First draft
Bilingualism: fluency in or use of two languages. Growing up, I always thought knowing more languages meant smarter. Until I started school, when I was taught to only use Standard American English. As I began to use American English more, I began to lose my native tongue. Was this the goal of the education system, to train everyone to function under one language? Technically speaking, knowing more languages is power. The older you become, the harder it is for you to learn a new language. For each additional language you can speak, you are able to communicate with more of the world. However, society does not welcome diversity in languages like English. We have so many dialects and forms of English, but only the traditional form (Standard American English) is correlated with success while the other forms have negative connotations to them like “improper” or “broken”. This topic is important to me as I grew up in a household where multiple languages would always be circulating, especially with my mom who speaks 6 languages. In this paper, I will talk about how there IS power in bilingualism, how society contradicts this idea, and go back to the roots of how this problem began and the effect it has on the rise of the new generation.
My mom came to the US when she was just 18 for a better future. Before coming she had already known Cantonese, Mandarin, Fujianese, Korean, Japanese, and her own version of “English”. When sharing this with my friends in school, they would always be so impressed and say the phrase, “She can make so much money as an airport translator”. This made me proud of my mother. For those who don’t know, an airport translator can make up to $54 an hour. When I brought it up to my mom, she always just laughed and told me it wasn’t that easy. I never really looked much into it. What I didn’t realize at the time was how her “broken” English was the reason why she was limited in her opportunities. People didn’t take her seriously because her letters sounded too “broken”, too “dull” and just “imperfect”. There were many times, even today when I had to talk for my mother so that she would be treated like everyone else. Similar to the experience that Tan had gone through. Tan, in her essay, gave us a time when she had to make a phone call for her mother. Although she was translating for her mom, she still changed the words her mother said to sound more respectable (Tan 3). She changed it from, “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” to “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.” Because of how society puts all these negative connotations on “broken” English, we often have to change the way we speak in order to succeed.
The big debate for years is whether there is power in bilingualism. And I can confidently say that there is power in knowing multiple languages. In the Times article, it says “A bilingual brain is not necessarily a smarter brain, but it is proving to be a more flexible, more resourceful one. In a polyglot world, that’s a lesson that a largely monoglot country like the U.S. ignores at its peril. ‘Monolingualism,’ says Gregg Roberts, a language-immersion specialist with the Utah state office of education, ‘is the illiteracy of the 21st century.’” (Kluger 5). A person who is able to speak multiple languages is able to think differently. They are more flexible and can actually be more resourceful than someone who only speaks one language. Starting from a young age, children begin to detect different noises and oftentimes, this means languages. Growing up, I was always able to tell the difference between all the Chinese languages and dialects. Even today, I am still able to differentiate each language and their origin. I work at a bakery that is in a very touristy area so a lot of non-English customers come. My co-worker, who only speaks one language, will always ask me when we overhear tourists talking whether or not they are speaking Mandarin. 95% of the time, they aren’t. I find it cool how I am able to tell so clearly, but my coworker hears all the same noises. In the article, “Bilingual children might have a superpower, Kameryn Griesser also backs up the claim that bilingual people, children, are more resourceful and flexible than a monolingual. “Arredondo said the brain is like a muscle, so the more you stretch it from early infancy, the more cognitively flexible you’re likely to become later on.” (Griesser ___). When children are taught to code-switch languages, they practice a part of their brain that monolinguals usually do not use. In the image below, it is a drawing shown to monolingual and bilingual children. Monolingual children tend to struggle a lot more to switch between the visual of a mouse and an old man. On the other hand, bilingual children are able to do it no problem as their brains are already used to going back and forth.
Did you know that language discrimination is actually a subset of national origin discrimination? But, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created to protect people from national origin and race discrimination. (source __) Therefore making language discrimination illegal. Yet this is such a common problem that people overlook because it isn’t “harming” any one. (I need to come back to this paragraph because I can’t find anything about how this started and when)
Some people may argue that being bilingual isn’t a skill and unbeneficial. However, according to the ___ being bilingual would add an extra skill to your application form. On average people who speak more than one language earn 11% more in their work. Employers are more likely to hire people who speak more languages. Not because they are discriminating, but science has proven that bilingual people are more flexible and strengthen one’s cognitive abilities. This is important to employers when hiring because they want someone who will do the job well and be able to resolve problems creatively and efficiently. Additionally, there is a really large amount of desire in people to be bilingual. Platforms like duolingo, were created especially for reasons like this showing that bilingualism is a desired trait.
