analogies to help one visualize the differences. For example, she says that western-style conversation is like tennis, one person begins by serving the ball and the other person returns the serve. The conversation or “game” continues because each person hits the ball back to the other (529). She carries the analogy further when she states, “Japanese-style conversation is not at all like tennis or volleyball. It’s like bowling” (530). She relates that in Japanese-style conversation, rather than a back and forth action, “The balls run parallel and everyone waits for their turn” (530). On the other hand, Rodriguez’s article is emotional. He describes his reaction to the different sounds of the two languages, “[I was] often frightened by the sounds of los gringos, delighted by the sounds of Spanish (537).” He makes the reader feel his experience when he tells about listening to a conversation between his father and an English-speaking gas station attendant. After overhearing his father’s attempt to communicate in English, Rodriguez loses some confidence in the omnipotent power that all small children believe their parent’s possess. He also implies embarrassment when he states, “the very first chance that I got, I evaded his grasp and ran on ahead, skipping with feigned boyish exuberance (537). Sakamoto creates a visual understanding of language barriers while Rodriguez makes one feel the differences that result from language barriers. A final distinction between these articles is the authors’ focus. There are many different aspects of language and communication. Sakamoto zeros in on the manner of conversing. For Sakamoto the biggest hurdle was changing her method of conversing. She explains, “Japanese-style conversations develop quite differently from western-style conversation, and the difference isn’t only in the languages” (529). Her analogies to tennis and bowling show this contrast very well. In a western-style conversation, “everyone does his best to keep the ball going,” versus the Japanese-style in which, “There is always a suitable pause between turns. There is no rush, no excitement, no scramble for the ball” (530). In a completely different vein, Rodriguez concentrates on the language itself, and the different sounds of each, “I was a listening child, careful to hear the very different sounds of Spanish and English” (536). For Rodriguez the sounds of English were two-fold, first “the speech of people in public seemed to me very loud, booming with confidence” (536). The other, “to hear my parents speak in public: their high-whining vowels and guttural consonants; their sentences that got stuck with ‘eh’ and ‘ah’ sounds; the confused syntax; the hesitant rhythm of sounds so different from the way gringos spoke” (536-537). Conversely, the sounds of Spanish evoked the, “pleasing, soothing, consoling reminder of being home” (536). Sakamoto and Rodriguez emphasize two differing aspects of language barriers. In short, these two articles are both excellent descriptions of the problems presented by language barriers. Even so, the writing approaches are unique, and the authors focus on diverse aspects of the multiple layers of communication.

Works Cited
Rodriguez, Richard. “Private Language, Public Language.” Strategies for Successful Writing 2011: 534-538.
Sakamoto, Nancy. “Conversational Ballgames” Strategies for Successful Writing 2011: 529-531