Exploring My Language: A Follow Up to" Exploring Minha Lingua, and Como Tame a Lingua Desobediente"

       When Ms. Parham gave us this assignment, I immediately though about the language my family speaks at home. My mother and I are from Brazil, my stepfather is American, and we all speak English, and Portuguese. For myself , English was my first written language, but my second spoken language. For my mom, it was her second written and spoken language, and for my step dad, Portuguese was his second spoken language, but he never really learned to write it. Now, you can only imagine the mixture of the two languages there is in my house. In almost every sentence I say, just so my mother doesn't nag me about speaking Portuguese because she doesn't want me to forget it, I either switch some words to Portuguese, or to English. There, she has the best of both worlds; both parties are happy.

       Writing that blog the way we spoke at home was easy as cake. Like I mentioned, it is a part of who I am, the way I grew up. It is our "Portuglish," just like Anzaldua describes all different dialects of English and Spanish like tex-mex and Chicano. At home, we communicate more-than-meaningful ideas. It is easy for us to understand each other, because we created this common tongue where we learn to communicate despite the differences in the languages and our preferences.  Although confusing to other people, maybe even other portugues/english speaking families, to us, it is liberating, it is meaningful it is communication in our family. We live out our culture, even though we live in a different land than that of our birth, through the way we speak, while honoring our now Americanized and "Citizen of the United States" status. By speaking this mix of both Portuguese and English, we honor ourselves to the country we live in, while at the same time staying firmly rooted in our culture, and contributiing to keeping our language, portuguese, a "living language."

Exploring Minha Lingua, and Como Tame a Lingua Desobediente

         Minha lingua nao me define. Em casa, eu and minha mae falamos portugues, English, e uma mistura because nos estamos used to talking like this. There is no such thing as “Standard English” na minha casa. Nos nao falamos portugues direito, e o ingles: quebrado. Even if eu aprendi a falar the right way, this is who we are. A minha familia e assim. Mesmo if it seems confusing to outras pessoas, this is how we speak. E o nosso jeito de communicate.  Just like there are all different jeitos de falar, como Anzaldua says in her essay, us Brazilian/American mixed families falamos assim. We change every second or third palavra in our sentences and na nossa conversa, because we are acostumados a falar this way. The kids crecem aprednendo ingles, the parents ja falam, mais como second language, e ai you have your mistura. Notice how facil it is for me to read o que eu escrevi. Esta gravado no meu brain, guardado no meu coracao. I know o proque que I talk like this. E porque eu nao fui alphabetized no Brasil, mais in the United States. Eu aprendi minha lingua de nacsencia second hand, from meus pais e a minha familia, and at the same time aprendi o ingles. Now, quando eu quero falar something em portugues, mais nao sei como, I say it in English, porque its easier pra mim. Just like I say, “eu fui alphabetized,” e porque como Portuguese is my birth language, but my second forma learned, “ na escola” language, I mix it com o ingles at home porque my parents querem que it stays a “living language” in our family. Se eu falo tudo in English, minha mae gets mad. She wants me to speak in portugues because ela fala, “ voce e brasileira, nao Americana, vai esquecer sua lingua de nacencia.” She thinks eu vou esquecer minha lingua that I speak since I could falar da primeira vez.  Eu fui Americanized. Just like Anzaldua says that all kids who speak Ingles as a segunda lingua are forcados to conform to “standard English.”

Eu nao me conformo; I will not conform. 

         Eu nasci no meu Brazil, e vim para essa terra estrangeira. Aprendi a lingua dos brancos, e fui forcada a esquecer a minha lingua dos indios, minha lingua Brasil. Mas eu nao esqueco, jamais. Esta gravada em mim, na minha vida, na minha alma. Meu Deus fala em portugues, meu coracao chora em protugues, minha mente e a minha conciencia fala em protugues,  e EU FALO EM PROTUGUES. Sepre falarei. Se eu tiver que me conformar, se conform somente quando a hora e certa de ser formal e direta. Mas quando eu quero ser mim mesma, ser quem eu sou, eu falo o meu protugues. Seja misturado com ingles, ou puro como aprendi quando era crianca. Eu continuarei, minha lingua vivera em mim mesmo quando eu morrer, minha lingua vivera, e ninguem ira destruir-la.

I WILL NOT CONFORM. 

Ukraine- The View from Brazil, England, and France

The crisis in Ukraine is becoming more and more of a global concern as time progresses. Because the world is so "united" in times of crisis, every country has something to say in a different perspective. Because almost every country is connected in some sort of relations, be it trade or diplomacy, when one is in trouble and in need of aid, or when it is compromising trade, prices, and the economy for other countries, suddenly everyone becomes concerned. Other countries sometimes stay on the sideline, watching as the big guns- the US, Germany, the UK, China, Japan, etc. mediate or reprehend the crisis between countries- and commenting on their choices of decisions on mediation or reprehension.

Although France has been more on the sidelines than the frontlines during this crisis between the Ukraine and Russia, they have some pretty strong opinions on how other countries are getting involved. On the news source “Les Echos, France,” and article was posted titled: “Ukraine: Obama does not want to yield to Russia.” This title does not say much about France’s opinion, but wait until you begin reading the article! France’s news source’s opening line claims that president Obama and the EU are posing political and economic threats to force Russia to negotiate and find a solution for the crisis. France is sitting on the side mostly, just analyzing and observing other countries’ decisions, comments, and their every move.  

France also seems to be focusing on the main “mediators” in this crisis: the Europe/ EU and US. Although in French, the news source stated that, “Barack Obama, the U.S. president, announced that a referendum in the Crimea would violate international law (translated).”  Barack Obama also announced that if the violation of international law by Russia continues, the position of the United States and its allies stand firm. Now, the question posed is, what is the position of the allies on this issue? What does Obama mean when he says their position is firm? Is this indicating military intervention in Russia, Ukraine, or both by the allied powers?  In this article, France seems more concentrated and concerned on the decisions of the US and the EU and how they will impact Russia and the Ukraine. France’s opinions seem a little strong because of the fact that they said Obama and the EU was threatening Russia. Now, we cant tell if France thinks that’s a good thing or a bad thing, because they seem neutral, but it is interesting that it was called “threatening” in the first place.

Brazil seems to approach the crisis in a different way than France. The perspective of Brazil in BBC news Brazil was on a more economic level. Of course, the US is always a point of interest of other countries’ news, and Brazil is focused on how the crisis in the Ukraine might affect the US and the EU, and other smaller countries of less importance in their article. Brazil mentions repeatedly that the fear of war between Russia and Ukraine is already affecting international prices, and that “ this week, the wheat reached its maximum value in 17 months…Corn reached the highest price since September…on Monday gas came to rise 10%.)  Brazil’s stance on the issue is taking on a more economic aspect; Brazil is worried about how potential war between the Ukraine and Russia might affect the economy of the world.

BBC news Europe has a more neutral, unspecific perspective on the crisis in the Ukraine.  They are focusing mainly on breaking news, and important updates. BBC News Europe states, “EU leaders are to begin an Emergency summit to decide how they should respond to Russia’s troop deployment in Ukraine’s Crimea region.” Their focus is more on keeping the people informed, and not taking any biased stances, or focusing on one aspect such as Brazil focuses on the affects the crisis might have on the economy or France focuses on the US and EU’s decisions on the crisis. From this news source, you can infer that BBC is more concerned “with what happens next,” and the decisions that will make or break that- if war is evident- or if there will be peaceful mediation.