"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" Questions

Jackeline Aguirre

September 4, 2016

Professor Young

Engw1100 Writing Skills Workshop

"How to Tame a Wild Tongue"

                                                     How we Identify with Language

1. Discuss how the opening scene of Anzaldua in the dentist's chair connects to the overall point/message of the essay and title. 

  In the opening scene the tongue is being wild and tamed physically, it's also not allowing her to speak.  In this part of the essay someone other then herself is in her mouth taking away her privacy and taking control of her tongue with this the dentist is also taking her voice away.

2. Discuss Anzaldua's use of the Spanish throughout her writing. Did it make sense? What was her purpose?

  Throughout the passage Anzaldua spoke a lot of Spanish to emphasize her identification with the Spanish language. For me personally, it did make sense because I speak spanish.  The purpose for her to speak spanish in the passage was to show that the spanish language is part of her and that she shouldn't conform to the language of the norteamericanos.

3. Can Academic English be defined as Spanish (Standard) and can Chicano spanish be described as nonstandard? Why? What inferences, conclusions, can be made referring to ones identity (language) as standard versus nonstandard? 

  Academic English I believe can be defined as standard because it's what we speak with our professors, adults outside of our families, and anyone we don't have a personal connection to.  Chicano spanish to me can be described as nonstandard because as Anzaldua put it, it's a spanish that is different from other countries spanish. Standard language is one we speak because we have to as means of communication but nonstandard language is one we speak because of comfort.

4. Discuss the necessity of speaking and/writing in Academic English as an identity. Is it necessary?
  Speaking and writing in Academic English is necessary because it is part of your identity as a student and an educated individual.

5. Anzaldua describes different types of Spanish, identities. Discuss the various types of English, identities, you know. 

The various types of English identities I know are Academic English, Slang English, Home English and self English. All these types of English is part of your identity because you use each one to show a different part of yourself.

6. Pachuco. Do you use a secret language, secret identity, to communicate to your friends? If so, what?

  I do not have a secret spoken language with my friends. To the people close to me with a simple look we know what the other is thinking.

7. Chicano Spanish can be compared to non-standard English. What form of English (standard or nonstandard) do you speak with your friends (audience)? What form of English do you speak when you talk to your mother (audience), professor (audience)? Why?

   The English I speak with my friends is nonstandard.  I would define it as nonstandard because when I speak to my friends I shorten words and/or sentences.With my mother I speak Spanish because it's home, spanish is comfort. With a professor I would speak Academic English as a form of respect.

8.  "I am my language." What does this mean? How does this statement connect to a person's identity.

  In my opinion Anzaldua means that each of the languages are part of her. Each form of language she listed ties up to some part of her identity (family, work, friends, public).

9. Talk specifically about how the introduction and conclusion connect. 

  In the introduction it talks about how physically the tongue (that represents language) is attempted to be tamed. In the conclusion she says that even though her tongue has been attempted to be tamed others like her who wont give up their language or identity will not be tamed and still stand firm.

10. Can language you speak be a part of your identity? Why? 

  The language one speaks is part of ones Identity. How and what we speak reflects on who we are. I speak mostly spanish (other then school) because I identify with the spanish community.

11. How important is identity to you? Does Anzaldua believe it's important to have identity? Use some examples from " How to Tam a Wild Tongue," to support your answer. 

 Identity to me is very important because it forms you and the different part of you. Yes, Anzaldua believes identity is important because it shapes every aspect of who she is. "The first time I heard two women, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban, say the word "nosotras," I was shocked. I had not known the word existed. Chicanas use nosotros whether we're male or female. We are robbed of our female being by the masculine plural." (Anzaldua 2948). In this quote she talks about the importance of being a female and how that part of her identity has been taken away or tamed.

" For some of us, language is a homeland closer than the Southwest - for many Chicanos today live in the Midwest and the East." (Anzaldua 2948). In this quote she says how language is like home and how she identifies her language as her part of her homeland. This is a reflects on how important language is to her identity to her home.