In 2003, I walked into the corridors of Loyola Academy, a private Jesuit high school in a prestigious neighborhood; Wilmette, Illinois. Looking around me, it seemed as if 90 percent of the population was White-Caucasian, 5% Black or Hispanic, and the other 5% were people of other nationalities. I felt like an outcast being a dark skinned, middle eastern Christian, with dark brown hair and eyes. I walked into my first class ever in high school and heard a few people talking. They were talking about me. I could hear someone whispering into another persons ear, “Hey, look, it’s Osama’s cousin.” I felt like a no body.
Its 2011 now. I look back on this occasion and laugh to myself. A quote from Chapter 1 in the book, Dialogic Approaches to TESOL; Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows, states, “Because English has become a worldwide language, many native speakers of English have never learned a second language, and this limits their understandings of other cultures” (12). This quote clearly explains why the person in my class said such awful things about me. It was obvious that “this” person had little to no understanding about other cultures and stereotyped me as “Osama’s cousin” because of my dark, middle eastern heritage.
Moreover, a solution to this problem is that learning a second language as an English native speaker may open many doors, such as enhancing the understanding of other cultures. As a future language teacher, I hope to work in a dual-language classroom where native English speakers and native Spanish speakers can collaborate using scaffolding strategies to enhance both of their second languages. Thus, creating a less stereotypical mindset.
Your story is unbelievable. I can't believe people actually treat each other that way. I agree with the quote you stated. English speaking people, because it's a high power language, seem to have to belief that they won't need another language (whatever that means...) But you've brought it out of the context of the book and made the true observation that this might be a major cause of intolerance in our country. I agree wholeheartedly. If more English speakers took time to learn the culture and language of another country or group of people, we would be more tolerant as a whole.
ReplyDeleteComing from Glenview, I found your story to be really surprising in the sense that there is such a huge difference in diversity in such a small span of space. However, I can completely understand when you felt like a nobody. When I first came to ISU, it was a huge culture shock because the majority of the population was Caucasian and everyone thought I was/am an international student. I think it is very important for us as future educators to be able to teach culture as well as the language to our students so that they will be more aware of the cultural differences that make up the schools.
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