Aria by Richard Rodriguez Argument

While reading Aria by Richard Rodriguez, he argues that it is a struggle of a bilingual student.  He is not just describing any student he is describing himself.  He shares his story of what is was like to grow up as a bilingual student.  At home Rodriguez would primary spoke Spanish to his family.  After his school found out that his family would only speak Spanish in the household, his family would gather and "practice their english".  Now I can't imagine what it is like to learn and perfect a whole new language that you are not comfortable with.

For most bilingual children it is not easy, but they have to learn how to speak both languages.  As he states in the beginning of the paper "...I considered Spanish to be a private language.  What I needed to learn in school was that I had the right-and the obligation-to speak the public language of los gringos."  I find it interesting that he feels he needs to learn this language to get by in the country.  I understand that we are in the United States of America and everyone is suppose to speak English, but why make is a primary, should they be considered equal.  Bilingual students should not feel that they are forced to the "public language".

There was one quotes in this reading that really stood out for me.  It states that,"Today I hear bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of 'individuality' by becoming assimilated into public society."  While doing some research on this topic I found this really interesting article about the benefits of being bilingualism by the New York Times. It states that bilinguals are smarter and understand things more.  If these people stay bilingual they keep a scene of individuality.  I found this to be quiet interesting.

Questions/Comments/Points to Share:
I have a few questions that might I would like to bring up in the discussion.  Do all bilingual students feel that they have to learn the public language?  Do bilingual students wonder if the everyone else should learn their language?  There are so many different ways people can take this topic, either a good ways or a bad way.  I hope this brings up lots of class discussion.