Why was it
meaningful? What really stood out to you?
What does this
reveal about the relationship between language and power?
In class today, I took part in a group discussion about the
Text, "How to tame a wild tongue" by Anzaldua. Throughout the text,
we kept making references back to Language and Power, which is the basis of our
unit. One of the quotes that we elaborated on and really stood out to me during
our discussion was, ""Wild tongues can't be tamed they can only be
cut out.". We all agreed that this was hinting towards the real meaning of
the text, in expressing that your language or dialect cannot be tamed but is
very possible to be eliminated. But, how exactly can language be "eliminated"? Well, in order to answer this question, you have to think about how language is kept alive; the more people speak it, the more powerful it is.This quote reveals the Furthermore, this expresses the authors
thoughts on to what extent language is considered powerful, thus "how do you tame a wild tongue?" ? A language cannot be tamed= It is a wild tongue. This quote, and more specifically the text reveals that ss long as a language is spoken, it will continue to develop and stay 'alive' through culture. Language is only as powerful as the number of people that share it and speak it. One part of our group discussion that was meaningful to me and will stay with me was how we all agreed that language is a part of our identity, and that without it, we would missing a part of ourselves. The author feels that language is a part of her identity and I feel that as well. How do we communicate? How do we share our beliefs and values? What makes us different from others in the world? A lot of us, including myself, were able to see ourselves in the text and really relate to the message behind the story; language is a part of our identity and as rightful human beings, we need it in order to express ourselves profoundly and efficiently.
