Native Speaker 2

Overall I enjoyed Native Speaker; it was a good book to read. There were many important themes in this book such as Mitt dieing, race, marriage and relationships (Henry and Lelias). All of those things could be talked about in great depth but I’m going to focus on something else. What I found very interesting was the whole idea of language in this book. It really made me think. I think that Language was a very important topic and applies to what’s been going on in the world and still is today. In this book it was mainly about Korean children learning the English language but it applies to all nationalities. There is much to be said about language. First of all language is more than just a bunch of letters and words. It tells about people’s history and where they came from, it’s a culture. So when different nationalities come to
America they are faced with a major problem. It’s basically impossible to come to
America without learning the English language but at the same time they want to preserve their own culture and their own language, but how do they do so? Is it even possible? Usually families move to
America with little children who are going to start to learn English in school and become friends with a bunch of other American children. They soon are going to be associated with the English language and American ways and traditions. Soon they will probably barely remember how to speak their native language and become just like every other American kid. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I mean if you’re going to live in
America you probably should know how to speak English but are culture’s being lost? Also you see that a lot of kids can speak it better than their parents, and their parents are still set in their own traditions based on their own culture while their children are almost completely Americanized, that too could cause some problems. The solution seems to be keep it balanced, keep some of your own ways and some American. Talk English when necessary and your own language other times. It may sound like an easy fix. But it’s a lot harder said than done and this is definitely a situation many are faced with.