People who are discriminated against for speaking more than one language that is not “perfect” and “standard” English tend to develop doubts about themselves. These societal “rules” on what language is accepted prevents them from thriving. Rather than unlocking their already built in skills, they try to learn the “proper” way and waste all their time there. These people, children, often are first generation students and may have been told by their parents to learn English to succeed. For me, I always felt so much pressure to learn English. Even if it meant that I lost my native tongues. My parents pushed me to English speaking schools and believed that they would teach me Standard American English. Immigrant parents like mine do not realize how the education system was always built for monolinguals and not bilinguals. It made it hard to learn and have interest in literature subjects.
Conclusion – wrap up
Reverse Outline Process:
Introduction:Topic/power punch startBackground+contextThesis
Body 1:Talk about mom + being able to speak so many languagesDidn’t realize at young age that because of her unperfect English, her opportunities were limitedIt was then I realized the how unaccepting society is to dialects and adjusted English
- Body 2:
Power in BilingualismUse sources to prove this- Maybe some historical facts
Use that reading about bilingual brains functioning differentlyThe benefits of being bilingual
- Body 3:
- How society shames broken English and where it began
- The idea of “broken” “correct” English
- The roots
- Body 4:
- Counter Claim
- Debate whether or not it is beneficial
- Body 5:
- Effect on society
- Eduction + my personal experiences
- Conclusion
- Need power punch ending + something to remember
Polished Draft
Cover Letter
This paper was hard for me. I felt like I had too much freedom and was worried about not being able to complete the assignment or do what you were asking us to do. Even after writing the paper, I feel like I wasn’t done. There was so much for us to write and it was hard to just condense it to 5 pages. I was stuck between whether I should do the traditional paper or more of an informal paper. I think I was able to do some of each style to work with each component of my essay. I was writing this essay to my peers from elementary school, who told me my mother could be an airport translator, and to bilingual children who struggle to accept their languages. I wanted to write my essay highlighting bilingualism to empower bilingual kids while simultaneously not bringing down monolingual children. At some points I felt like the language I was using was too complex for elementary kids and students learning another language so I had to change my mindset. What words would I have understood at that age? However, the word “bilingual” was a word I felt like I couldn’t change, that’s why I included a definition in the beginning. It was a word that did not have the same effect if I used a replacement.
Something I realized through writing was how pure and innocent children are. Although I already knew that, I didn’t completely think deeply about it. The phrase “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” was in the back of my head the whole time when writing this essay. It’s easier for us to tell kids things and have them listen. If we started to show kids the power of bilingualism when they are young, they will more likely believe it as they are growing up. Children only absorb what we give them so instead of pushing away bilingual children, we should be testing their limits and their “superpower” as many people today can only wish to speak another language. In this phase, I also thought about my mother a lot. In class, when we were going through the topics, the moment I heard “Power in Bilingualism” I thought about my mom being able to be a translator and making above minimum wage. I didn’t realize how hard it must have been on her to have these talents, but because of just her limited English, she was denied so many opportunities. For a minute, I put myself in her shoes and saw how unfair this was. Like in Amy Tan’s reading, I also wish people were able to see how smart my mother was in her native tongue.
This assignment helped me achieve three of the course learning outcomes: Examine how attitudes towards linguistic standards empower and oppress language users; Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaboration, revising, and editing; Locate research sources. It helped me achieve the first one because I was able to look more deeply into the effects of Standard American English to people, children, who were bilingual and the opportunities stripped away from those who didn’t speak “perfect” English. The second learning outcome I was able to practice, when writing my draft for peer review, I got lost in what I was writing so I had to take some time to do a reverse outline to see what the point of each of my paragraphs was. And the purpose for each paragraph. Then I was able to achieve the last one because I used the CCNY online library to look for my scholarly sources for my assignment.
“You Should Be A Translator”
“You Should Be A Translator”
Bilingualism: fluency in or use of two languages. Growing up, I always thought knowing more languages meant being smarter. Well that was until I started American school, where I was taught to only use Standard American English. As I began to use American English more, I began to lose my native tongue. Was this the goal of the education system, to train everyone to function under one language? Technically speaking, knowing more languages is power. The older you become, the harder it is for you to learn a new language. For each additional language you can speak, you are able to communicate with more of the world. However, society does not welcome diversity in languages like English. We have so many dialects and forms of English, but only the traditional form (Standard American English) is correlated with success while the other forms have negative connotations to them like “improper” or “broken.” This topic is important to me as I grew up in a household where multiple languages would always be circulating, especially with my mom who speaks 6 languages. In this paper, I will talk about how there IS power in bilingualism, how society fails to show the power in being bilingual, and the effect it has on the rise of the new generation.
