Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Borderlands/La Frontera
In the text "Borderlands/La Frontera" Anzaldua speaks of her struggle to assimilate with American culture and being almost forced to lose her Mexican one. Something that really struck me from the text was when she mentioned that she was placed in a class that taught her how to get rid of her accent. How do you teach someone to get rid of their accent? To me this is such an unreasonable request. It shocks me that her mother would also go along with this and get angry at her for speaking with an accent and not sounding American enough. One of the things that makes America such a beautiful country is the diversity within it. All the different people from around the world who come to live here and strive for a better future is what it's really all about. Forcing someone to lose their accent is almost like teaching someone to not have a unique personality. Accents and culture make us who we are. How often do you see someone with a different accent and then all of a sudden here them speaking without it and think to yourself, "wow they sound so weird". People from different cultures should follow in Anzaldua's footsteps and fight to keep their culture. They should stay true to their roots and not be so quick to give up what makes them unique.
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On the subject of ridding someone of their accent, I believe that just stealing something away from someone that seems so slight can take away their entire identity. I've heard many stories from my peers that have parents that are native speakers. Their parents have a strong accent when they come to the country, which of course the child strongly identifies with from a young age, but as time progresses they begin to lose that accent and seemingly lose apart of themselves with it. It's a slow americanization process and honestly feels like it's slowly deconstructing a culture, one thing at a time. This doesn't just happen in the U.S of course. Just moving to any different region can have a big impact on identity. If I lived in Japan for 40 years I would slowly lose my American accent and start to pick up a bit of a Japanese accent. I would become more like them. This also doesn't have to be a bad thing because it can honestly bring us closer to understanding different cultures and the many struggles that millions go through trying to learn a new language or adapt to a new way of life.
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