Bridge Between Parents and English

Gabriela Guillen, a student at CCNY, addresses in her language and literacy narrative the subject of children of immigrants having to be the bridge between their parents and English. She argues that parents shouldn’t put a large amount of pressure on their children; instead, they should encourage and support them through their journey. She supports this claim by talking about certain instances where she was helping her mother translate Spanish to English, and she wasn’t sure of the right translation. This led to her mother being dissatisfied that her daughter didn’t know the proper translation, although she has been going to school to learn English.

During our interview, she stated that “I didn’t try for too long to get my mom to understand my struggle since she didn’t want to listen, and it would just end up leading to unnecessary commotion.” Although she felt down about the whole situation, the author didn’t want to cause any problems by talking back to her mother and just decided to let it go while continuing to try her best. She also stated, “I still struggle a bit balancing English and Spanish at home due to the difference in vocabulary.” Guillen explains that she still faces trouble when going back to speaking Spanish from English while she is at home since she relies greatly on her English anytime she is outside. This is a common occurrence for bilingual speakers who tend build a habit of mixing up both languages while speaking.

Guillen’s purpose was to share her experience of having high expectations from her parents and how that added pressure only hurts a child who is trying their best. She is trying to show that a child needs support and appreciation to succeed, not constantly being looked down upon. “I felt that many others could relate to my experience of not having support from their parents when trying to learn a new language.” The author understands that this kind of thing is a common occurrence in many households and is very relatable. As she explained her experience, she was able to establish an encouraging tone with her audience to better convey her message. When asked who she wanted to get this message across to, she said, “I wanted to get this message across to parents and children from families trying to overcome a language barrier.” The audience for Guillen’s work is made up of those who are struggling with learning a new language and balancing it with their native language.

A rhetorical strategy I noticed in Guillen’s text is pathos. Pathos, also known as the appeal of emotion, means to summon certain emotions to convince an audience to feel what the author intends. This can include certain words, phrases, wording, and the use of stories to try and get emotion out of the readers. Using this strategy, I think the author was trying to express how hurt she felt when her mother didn’t appreciate her daughter trying to help her instead of shaming her and even asking why she goes to school if she can’t translate such things. While talking about rhetorical strategies, Guillen said, “I wasn’t sure what rhetorical strategy I wanted to use. I just started writing about my experience and unconsciously ended up using the pathos strategy.” The author wasn’t sure what rhetorical strategy she wanted to use, but instead of stressing over what strategy to use, she let it come to her writing naturally. As she was composing her writing, she inserted the emotions she felt during that time.

Guillen’s language and literacy narrative appeals to her intended audience because they would be able to relate to similar experiences of having to translate messages and phone calls for their parents while also understanding the struggle of learning two languages at once. I believe that the author’s genre, mode, and style were appropriate for this rhetorical strategy because it was more of a serious but heartfelt message that pulled at the strings of the reader. Guillen stated the purpose of her narrative clearly and developed the idea of parents being supportive of their children.