My mom came to the US when she was just 18 for a better future. Before coming she had already known Cantonese, Mandarin, Fujianese, Korean, Japanese, and her own version of “English”. When sharing this with my friends in school, they would always be so impressed and say the phrase, “She can make so much money as an airport translator”. This made me proud of my mother. For those who don’t know, an airport translator can make up to $54 an hour. When I brought it up to my mom, she always just laughed and told me it wasn’t that easy. I never really looked much into it. What I didn’t realize at the time was how her “broken” English was the reason why she was limited in her opportunities. People didn’t take her seriously because her letters sounded too “broken”, too “dull” and just “imperfect”. There were many times, even today, when I had to talk for my mother so that she would be treated like everyone else. Similar to the experience that Tan had gone through. People with higher authority refused to treat our parents with respect because their pronunciations made them less “worthy”, they treated our parents differently. Tan, in her essay, gave us a time when she had to make a phone call for her mother. Although she was translating for her mom, she still changed the words her mother said to sound more respectable. She changed it from, “Why he don’t send me check, already two weeks late. So mad he lie to me, losing me money.” to “Yes, I’m getting rather concerned. You had agreed to send the check two weeks ago, but it hasn’t arrived.” (Tan 3) Because of how society puts all these negative connotations on “broken” English, we often have to change the way we speak in order to succeed.
The big debate for years is whether there is power in bilingualism. And I can confidently say that there is power in knowing multiple languages. In the article, “The Power of the Bilingual Brain” published by TIME in 2013, by Jeffrey Kluger, an editor at TIME and author of 12 books which one was nominated for an Emmy Award for TIME’s series A Year In Space, asserts that there is benefits of being bilingual and the power of a bilingual person and suggests that the brain of a bilingual person is more flexible and resourceful than a monolingual. He says, “‘A bilingual brain is not necessarily a smarter brain’, but it is proving to be a more flexible, more resourceful one. In a polyglot world, that’s a lesson that a largely monoglot country like the U.S. ignores at its peril. ‘Monolingualism,’ says Gregg Roberts, a language-immersion specialist with the Utah state office of education, ‘is the illiteracy of the 21st century.’” (Kluger 5) A person who is able to speak multiple languages is able to think differently. They are more flexible and can actually be more resourceful than someone who only speaks one language.
Starting from a young age, children begin to detect different noises and oftentimes, this means languages. Growing up, I was always able to tell the difference between all the Chinese languages and dialects. Even today, I am still able to differentiate each language and their origin. I work at a bakery that is in a very touristy area so a lot of non-English customers come. My co-worker, who only speaks one language, will always ask me when we overhear tourists talking whether or not they are speaking Mandarin. 95% of the time, they aren’t. I find it cool how I am able to tell so clearly, but my coworker hears all the same noises. In the article, “Bilingual children might have a superpower”, Kameryn Griesser, a reporter with a degree in journalism, also backs up the claim that bilingual people, children, are more resourceful and flexible than a monolingual, “Arredondo said the brain is like a muscle, so the more you stretch it from early infancy, the more cognitively flexible you’re likely to become later on.” When children are taught to code-switch languages, they practice a part of their brain that monolinguals usually do not use. Below is a drawing shown to monolingual and bilingual children. Monolingual children tend to struggle a lot more to switch between the visual of a mouse and an old man. On the other hand, bilingual children are able to do it no problem as their brains are already used to going back and forth. This drawing was shown to children rather than adults because children still have growing minds and are able to learn languages more efficiently so they are able to glance at the drawing and say what comes to their mind. Adults on the other hand, would look at the drawing until they are able to see both the man and the mouse giving us inaccurate data.
Some people may argue that being bilingual isn’t a skill and is unbeneficial. However, according to the article “Advantages of Being Bilingual” by Colin Baker, a professor in bilingual education, in bilingual education, being bilingual would add an extra skill to your application form. On average people who speak more than one language earn 11% more in their work. Employers are more likely to hire people who speak more languages. Not because they are discriminating, but science has proven that bilingual people are more flexible and strengthen one’s cognitive abilities. (Ro 2) This is important to employers when hiring because they want someone who will do the job well and be able to resolve problems creatively and efficiently. Additionally, there is a really large amount of desire in people to be bilingual. Platforms like Duolingo, were created especially for reasons like this showing that bilingualism is a desired trait. Why would people want to learn another language if it wasn’t beneficial? When I was younger, I was always ashamed of knowing another language and I tried to hide it. But as I grew up, I started to embrace my linguistic talents. Whenever someone, whether in class or a person in the street, needed help with translations, I would always be the first one to volunteer and be proud of it. Like now, there is a girl in my speech class who is learning English and I help her translate the teachers directions for her. Overall, being bilingual has benefited me in the long run.
Language discrimination has been a problem for decades and there were laws written to try to prevent it. Language discrimination is actually a subset of national origin discrimination. The Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created to protect people from national origin and race discrimination. Therefore making language discrimination illegal. Yet this is such a common problem that people overlook because it isn’t “harming” any one. The idea of “perfect” English stems from historical racism and the “white supremacy culture” in the U.S. (Alvarez 10). This is how the idea of “broken” English formed. So many immigrant families were discouraged to speak their native tongue and forced to attempt to speak Standard American English. This unspoken “rule” mostly affected bilingual immigrant households as they had no experiences or knowledge on the “perfect” English. This led to them speaking parts of English either with their accents or a combination of their native tongue. This was considered “improper” and “broken”.
