From Christine Hirose:
"My father's voice, usually deep and even, sounded strange to my ears. In English, his voice lost its strength. The steadiness was gone; it was quiet and hesitant. Did all Hmong voices lose the strength of their voices in English? I hoped not. I noticed that the people, even the women, were taller than my father. In the camps, he had been a good height for a man. In that hallway, he said the words again and again and the people didn't seem to notice he was speaking to them. We stood there trying." (118)
What was your experience like speaking another language (in the USA or travels)? How did it make you feel? (Voice)
English is my second language, so I understood her feeling and her father's feeling well. When I speak with native speakers, Americans, or other people who came from different countries, I felt frustrated and I thought I was stuck or I was blocked by something like a wall between me and those people. It is still hard for me to express about how I feel of something I experience and talk to Non-Korean in English. Writing an essay in English makes me feel bad or stressed because I have to worry about all of grammar structures, organizations, and other things to get a good grade from the professors.
ReplyDeleteI traveled to a part of canada for an east coast tour this summer and the majority spoke french there. It was a difficult experience asking people for directions to places and even ordering food was difficult. Either they spoke barely any english or none at all. It made me feel like i was a foreigner in a different country.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is my second language, so i knew how her father felt and i could sympathize with him. Speaking in a different language than what you were originally taught is a very hard experience. It feels like everything you say is not understood so one must feel that they should not even talk at all or maybe talk less. When I first spoke English, I felt scared because i thought that people were judging me. I felt very self conscious and I always felt like I should never talk in a public setting.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm the youngest of my family, I'm the most Americanized, and unlike my older sisters, I can't speak Vietnamese aside from ordering a bowl of Pho. When my relatives try to speak to me in Vietnamese, I feel simply ashamed, and just nod or find my parents. This made me avoid speaking it altogether, and I won't even pick up the phone in fear that I'd hear Vietnamese at the other end of the receiver. Even when I went to Japan, I was able to speak more than my family's native tongue. It's tough and frustrating not being able to convey what you're trying to say, but it feels even worse when someone is trying to talk to you, and you just ignore them.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking in a foreign language that is not native to me is difficult. My voice is weaker while speaking in a foreign language because it does not feel natural and my vocabulary is limited. Speaking in a language that is new and foreign makes me feel self conscious because other people may speak it fluently.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is my second language, so I have been struggling with taking classes in English, especially the speaking part. I can totally understand her father’s feeling and situation. I am not a shy at all when I was in my country and communicate with people in Japanese. About 2 years ago, when I came to the U.S, I took one of GE class (HUMA) in my first quarter. On the second day of the class, I found out I was the only international student and all other students were native speakers. I became very nervous and was almost crying when we had a group work at that day. When I speak English, my voice became weak. Sometimes, I even feel my personality might have been changed to be a quiet person ;)
ReplyDeleteEnglish is my second language. The feeling of speaking a foreign language is horrible. It is frustrating when you want to say something, but you don't know how to express your thoughts. It is embarrassing when you said something, but it doesn't make sense to others. It is depressing when nobody wants to talk to you because they don’t understand you.
ReplyDeleteI have been in here, America, for over three years, but until now I feel strange when I speak in English. Even emergency case I need to translate from Korean to English. It is too hard to speak in English unconsciously. If I was in here for travels, it would be OK. However, living in America is different. English is desperately needed and it (language) is too much stress for foreigners.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is my second language. This quarter I've been taking all english subjects.To be honest I'm really having hard time talking and at the same time writing on my essays. I do understand english but when i respond I cant hardly say the words. Its feel like there's boundary communicating with someone, thats why sometimes teacher thinks that i am not cooperating at all.Its just so deppressing...
ReplyDeleteEnglish was my first language. Both my parents speak Khmer and so does my sister. I always wanted to learn how to speak Khmer fluently but could never be able to. When i try to speak Khmer to either my family members or even to strangers, i feel weak and uncomfortable. I forget words im positive i know and i could at times feel my voice trembling. It saddens me that im one of the few in my family who cant speak out native language fluently. Makes me feel less Cambodian.
ReplyDeleteI learned English and Chinese at the same time while growing up. It was hard to learn both languages at the same time. Now I speak English way more than Chinese, and when it comes time to speak in Chinese, it feels weird. I feel awkward like others are judging me. Cause I'm sure I have an americanized accent.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger I used to travel to Japan with my brother to visit aunts and uncles. We were both going to Japanese Sunday school so could speak very basic Japanese. Knowing the basics such as bathroom, food, phone, etc. helped tremendously. It provided an ease of mind knowing that if my brother or I were to get lost, we would be able to get by.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, during my deployment to Iraq, I didn't know much. I knew hello/good-bye and stop. This made it very hard when talking with locals on our patrols. We were VERY dependent on our interpreter and made my fellow Marines and myself feel helpless. All the troubles were compounded by being in a combat zone. We didn't want to harm someone because of a language miscommunication. This forced us to be very patient when trying to understand what someone was trying to say and on the flip side when trying to explain ourselves to the local populace.
English is my first language, in terms of reading and writing. My parents taught me how to speak Vietnamese when I was little, but I never learned how to read or write until after I learned English. Like many people born and raised in the US, they speak English in schools. So everything you learn is used with English. I can read and write Vietnamese okay, and I can only speak decently, as in a means of basic communication. My Vietnamese vocabulary is very limited, so I don't know any big words, or the words for many things. So in a way, I can't really communicate effectively in Vietnamese as well as I can in English, and it just makes my voice weaker.
ReplyDeleteBefore I attended preschool I only knew one language, which was Vietnamese. I had two teachers, one who was Vietnamese and the other who i can't remember. Whenever the Vietnamese teacher wasn't around I wasn't able to get my voice across to the other teacher when I needed something or for some other reason. The language barrier prevented me from making friends during that time. Funny, now I cannot speak any Vietnamese and English is my only language.
ReplyDeleteWhen I came here to America, I didn't know a single word of English. Learning it was basically like trying to decipher gibberish in a sense. My tongue had been so used to speaking pure Vietnamese, that bending it in different ways and making out sounds entirely different than what I had been accustomed to my whole life was just really frustrating, initially. But after awhile I got used to it and now I find English relatively easy.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is my second language. I feel it is more difficult to express myself when I speak English. also because it is not my first language, it is easily to feel nervous and embarrassing when I make some grammar or word mistake when I talk to someone else who speak English as their first language.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is only my second language and as I was trying to adapt the new culture here in the United States, I was able to learn it and find ways to express myself. Sometimes I still feel awkward speaking it because I got used to my native language. It is definitely hard to express oneself using a language that they're not familiar with, but it takes time to built up confidence in order to get use to something that we are trying to achieve. I think that sometimes people will look at you differently or judge a person base on how well you speak english. It's just a matter of self respect and how we perceive different cultures in our society.
ReplyDeleteEnglish is my 2nd language despite being born in America. So when i was little i had a hard time speaking english. I feel uncomfortable when i see their puzzled expression from not understanding me. Your voice is how you communicate what type of person you are and how you should be treated. If you speak in a hesitant, low self-esteem way people will treat like you like a low self-esteem person. But it's not always easy to sound confident and strong in a language that is unfamiliar to you. I feel the same as Kao's father when i was little.
ReplyDelete