Dallas Lovejoy

English 3

Ms. Fordahl

2/18/14

Language Usage in America

The languages used in America differ a lot more than people think. Some people might think that only English and Spanish are spoken in the U.S. Well I’m here to tell you there is actually many languages spoken in the U.S some of which people don’t even know about. Some other languages spoken in the U.S are French, Norwegian, and German just to name a few. Some of these languages however are not used very often so therefore some people just think they don’t exist in this country. Spanish and English are the two most prominent languages in the U.S though.

The story How To Tame A Wild Tongue talks about the differences between the Spanish and English language. This story chronicles the life of a student who speaks Spanish and is punished for doing so. She goes to a new school and the teachers get mad at her for speaking Spanish and tell her to speak English so she starts to speak English and then they tell her that she’s not speaking English correctly. The teachers tell her that she’s speaking American not English. She has no idea what they are talking about she is speaking English as best she could and now they they tell her she is not even speaking that correctly.

So what languages are used the most in the U.S English is obviously number 1 and Spanish is 2nd but what is third most popular language chinese is the third most popular language. People don’t realize this but 2.8 million people in the U.S speak chinese. That’s a pretty significant amount of people. Of course there is many other languages used in the U.S. those are the three most commonly used in the U.S.

So I guess the main points I think the story How To Tame A Wild Tongue is trying to get across is that there are many different languages used in the world and people can’t be so closed minded about the kinds of languages used in America. I also think the story is trying to tell Americans to not bully people for the type of language they speak or the way they speak it. I think the story does a great job portraying it.

Dallas Lovejoy

2/4/14

English 3

Ms.Fordahl

 

Native Voices

Scott Momaday wrote the story The Way To Rainy Mountain. In this story Scott Momaday describes his voyage to visit his grandma’s grave, along the way he revisits sites of great significance to the kiowa heritage. Northwest of the wichita range in Oklahoma City, the Kiowa Indians gave this place the name Rainy Mountain. The weather was horrible at this place year round, it was also isolated and not near any civilization. Loneliness is a given in the Rainy Mountains due to the fact that there is nobody there if there is someone there they are alone. In July Momaday returned to the Rainy Mountains. Momaday then goes to see his dead grandma in the spring. She only has one living daughter that was with her when she died.

When Momaday’s grandma was a child they were in the last great moment of their history. The kiowas had controlled a large range of land from the smoky hill river  to the red, headwaters of canada, and Arkansas. They were great at war. They surrendered to the U.S. army, at fort sill. They were imprisoned in a corral which is now a museum.  Louise Erdrich was born in Little Falls Minnesota, She was a chippewa indian who had a german american heritage. She used both of witch in her stories.

In Saint Marie there isn’t as much about the land and sacred heritage, and things like that.This story is mostly about the relationship between a girl and nuns. The nuns think that the girl is crazy and influenced by the devil. The nuns abuse the girl and try to beat the devil out of her. I think this story is really messed up. So what did the girl do to get away from all the abuse she went and hid behind an oven. But that didn’t work because when the nuns found her behind the ove the nuns beat her some more.

So I guess what these stories are all about is Native American heritage and the tough times they had in their early years not just right now. I like how the stories contrast with the ways they describe the Native Americans struggle one story is about family and one man’s desire to discover the true meanings of his heritage and where he came from. The other story describes there struggles in a different way and talks about how the Native Americans were forced off their land by the white government which was basically like being abused and beaten and stuff.