People who are discriminated against for speaking more than one language that is not “perfect” and “standard” English tend to develop doubts about themselves. These societal “rules” on what language is accepted prevents them from thriving. Rather than unlocking their already built in skills, they try to learn the “proper” way and waste all their time there. These people, children, often are first generation students and may have been told by their parents to learn English to succeed. For me, I always felt so much pressure to learn English. Even if it meant that I lost my native tongues. My parents pushed me to English speaking schools and believed that they would teach me Standard American English. Immigrant parents like mine do not realize how the education system was always built for monolinguals and not bilinguals. It made it hard to learn and have interest in literature subjects.
Rather than shaming children for not speaking the “ideal” English, we should be helping them embrace their mother tongues. By shaming children, it can make them feel alienated and ashamed of their native tongue. In their article, “Children’s Early Bilingualism and Musical Training Influence Prosodic Discrimination of Sentences in an Unknown Language” by linguistic researchers Stepanov et al, they conducted a research on whether being bilingual affects children’s ability to learn music. They found that children who spoke more than one language were able to learn how to play music quicker than monolingual children, showing that being bilingual allows their brain to learn new skills better. However, we need to start helping bilingual kids succeed in the American education system. In the research essay, “You Are What You Speak: Language Choice in Bilinguals as a Strategy in Power Relations.” published in 1998, by Aida Martinovic-Zic, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, addresses the topic of whether or not language only serves for a communicative function and suggests that language does not only serve the purpose of communication but other functionalities such as work ethic. “You are what you speak”, by discouraging children to accept their mother tongue, we are stripping away a part of their identity. (Martinovic-Zic 1) In schools, we should be offering bilingual kids more resources or just a new form of teaching that is adjusted to the needs of these children. In Griesser’s article, she solidifies the claims made by Martinovic, she interviews teachers who say “‘I’ve had bright students that were so excellent in my bilingual class, where we spoke Spanish and English, but they were immediately moved to English-only classes, where they become a very mediocre student. They struggled. This should have been a smoother transition,’” (Griesser 10) A simple fix for this would be to offer classes in other languages, not just English. Offering more resources to bilingual students were solutions proposed by both authors.
Inevitably, it is hard to deny that there is no power in bilingualism, despite all the negative connotations tied with one “imperfect” language (English). Children who are bilingual are able to be more flexible, resourceful, and adapt more efficiently into the world when they are taught how to use their linguistic talents. Children should also be taught to realize that not being “smart” or “good” in one language, does not define their overall IQ and identity. Being older now, I realize how society makes it seem like being bilingual is a weakness when it is actually a strength. You are able to communicate with so many more people in the world, more countries, and who knows, maybe you can be a translator.
Works Cited
Álvarez, Brenda. “Linguistic Discrimination Still Lingers in Many Classrooms.” NEA, 19 May 2020, www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/linguistic-discrimination-still-lingers-many-classrooms.
Baker, Colin. Advantages of Being Bilingual, 18 Oct. 2023, www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/home/council-services/education-schools/bilingual-education/advantages-of-being-bilingual/#:~:text=Bilingualism%20strengthens%20cognitive%20abilities%20%2D%20bilingual,a%20variety%20of%20tasks%20simultaneously.
Griesser, Kameryn. “Bilingual Children Might Have a Superpower, UT Study Finds.” KXAN Austin, KXAN Austin, 7 Dec. 2022, www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/bilingual-children-might-have-a-superpower-ut-study-finds/.
Kluger, Jeffrey. “The Benefits of Learning a Second Language.” Time, Time, 29 July 2013, time.com/595/the-power-of-the-bilingual-brain/.
“Language Discrimination: The Grubb Law Group |.” The Grubb Law Group, 2017, www.grubblawgroup.com/employee-rights-and-information-center/discrimination/language-discrimination/.
Martinovic-Zic, Aida. “You Are What You Speak: Language Choice in Bilinguals as a Strategy in Power Relations.”, 28 Feb. 1998,
eric.ed.gov/?id=ED421872.
Ro, Christine. “The Pervasive Problem of ‘Linguistic Racism.’” BBC Worklife, BBC, 25 Feb. 2022, www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210528-the-pervasive-problem-of-linguistic-racism. Stepanov, Arthur, et al. “Children’s Early Bilingualism and Musical Training Influence Prosodic Discrimination of Sentences in an Unknown Language.” CCNY Library, 2018, cuny-cc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUNY_CC/gc81bt/cdi_scitation_primary_10_1121_1_5019700.
