"Aria" written by Richard Rodriguez

        Richard Rodriguez's approach in his article called "Aria" is quite different from any of the other articles we have read in  this class so far. Fist of all, I still can not figure out why he named it "Aria" and what the title's connection is with the article itself. Secondly, he writes it by giving us a story of his life that is meant to teach us about him becoming bilingual as a child and how it effected his life and how it effects most children in the world today. None of the other authors' pieces we had read gave their full story of why they were writing about that article; the author's background story seems to make the article more interesting for me.
         Richard begins by explaining that he started school as a child who really only knew Spanish, and at the school he went to the nuns did all they could to teach their students English. He and his siblings did not want to learn English because they felt that Spanish was a "private language" that made them different and made their family especially close at home because that is all they spoke to each other. So once the nuns went to their parents and encouraged them to teach English in the house and the kids had to take special tutoring things began to change. Their family life was strange now and Richard noticed that English basically became his primary language and he was barely ever speaking Spanish and it was as if his whole world was changed.

 
"Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease. But I would have delayed---- for how long postponed?---- having to learn the language of public society." (page 1).

This quote seemed most important to me because it is the most true. If the nuns had coddled him and made him feel comfortable from the start and spoke Spanish, then there wouldn't have been a need to learn English and they would not have been nearly as motivated. People say that the only way to learn another language these days is to go to another country with no other devices and you will learn it from everyone speaking it around you and the other languages words written down all around you. It is the same way in school; with the nuns being around them speaking English all the time there was the need to learn it and to pick up on it.


"We remained a loving family, but one greatly changed. No longer so close; no longer bound tight by the pleasing and troubling knowledge of our public separateness." (page 2).

 Rodriguez's story was more emotional to read, but this part of it made me especially sad. The fact that the children were only speaking English and it made the family break apart and be not nearly as close was heart breaking. I wish that the kids could have become bilingual and more successful but also be able to keep that same bond with their parents that they always had. These are maybe some steps that could have helped the family, especially the parents, and could probably help keep a family close in the future with this same situation.

"So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality." (page 3).

Basically this quote means that even though Richard knew who he was and felt like his own different person by knowing a different language than most people knew, you can still be an individual and be unique while speaking English and having it become your primary language. Change is not always a bad thing, it can help you truly find yourself and teach you more than you had ever known before. This is why being bilingual is important, it opens so many more doors.