"How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

Shawn Jennings

9/2/14

Professor Young

English 1100

Response Questions to “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”

1.       The dentist refers to Anzadulas tongue as strong or stubborn.  In other words it was hard to tame her tongue during her time at the dentist.

2.       Anzalduas use of Spanish throughout her writing did make sense for her purpose.  I couldn’t understand why she was doing this at first because I don’t know Spanish, but toward the end I understood why.  She wanted to show her pride in her language and how it defines who she is. 

3.       Yes there can be standard languages and nonstandard languages.  Language is how we can identify ourselves.  There can be different forms of each language that can identify ourselves to a larger extent. 

4.       I feel like we do need to speak and write in Academic English in order to do well in academics and the work force. 

5.       There are many types of English identities.  They include Southern English, Western English, Boston accent, and many more.

6.       My friends and I like to shorten words.  For example, probably becomes “probs” and memories becomes “mems”.

7.       I use nonstandard English when speaking with my friends and standard English when speaking to a teacher or my parents.  I feel that I change what type of English I use depending on the people I am with.  It depends on the audience to whom I am speaking to.

8.       “I am my language” means that your language defines who you are and how people see you.  When people think of who you are they tend to think of the language you speak and how you speak it. 

9.       The intro talks about how her tongue was hard to control because it was stubborn at the dentist’s office.  The conclusion restates that her tongue is difficult to tame by stating the stubbornness of herself and her people.

10.   Yes, the language I speak can be part of my identity.  How I speak is a unique trait and everyones speech is different.

11.   Identity is important to me.  I feel that everyone has unique qualities that can be part of their identity.  Without identity everyone would be the same and life would be boring.  Yes, Anzaldua believes it is important to have identity.  Without identity the world would be boring with no excitement.  Identity defines who we are, where we are from, and our ancestry.