In the passage, “The Good Immigrant Student”, Minh Nguyen writes about herself growing up and learning the difficulty immigrant children have. She had to fit in school and act like the other kids there. From an early age she had to “Americanize” because her mother believed that the American culture will take over. She could not live the double life like other immigrant kids because she wanted to go through school unnoticed. As she grew up, she forgot who she was. She became anxious and shy because she had to act like the “good immigrant student.”

In paragraph 28 Nguyen states, “I would like to make a broad, accurate statement about immigrant children in schools. I would like to speak for them (us). I hesitate; I cannot”. The meaning of this is that she wants to send a message to all immigrant students who struggled just like her growing up, but she cannot. Her experience can be different from those who went through the same thing. She realized she cannot speak for everyone in her community, because they could have gone through something completely different like her sister. Nguyen states, “My own sister for instance, was never shy as I was – she chose rebellion rather than silence.” This clearly points out that even though they had the same backstory and were raised the same way, she went through a different experience than her sister.

While reading ‘’Inaugural Address’’ by John F. Kennedy and ‘’The Gettysburg Address’’ by Abraham Lincoln I noticed that both Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy had similar large positive effects in american history. Both John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln spoke about lack of equality, liberty of all people and they both worked hard for colored people. Lincoln wanted to free the slaves while Kennedy wanted black people to be treated equally. They both wanted freedom for colored people. In the “Inaugural Address” Kennedy says “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.” and “ask not what your country can do, but what you can do for your country.” He says this basically explaining that we should have equality within all of us and that we need to do more for our people and our country rather than worrying about what our country can do for us. When Lincoln speaks, he says “a new birth of freedom and the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” He’s talking about human equality and change that has to be done in order for there to actually be equality within all humans. Both Kennedy and Lincoln wanted the same thing, equality and freedom for humans, especially colored people and they tried their best to create change and they did. Unfortunately they both wanted the same and they were both the only presidents that were assassinated. They will always be remembred. 

Even though Malcolm X was incarcerated, he was still able to educate himself further in the English language. It’s amazing how he rewrote the entire dictionary and taught himself how to read it correctly and fluently. It goes to show how free minded he was and even though he was incarcerated, he was still determined to learn new things and expand his mind. Malcolm X while incarcerated still felt free within himself and within his own mind. Malcolm X did say “I never had been so truly free in my life” because even though he was incarcerated, he was free mentally and was able to still receive new knowledge every single day he was reading. Doing this helped him to achieve his goals and he got the most out of his experience in prison more than anyone else. Malcolm X said “I don’t think anybody ever got more out of going to prison than I did” which was a true statement because he changed his whole life and his way of thinking while being incarcerated and by educating himself. In prison too it was much easier for him to learn as much as he did because there weren’t any distractions as supposed to college he said. Malcolm X said “I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with college is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but in prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day.” He was never distracted and was always able to focus and take care of his business no matter the circumstances. What this narrative suggests about the relationship between literature and freedom is that being able to focus and equip new knowledge can help you to free your mind and reach goals that you never thought could be reached. Malcolm X no matter his situation was determined and focused on enlightening himself and he opened his mind and educated himself while incarcerated. He was only able to do that because even though he wasn’t free literally, he was free mentally which helped him to become who he was truly meant to be. Literature helped him to become more free than he ever felt in his entire life. 

Matthew Rodriguez

The English language played a specific role in Amy’s life because growing up she didn’t like the way her mother spoke English. The Chinese accent overpowered the English words and Amy was bothered by it. Amy said, “I was ashamed of her English. I believe that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say…she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect.” Amy’s mother having what she agreed was “broken English” pushed Amy to learn the standardized format of the English language. Through this transition in language Amy’s language bias is recognized as she abandons her native tongue for a language that is more modern and recognized.

English shaped Amy’s perception of herself because she used English as a way to manifest the lifestyle she wanted to live and the goals she wanted to set for herself. Amy not liking her mother’s version of English allowed her to learn the “correct” way to speak the language but it also revealed to her the people in society that treat her mother negatively because of it and I think it opened her eyes to be more empathetic towards her mother and actually support her and no longer be embarrassed but more of an advocate for her mother at the store, over the phone, in the hospital when she wasn’t getting her MRI scans and even at the bank when they wouldn’t provide the mother her check. All results of English speakers not taking Amy’s mother seriously due to her lack of English skills.

Amy acknowledges societal perception of the English language and states how people act as if there is only one right way to speak English other than “the English I do use with [my mother].” Through once scene in particular when Amy is talking to her mom in broken english and realized that it’s natural for her to speak to her mother in that native tongue it seemed that she noticed her own language bias of not wanting to hear her mother speak it, but how she automatically speaks in that tongue consciously when speaking to her mother. Amy said “It’s my mother’s tongue. Her language as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. This was the language that helped me shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.” Here we see the importance of language that is taught to us growing up and how it molds us into the people we are today. She shows how language can play a vital role in one’s life and upbringing and helps to shape your identity.

I think that many people who learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the way language is used around them because they are trying intensively to learn the language. Non-English speakers seem to have more of an urge and passion to learn English because it is the most common language in many parts of the world and people that know English tend to have more advantages than those that don’t know English. There are many people in my family where English is their second language and it wasn’t easy for them, but in order to work they were more motivated to grasp the format. Learning the English language also helped to shape them as individuals because it took them out of their comfort zone and allowed them to experience a whole different world revolving around the English language. Non-english speakers are very aware of the language being used around them because they are also aware of the biases they face not knowing the language and even the educational and societal disadvantages that come with not knowing. 

Hello my name is Matthew Rodriguez (he/his) , and my intended major is Psychology.

After reading over the syllabus, I am mostly excited to learn how to write clearly in using different types of academic formats that I was not taught in high high school. What I am very nervous about after reading the syllabus is having to use technology to write and revise my work because most of my written work throughout my life was not online. The qualities of a good writer is patience, having the ability to write intellectually, and being able to use evidence to help your writing make sense to the person reading it. It is important to be able to write well because it can help you to think about more ideas when it comes to your everyday life. For example, if I can think quickly when I write and be able to focus while doing that, then that could help me to focus more and think more quickly and decisively in everyday task in my life. The easiest part about writing for me is being able to think freely when it comes to the ideas that flow through my head. If you gave me an assignment to write about something I can relate to, then I could easily write a lot about it because of how free my mind is while writing. A skill that I do well in writing is write passionately about what I am saying so the person reading can actually feel what I am saying and understand me without even being there. The hardest part about writing for me is writing many pages because I did not get that experience in high school. What I could do to work on it is to have more patience when I am writing essays that require five or more pages. I am not very sure about what genres I will be expected to write for my major in psychology. But if I were to guess, I feel like I would have to write about what is wrong with my patients and how do their experiences align with their behavior and the way that they act towards certain situations. I might also have to write and talk about how I can help them and different ways to fix their problems. I am a people person and I can read and understand people very well and why they do the things they do. I definitely feel confident that my ability to understand people can help me to do very well in this field.