Week 7&8: Response 2

In Marquez’s essay, she points out why most immigrants and their children still speak in their native tongue when in public, and why they still do speak their native tongue. She makes a point that they often speak in their native tongue out of respect for their elders, while at the same time providing a sense of comfort for them, since most immigrants who have English as a second language are not too fluent in it and therefore can have communication issues with it. She also points out the commons fears that most people have when hearing others speak a language they cannot in a public place, and that is fear and unpatriotic. People sometimes have a fear of others who are speaking a language they don’t understand because they often worry about what they are talking about, and they also feel that it is unpatriotic to speak another language in America even though we do not have an official language that is required by law to be spoken. She points out that it is not rude of them to speak their native tongue when in public, though it is rude for them to speak a language in front of a person who doesn’t understand it, when that person is trying to partake in the conversation. Marquez gives an example of how she will introduce a friend to her parents in English when she knows that her friend doesn’t speak Spanish, so that person does not feel uncomfortable.