How to Tame a Wild Tongue

"This voluntary (yet forced) alienation makes for psychological conflict, a kind of dual identity--we don't identity with the Anglo-American cultural vales and we don't totally identify with the
Mexican cultural values. We are a synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexicanness
or Angloness. I have so internalized the borderland conflict that sometimes I feel like one cancels out the other and we are zero, nothing, no one."43,How to Tame a Wild Tongue,Gloria Anzaldua. The conflict she feel is very real because, Gloria Anzaldua believes that she must make a choice and then begin to live one life, either being an American or Mexican. She also believes that one life cancels the other, so that she feels zero or nothing at all. She presently lives her life between the two worlds but she also admits that she is more American than Mexican. You feel the racial pride.

"To signify we are neither Mexican nor American, but more the noun "American" than the adjective "Mexican" (and when copping out). 43,How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Gloria Anzaldua. Here again we are back to zero but, she does admit that she is more American than Mexican so I assume that she speaks English more than Spanish. More than once the reference is made to "copping out" which may mean that most of the time her decision is to do nothing. I don't believe that a choice between the two worlds must be made. She can keep both identities. She can speak Spanish in American while embracing her culture. This sharing of cultures can be the standard for all Spanish Speaking Americans.

Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction

"Discourses are ways of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes, and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions and clothes."p.526,Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction, James Paul Gee. I found great value in this definition for the word "discourse". In other words, we are constantly making a way of speaking or discourse decision and is everything we do a form of discourse? In this statement I believe this is what is being said. When we make gestures a silent form of discourse? One that is still very visible. The way that we dress is the beginning of the language that we speak. Here again religion our belief system has a special discourse that we express at church and in our daily lives the choices we make.

To learn a new discourse will mean making changes in your life, so that when you learn new words you are learning a different or new discourse. How exciting!! I am no longer afraid of learning to discourse in a new language.

The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society

I've lost a lot of jobs"one man explains. "today, even if you're a janitor, there's still reading and writing....They leave you a note saying "Go to room so-and-so...."You can't read it. You don't know." p. 208,The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society,Jonathan Kozol. I selected this quote because I feel the suffering, that has occurred in his life due to losing jobs. This quote explains completely the hardship of being illiterate in life. The author begins the article by listing the precautions listed on a can of Drano, this warning from a can of drain opener explains the true dangers in the life faced by someone who is illiterate, by not being able to read the label the illiterate person is now in serious danger. Going back to the quote,the man says, "I've lost a lot of jobs", Here is a man who is in constant danger from notes of every kind, notes written as warnings on cleaning product labels, notes from his boss, notes placed on equipment used for cleaning. What if they change the soap used and place the bottles of new soap on the floor. He doesn't know the bottles contain soap for the old soap is on the shelve for it he must use the old soap up first, if you can't read this causes a very serious problem. I think of all the extra things the illiterate worker must do to hide the illiteracy from co-workers and boss to find out exactly what those new bottles on the floor contains.

I ask myself, what I can do to correct the Literacy Problem here in Wisconsin. What can be done to help a older worker, who is losing jobs because he can't read. I believe that the classes must be free for if he is losing jobs money will be a problem. The classes should not be a source of embarrassment for the article notes how those who are illiterate are embarrassed and don't want others to know. I plan to become a social worker and I know, that I will be taught how to correct the problem of the illiterate and how social workers address this problem. If we can begin to address the problem by helping the illiterate to find a better job, by beginning with teaching them how to read labels and warnings on the products they use at work maybe this would make this person want to read all labels, street sign, insurance papers, etc. This I hope, would begin an enjoyment of reading.

The Ethnography of literacy

"It should not be surprising to see differences in literacy between members of different ethnic groups, sexes, socioeconomic classes, etc. Indeed, one might hypothesize the existence of literacy-cycles, or individual variation in abilities and activities that are conditioned by one's stage and position in life. What I would expect to discover, then, is not a single level of literacy, on a single continuum form reader to non reader, but a variety of configurations of literacy, a plurality of literacies." p.423, "The Ethnography of Literacy", John F. Szwed
What is literacy? Literacy is" educated", the second meaning listed is "able to read and write", and the third meaning listed in the dictionary is" polished and lucid". Using the dictionary meanings I can lists three different groups of literate classes. I could next begin a list by sex, racial group, etc. The word Ethnograpy is "a science dealing with races of human beings, their
origin,distribution characteristics, and relations. We now begin to truly study the family, in relationship to their individual level of literacy and the affect that it has on their lives. Next we need to see the affect an literacy has on family and next the community. "The capacity to read and write is causally associated with earning a living, achieving expanded horizons of personal enlightenment and enjoyment, maintaining a stable and democratic society, and historically, with the rise of civilization itself"(p.421) My literacy level will have either a positive affect on my future or a negative if I fail to graduate as planned, I plan to be a member of the educated group.