Identity Narrative

I think of myself as a kind, respectful, and motivated individual that wants to help other people succeed. I am bilingual. I know how to write, speak, and read both English and Spanish, and for that I am beyond thankful to my parents for giving me that wonderful opportunity. My cultural capital was gained through my parents, grandparents, and the rest of my family and has helped me form my identity. On the first day of class, we were told to write a six-word memoire. I wrote, “Family is love, respect and support.” These words sum up the way I live life. Without my family I would not be where I am today. With the help of them and other factors I have become my own person.

In the article called, “The making of an American: Negotiation of Identities at the turn of the twentieth century,” by Plavenko, the focus was the importance of memoirs and how they, “strictly play a central role in the process of identity negotiation in writing” (Pavlenko 34). Thus, I believe that creating these self-narratives is a neat way to create a creative illustration as to who we are and how we believe that our language and culture affects and shapes our identity.

Unlike my grandparents, I chose to learn Spanish with an integrative motivation in doing so. In Norton’s article, “Social identity, investment, and language learning,” I learned that there is a specific difference on why you learn a language. The reason I said that I learned Spanish through integrative motivation is because I did not need to know the language to be able to communicate in my household, in public institutions, or at work. Rather, I wanted to learn Spanish because I was interested in learning more about the language. Granted, I did grow up speaking both languages, however my grammar needed some work. On the other side of the spectrum are my grandparents and their children; my parents. They came to the United States in search of a better living. In doing so, they had to work very hard in very demanding work fields. They learned English as quickly as possible to be able to communicate with the greater mass of the people and to gain economy capital. With that being said, they learned the basics. The older generation still speaks with a heavy accent. Their writing is not as accurate as those that learned English at a younger age. Furthermore, at times, the older generation is at times hesitant to speak due to getting publically humiliated. On the other hand, due to the fact that I did not have to learn Spanish to communicate in school and the work area, I was able to learn the background about the Spanish language. Although at times I still have troubles with accents or conjugating verbs, I believe that I still have a solid background with the Spanish language.

As aforementioned, my family, specifically my parents and grandparents, were major influences in my choice to become a Bilingual Teacher. I do not want other children suffering to learn a language just because of the fear of not being able to communicate with others. Another influential factor in my decision to become a bilingual teacher is the fact that there are so many underrepresented minorities that, I believe, at times do not get the same opportunity as their monolingual classmates that speak English. When I become a teacher, I want to be open-minded. I do not want to stereotype students based on the way they look, act, or speak. Furthermore, I do not want categorize my students based on what I believe their culture is. In Holliday, I learned about the differences between non-essentialism and essentialism. When I become a teacher, I want to be a Non-essentialist one. That is, I want to be open minded, focus on the individual rather than the culture as a whole, and furthermore, I want to be aware that geographical locations do not define culture. I cannot, for one second, be stereotypical because then it leads my students to doing the same. I want to teach them about other nationalities, however year round and not just per month.  I would like my students to have a non-essentialist view as well. They should understand that people can belong to many cultures