Ja que eu nao tenho tempo de escrever posts para o blog mas tenho escrito textos para o jornal da escola e para minhas aulas vou postar uns textos interessantes que tenho escrito.
Ludwig Wittgenstein claims that “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” In other words Wittgenstein is saying that based on what you speak, how you speak, your accent, etc, society limits your access to the world, meaning that society limits your world view towards people, places and the environment you live in.
These arguments have a considerable application towards both immigrants and people that speak dialects of English. On the article by Amy Tan “Mother Tongue” we were able to see different examples of how language affects an immigrant’s behavior. In the article Tan uses anecdotes in order to show her audience how her mother suffered the consequences of not having English as her mother tongue. The writer argues that she used to believe that her “mothers English reflected the quality of what she had to say.” Many people agree with what Tan used to believe. They might limit immigrants life’s only because of the way they speak. People that don’t know how to communicate in “standard English” suffer the consequences of this fact, and even their opinions are taken in to consideration.
I am an immigrant. I came from Brazil and I have seen how society limits people that aren’t included in this pattern that Standard English became. Usually some of my friends call me asking to go to the Court with them in order to be a translator. People usually get tickets for parking in wrong places, high speed or drinking and driving. Society has limited immigrants accesses to the world in a point that they don’t want to speak their broken English to people that are in power. They’d rather state that they don’t speak English at all and call a friend to translate for them. They don’t even try to articulate with the English they know. People usually do that because they think the way they speak can affect the meaning of what they have to say. They think that someone that speak a better English would have more privilege when it come to people that has authority.
However, some might disagree with this argument. They might argue that “In Rome you may do as Romans.” Meaning that if immigrants come to the USA in order to live in a better place; they might learn how to communicate the way we communicate here. If people come to a country they must learn what/how they act, dress, learn and mainly how they communicate in this new place.
The purpose of coming to a new country isn’t to change the culture of this country, but instead, to adapt to this culture the way it has been. If immigrants come to the US in order to be well accepted, and to be part of society, meaning talking to people and attending to places like ordinary people they should know how to communicate in a proper way. In order not to limit their access to the world, one might learn how to communicate because if they don’t, society will limit their world view.
Although I agree with this counterargument, I maintain that even though people should learn how to communicate in a proper way, their world access can’t be limited only for that reason. Immigrant’s world access can’t be limited only because English is not their mother tongue. English is not my mother tongue and I feel the consequences of that. When I go to College Interviews, sometimes the interviewers ask me questions that I don’t understand, by asking them to repeat or explain what they meant, I feel that they underestimate me. This limits my access to the world because of the way I speak. My “world” meaning the place, environment I would have: College, can be limited by one word I misunderstood.
In sum, then, I agree with Ludwig Wittgenstein. The fact that I am Brazilian and she is Austrian can affect our opinions. We have been going through problems by being immigrants and we know how language does affect our access to the world.
