Professor Deare
English 101A
09 March 2015 Take Home essay #1
In many different places of the world, many people have different reactions on what literacy is and how it is applied in life. Literacy is referred to a lot of people as “the ability to read and write” like how it is stated in the dictionary
. People think that having the knowledge of how to read and write that they know the meaning and don’t have to have any more interest in it. After these few weeks of reading and comprehending the
“real” meaning, it has changed the way I look at it and how it has actually affected me in life. Also how it can be referred to as a discourse because of the way many people today think the “English” language or any other language should be used. A discourse also can be referred to as standards a person should follow. It’s like what James Paul
Gee tries to explain in his article
Social Linguistics and Literacies
, “The moral of the above discussion is that at any moment we are using language we must say or write the right thing in the right way while playing the right social role and (appearing) to hold the right values, beliefs and attitudes”(Gee 142).Literacy not only gives you the chance to read and write if not also the ability to communicate and express yourself to other people. I mean a lot of people can know how to write and read, but do they actually know how to speak it? Many people still don’t live up to the standards expected in a discourse or in literacy because of them still not knowing how to communicate clearly.

When I was growing up, I was one of those many people that didn’t quite fit in those standards because I didn’t know how to speak English from always having to speak
Spanish with everyone in my family. The only time I heard English was when I was out of the house or when my parents would skip through the English channels on T.V. The only thing I ever came close to relating to English when I was younger was when I went out and I saw signs, billboards,etc. or my brother’s homework or books. I used to always try to read them even though I did not know how to pronounce the words. In the article
Superman and me
By Sherman Alexie, I felt like the boy when he described not knowing the meaning of the words,“ I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that "Superman is breaking down the door." Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say,
"Superman is breaking down the door”(Alexie 1). When I started going to school, the thing I mostly focused on was learning how to read the words because I was really excited to get the chance to understand what all those words meant. Because of my excitement, I started to learn English quite fast, but also I would confuse myself with the
Spanish spoken at home. I would sometimes confuse my words and sometimes I would want to speak Spanish, but I would speak English or switch it around to where not a lot of people would understand me unless they knew both languages. The only thing I actually knew well in English was how to write and read it. The outcome of this was that in elementary school I didn’t communicate with many classmates because I would just confuse them and sometimes they would mock me because I didn’t know that I was saying. Well to make it more simple, I wasn’t up to their “standards” and the only person who understood me was my bilingual teacher. I felt like this reaction of the

students is the same one as the one they expected the Native Americans to be in
Superman and Me By Sherman Alexie on how the now “natives” of the U.S expect to see the non­native “We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations inside the classroom but subverted them on the outside”(Alexie 2).This still affects me today because I grew up with distancing myself from many classmates and just got used to it even though I have learned to separate my English and Spanish better now.
Not only has the English language been challenging for me , but the Spanish language has also been challenging and has taken many effects in my life. For instance, when I travel to Mexico, I get picked on and criticized a lot. The natives there also have standards or discourses in their language. Some think if you are not apart of their people, they don’t have to respect you as much, therefore, they try to take advantage of you or judge you how ever they want its as simple as that. Even me that I have parents that are Mexican like them, many of them choose not to interact with me for the right reasons because I am from and was born in the “famous” United States of
America. For example, when I went to the markets in Mexico when I was younger and they heard me speak they automatically knew I am wasn’t from there. As a result , they tried to fool me and didn’t care because they assumed that money was no big deal to me and that I wouldn't care and give it all to them. Also some of the girls from my parents’ hometown tried to become friends with me because they tried to get free things from me or even money and if I didn’t, they started to make me have sympathy for them and came up with ideas so I could “share” my money with them. These situations were

just getting out of hand. Just because I don’t know their language fluently or didn’t meet up with their standards that they have to treat not only me, but also other non­native speakers that go to their country. I don’t mean that all the natives can be like this, but it usually does happen in the tourist area because of the high competition and because of the high poverty that the country has. When I do go to tourist places in Mexico, I always see majority of the natives trying to take advantage of the non­natives and get away with it. Also now that I am more fluent in Spanish and can get them to believe that I am a native, some of them have even confessed to me that they do it on purpose because of the lack of money they earn and because of the reality that they don’t mind because it’s not hurting their own people and they have to find a way to survive and find a way to support their families. It just fascinates me on how not knowing someone’s standards can change the way they treat you. There could be a more honest way of making money than trying to take advantage of them. Instead they should get them more involved in their language and culture that way the non­natives can appreciate and enjoy the country more and them too. This way they can help them find different ways of surviving in an honest way.
The way literacy is looked at has not only affected me directly, but also it has affected my family. It has mostly affected my parents because it was harder for them to adapt and learn the English language. My parent’s English can be referred as “limited” or “broken” like Amy Tan describes her mother’s English. Their “broken” English does cause them to get judged on more because of their Spanish accent. When we go to the stores, they mostly get treated like Amy tan’s mother by not receiving the same

attention like other customers or basically ignoring them , “ And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her”(Tan 78). Also to me their
“broken” English was embarrassing because when they would speak with my teachers or with other people, they wouldn’t say majority of the things right and I was scared that somebody would say something rude because of how they speak. My parents now most of the time they have trouble they ask me or one of siblings to translate better when they have trouble. They have also asked us to speak to them in English, most of the time, so they could become more aware of how it is used and to understand it more.
The discourse of literacy probably won’t change. The standards to any language are firm because many people have enforced their certain point of view that people now see it as normal. The discourses of the English and Spanish language have changed me. Not only in the way I act, but also on the way that I tried harder to improve myself in both languages. I now know how to speak them both pretty fluently even though I will get confused by them a few times. Also it made me try harder because on seeing the way my parents were being treated because of their “broken” English and wanting a way to change that so in the future it won’t happen as often because I would have fulfilled those standards. It is hard having to learn and acquire a language, but by going through bad experiences it can make you grow and become better in life.