My audience for my language and literacy narrative is not only meant to be my professor as well as my peers/classmates, but also people who have similar experiences. As someone who only speaks one language, it is frustrating when there are people who constantly speak to you in different languages, especially when they know that you can’t understand them. I am hoping that there is someone out there who will read this and relate to what I wrote.

I really wanted to convey my emotions in my reading because of how personal the topic is, so I was able to use a lot of pathos, which revolves around the writer’s emotions. Going through life, there has always been one issue that has persistently bothered me, and that is not knowing Spanish, which is what I wrote about.

The first phase of the semester was mainly about learning about different rhetorical strategies and how to properly use them, as well as how to properly write a narrative. Overall, it helped too greatly improve my writing as well as my use of rhetorical strategies. I have taken lots of ELA classes in the past, so it wasn’t like any of it was new to me, but it was still helpful nonetheless, and I am very happy with the way my narrative turned out.

Jayden Santiago

9-12-22

No Hablo Espanol

Growing up, I always heard people speaking different languages where I lived.  There are a lot of different groups of people that live in the Bronx, so it wasn’t a surprise to hear people not speaking English outside.  However, the languages spoken at my home were what I was most interested in.  I am Puerto Rican, and my parents speak Spanish and English.  However, I only speak English.  My parents neglected to teach me Spanish, and I never learned how to speak it.

I somewhat resent my parents for never teaching me Spanish.  Sometimes at home, my dad will talk to me in Spanish, knowing very well that I don’t understand him.  When I ask him what he is saying, he acts annoyed and surprised that I don’t know, despite him purposefully speaking to me when I don’t understand him.  My mom would also speak to me in Spanish, but she knows better than to keep doing it year after year when I don’t know, unlike my dad.  My mom even feels bad for me, saying that she is sorry for never teaching me, and that not doing so was a mistake.

Even so, my father would speak Spanish to my mother a lot.  This always bothered me, not because he was speaking Spanish, but because of what he was saying.  I obviously couldn’t understand him, but it was obvious whenever he was – for lack of a better term – talking shit about me.  His tone would change, his voice would be low, and he would be talking to my mom in a more serious manner.  I don’t have the best relationship with my dad, which is not important right now, but being able to understand what he says about me is one reason that I wish I learned Spanish.

Moving on, being outside is another place where I frequently hear people speaking Spanish, which I previously mentioned.  However, the problem lied when people would talk to me in Spanish.  There have been countless times where Dominican and Mexican people have come up to me to, presumably, ask for directions to somewhere.  The worst part about not being a Spanish speaker is that people will see me in the street, they will see that I am hispanic, and will immediately assume that I speak it.  When they do speak to me, I say “I’m sorry I don’t speak Spanish”, and hope that they either leave me alone or repeat their question in English, and when they don’t understand me, I have to resort to “no hablo Espanol”, one of the few Spanish phrases I know.  The entire process is as annoying as it sounds.

Honestly, I began to feel jealous towards my own Spanish speaking friends that I knew from school.  Honestly, I even found it a little funny.  Sometimes when they would say the names of Spanish foods and think “I don’t even know what you are saying man”.  Sometimes, I would even jokingly think to myself, “In a different timeline I know what you’re saying”.  The real hardships always came at school, not specifically because of my friends, but because of my classes.  In my freshman, sophomore, and junior years in highschool, I had to take mandatory Spanish classes.  I found myself struggling with the classes, especially in my junior year.  It got to the point where I would neglect to do my homework assignments, to the point that I got an NX in the class during one marking period (I technically didn’t fail but it was basically just as bad).  I would see that my Spanish-speaking friends were easily passing the class, and I obviously wasn’t too happy about it, but I ended up asking them for help so I wasn’t as annoyed with them as before.

Overall, I am a hispanic that never learned Spanish, and it has affected me in ways that I am never happy about. However, but I am starting to understand some of it, but only certain phrases, and I can’t understand more advanced sentences, and definitely cannot hold a conversation in Spanish.  I plan to actually speak and fully understand it in the future.