Identity And Its Own Language

By learning your own language it can help you understand who you are and in time it can help you express

Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation

In Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, she illustrates that one-way identity can be perceived is through language. You can tell or assume a lot about a person by the language they speak. The language you speak is a part of your culture, and your culture is what defines a person most. Anzaldua expresses her frustration with not being fully entitled to speaking her language in her essay.

Language is a very import part in our life, we carry it with us through all the steps, processes, moments experiences of our life, language built us and make us grow and the most important thing is that it grows with us, changes, modifies itself, and becomes more appropriate and specific. As we pointed out language help us to create and understand the world around us, gives meaning to everything and gives birth to emotions and feelings; a world without language would be meaningless and very lonely. Language it’s what help us grow up, the more we learn through it, the more we desire to experience and study in deep, leading us to new prospective, opening our mind to more specific and deep concepts, ideas, projects, goals. We really can’t

Learning a new language seems to have only positive effects. However, for a Mexican American, accomplishing this goal brought him drawbacks in the interaction with his family. In his essay, ‘’Public and Private language,’’ Richard Rodriguez describes the difficulty in learning a new language and the sacrifice he makes to accomplish his goal. Richard Rodriguez shares the difficulty for older people, as they learn a new language; however, for younger generations is easier to learn a new language. Also, the new language creates a lack of communication for Richard Rodriguez.

The question of identity is always a difficult one for those living in a culture or group, yet belonging to another. This difficulty frequently remains in the mind of most immigrants, especially the second generations who were born in a country other than their parents. Younger generations feel as if they are forced to change to fit the social standards despite previous culture or group. Furthermore those who wish to adopt a new identity of a group or culture haven't yet been fully accepted by original members due to their former identity.

There are many indicators of identity by which we are made known individually, socially and culturally; the best of these would be language and how it has shown great flexibility in accommodating the needs of people. Through language people have been able to establish their identities and cultivate friendships with others who share the same common ground. By looking at accents such as Broad Australian English, slang and phonological features as they apply to Australian varieties, we can see how it has forged solidarity and assisted in creating an identity on an individual and national scale.

There are both positive and negative aspects of learning a language, but people are likely to equalize two sides and try not to lose the relationships with their family and the society. Amy Tan, in “Mother Tongue” and Richard Rodriguez in “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” explain how they viewed their private and public languages through their experiences and how they managed these two languages and established themselves in the society. Tan initially felt ashamed of her private language and favored the public language; however, in the end she showed that she could manage the balance between the languages and finally utilized both in public. On the other hand, Rodriguez preferred his private language which made him feel comfortable;

By welcoming the diverse languages and religions of the world, America is considered a melting pot of both cultural and ethnic identities. In the essay about bilingualism “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldúa she writes, “So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself” (172). Anzaldúa believes that her ethnicity and language are what make her who she is. Therefore, by insulting her language, she is insulted as well. Her identity is “twin skin” with how she speaks. Linguistic identity is the ability for a person to speak freely in any language and ultimately their identity is shown through shared language. The things that define a person are their actions, their behavior, the way they walk, and the way they talk. A person’s culture has a heavy influence on their identity throughout their lives. To disrespect an important part of their culture, their language, is to disrespect the person on an extremely interpersonal level. The person would be, therefore, discouraged from speaking their native language. Anzaldúa shows that her language constitutes who she is; it binds her to the existence of her identity therefore a person’s language defines his/her identity.

When people speak of affective qualities of a language variety, it is not the language that is being evaluated, but an underlying stereotype of the speakers themselves. For this reason, attitudes toward divergent language varieties “are better understood as attitudes towards the members of language communities” rather than the variety itself (Edwards, 1994, p. 89). In this way, then, by judging the speakers of in-group language varieties, respondents are also indirectly evaluating members of these in-groups as well , essentially making qualitative judgments regarding language and their own group identity (Edwards, 1985). Fundamentally, as Edwards (1985) writes, language attitudes “allow some insights into the perception and presentation of identity” (p. 151). Therefore, by looking at attitudes of learners of Mandarin toward regional accented-Mandarin, we can probably understand whether this language variety is more likely to be used, emulated, and accepted throughout learners of Mandarin.

beliefs. Sober uses the example of lightning. He points out that according to the Greeks,

Many people question themselves, what is it exactly that makes them unique? What is it that defines them as a unique person that no one in the world possesses? In philosophy, these questions do not have just one answer, and all answers are correct depending on which theory appeals most and makes sense to you. In general, there are two ways people approach this question, some say that a person’s identity is the “self” that carries all of their experiences, thoughts, memories, and consciousness (ego theorists), and some say that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences and events that a person has been through in their life, these people deny that the “self” exists (bundle theorists). In this paper, I will be arguing that a person’s identity is just a bundle of experiences, denying the self and the memory criterion.

Cultural identity is a part of the psychological self-concept that expresses an individual or group’s worldview and perceived cultural affiliations. The first step in finding a societal fit is to establish a cultural identity; this can be on an individual level and group level. Who am I? And where do I belong? These questions start to form in the human mind from an early age; it drives humans to explore their worldviews and how and where they fit in the world. Rosenfeld (1971) argued it is a deep-seated primal process that has ensured our continual survival. By finding others that think and act similarly we are offered some protection (Erickson, as cited in Carducci 2015). Erickson (as cited in Carducci, 2015) and Maslow (as cited in Mcleod 2007) argued that the need to belong is a basic building block of human development. Whatever the reason, the consensus is that humans have an intrinsic need to find a like-minded cultural group to belong to; this chosen affiliation is their cultural identity. A person may identify with more than one cultural

Language, culture and individual personal attributes are all things we consider when describing what identity is and how it is influenced. Culture influences many aspects of an individual's life such as traditions, belief systems, norms, personal values and more. A language is a form of expression, it also reveals a person's origins such as what country they are from. Both culture and language shape a person's identity and can make an individual feel as though they belong. Translations by Friel not only does a great job of demonstrating the importance of language and cultural identity but also shows how easily both can be stripped from a society.

“Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self”. B.R. Ambedkar, in Develop with Fact: Neutralizing the Catalysts of Downturn, p. 57. There are many different languages spoken around the world. Sometimes it can create a barrier when trying to communicate. Other times it may cause you to be judged because you have a different accent, or you use different terminology. Language can play a small role in how people’s identities are formed., The language variety that you speak as a native language is closely tied to your geographical identity.