Bilingual Reflection

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Recently I had the pleasure of sitting and listening to a panel of fellow Winthrop students who were bilingual. They gave us an insight into their everyday lives and life growing up being able to speak both English and Spanish. Also, they expressed their pride, joy, insecurities, and hardships of being bilingual in America. After attending Common Book: Life on the Hyphen it encouraged me to be less judgmental towards peers who are not only bilingual but those students who are different from me. Furthermore, I really enjoyed this event because it was inspiring to watch young students speak so highly of their family, culture, and language. I believe that it is truly a gift to be able to speak two languages and I loved how they encouraged…show more content…
Cristian Arcega, one of the four Latino teenagers who had defeated MIT to win the underwater robotics championship, speaks of being taunted and bullied on the school bus on the school bus by other kids. “Some of the kids weren’t welcoming. He remembers hearing the word wetback for the first time on the school” (Davis 23). The derogatory term wetback is used to define a Mexican living in America, particularly without authorization. Sadly, every day he would fall victim to constant insults, but it was his determination, much like the young ladies on the panel, to overcome and be better than what he was labeled to be. Also, the ladies on the panel also conveyed that they were also discriminated against back in the countries where they had grown up. They would visit Puerto Rico, Mexico, Honduras, or any other Spanish speaking country and be criticized for being too “American” or too “white”. They referred to the term gringa as a word they would often be said to them while they were visiting their families in their native lands. “Gringa” can be described as a female foreigner, especially from U.S or British accent, visiting Latin America or Spain and can be used offensively. It seems to me that Latin America has some work to do along with America if you ask me. In my opinion, all of humanity needs to work on becoming nonjudgmental human

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