Stereotypes of non-native English speakers

One of the issues that Tan discusses in "Mother Tongue" is the stereotypes of non-native English speakers, this, out of the many issues stood out to me in an interesting way in which I can definitely relate to. I'm bilingual, speaking Spanish as my first language and English as my second, most of my family except for my mom are too. A lot of the experiences that Tan went through with her mom can be related to my experiences, some of the main stereotypes I have encountered in real life are that if you are not fluent in English, then you are not smart and your ideas are valued less, and also that you are not taken seriously or are not treated the same way as a fluent English speaker might be. 

I started learning English when I moved from my home country all the way to Baku, Azerbaijan, there I went to my first international school where I first started learning it. I had very few people that I could talk to that knew Spanish and I basically only learnt the language by being surrounded by people who spoke it. I had experienced a short but tough time in my school as I definitely felt excluded from all groups and I couldn't express my ideas very well. Here in Abu Dhabi, you don't really see that exclusion as English is not the main language, but in the U.S, from experiences from my relatives living there, some of them are ignored and not taken seriously when trying to explain/express something.   

"Limited" or "Broken" English as Tan describes it, is mostly due because the person has to translate what he/she wants to say from his/her first language to English, and most of the times (if you don't have much experience with the language) they could translate it word for word, similarly to how Tan videotaped one of her mother's conversations. This translating method that a lot of people use, does not make them less educated in general or should be treated any different from others, the ideas are still there, its just that some people can really just judge or make fun of someone because of some grammatical errors. This happens quite a lot in the internet with a number of people getting very upset if you do something like saying "your" instead of "you're" or just miss some words that may affect the flow of the sentence. 

Accent is also a major factor that immediately separates you from everyone else, for some people. It is also an example of how your mother tongue has an effect in your identity and the way of expressing yourself. Someone famous who fits the role of being person who is made fun of because of her accent, and not being taken seriously is Sofia Vergara (Colombian actress). Due to her strong accent, some of the words that she may mean to say could mean another thing to someone else who is listening to her, or she may just not pronounce the word well.

Overall, I do not believe people should be treated differently or have any generalization on people's level of education because of their English. Just like Tan's mother, she is quite smart, reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, reads all of Shirley MacLaine's books and converses daily with her stockbroker, but she just cant express herself fully with words but instead uses very simple and direct language which shouldn't be classified as "Broken" compared to the "Standard English".

The name: Ricardo

The name: Ricardo is the Portuguese and Spanish name associated with Richard, therefore it's historical meaning being "Great/Powerful leader". My mother chose my name after my dad, which in Colombia is actually very common for people to name their sons after their father, it is part of the tradition. There are definitely some pros and cons in having your father's name which can definitely form part of the personal significance on my name, these include already having a bond with your dad and there is already an incentive for you to succeed him, but you will also have to deal with this "pressure" to live up to the name and match or improve on his accomplishments or following his footsteps. Similarly to Julia Alvarez's essay, their relatives called her "Julita" and for me it would be "Ricardito" to show a closer connection and to differentiate me and my dad, other cases can be seen when people call me Ricardo Jr even though "Jr" isn't really part of my name. Nicknames or changes to my name have also been said to me such as Ricky and Rick, which for them would be easier or preferable to say, also functioning as a way to translate my name into English. 

The name is reflective in my identity and character, as I said before, having the same name as my dad gives me an incentive to be a successful person, looking up to him and following his footsteps, but also makes me want to differentiate myself from him by doing things he hasn't done in the past. This can be seen as I consider myself good at sports and more of an athlete, having played for numerous football clubs and done swimming for around 10 years, his of course would be a totally different area my dad wasn't too successful in. 

Colombia and it's misconception

One major cultural context that I want to discuss about Colombia, is how most people who are not from this country label and assume all Colombians as "drug addicts" or have some kind of connection to the drug cartel. This is one MASSIVE negative assumption that sets a false image for the country. I personally have experienced many cases where people tell me if I have some kind of connection with drugs, and actually, last school year I went to say hi to a new student, and the first thing he asked me was "Hey, where are you from" and after I proceeded to answer, the first thing he said was "oh yea drugs, and Pablo Escobar right? needless to say, I never spoke to him again...

As my family has connections and friends here in Abu Dhabi who are all Colombian, you can probably spend hours just talking about all the misconceptions everyone has on us, so it's not just a personal thing but a very big cultural group that is affected. One statement that most of us will probably say to you would be that even though there is still a big production and export of things such as cocaine, we are not the ones using it, but it is (statistically, not an assumption) shown that the U.S is the one driving up the demand and using it. Around 90% of those drugs are used in the U.S alone.
According to my very limited prior knowledge and a recent 10 minute research on this topic, Pablo Escobar, who was considered one of the richest and most powerful criminals in the world, who is the person some people associate Colombia with as a "whole", died in 1993. And his prime years were he caused massive damage and controversy with his claim on a spot in the government and as a president where in the 70s and 80s. If my Math Standard level knowledge and calculations are right, then, that all occurred over 30 years ago and completely stopped around 15 years ago. Colombia has definitely moved on from this and has acted upon fixing their international image, Since 2001 their production of drugs like cocaine have dropped 72% and that was just until 2010, so it is definitely still decreasing and things are changing. The media hasn't exactly helped much clearing this misconception but instead strengthen it with articles and movies showing a negative view on Colombia. Peace talks with FARC (guerrilla group) has been done and to be finished later this year but the world fails to acknowledge the positive progress the country is in and decide to stick with their negative beliefs and overview on the country.  

In my case the only thing I know about this topic is from the show "Breaking Bad" and it's doesn't even mention the right drug, but it does definitely include Colombians as some of the characters in which  they do deals with. Although I am pretty laid back with these stereotypes and misconceptions, if we haven't met before and this topic is brought up at first meeting then your chances of me talking to you again decreases by around 90%. This is because it is a very tiresome topic to be discussing and correcting, with drugs and past wars having led to Colombia losing the lives of a million, five decades of fighting back against these  terrorist groups and billions of dollars going into defeating terrorism and drug related crimes.

Understanding that Colombia has driven away from the drug trafficking past can definitely lead to better communication and maybe even a little smile and acknowledgment from all Colombians that you have a better personality and education background.

Also one last thing to end my rant..... its ColOmbia NOT ColUmbia, seriously, it's a very simple concept. 

Introduction

Hello, my name is Ricardo Soler, i'm 16 years old and i'm from Colombia. Some of my interests include playing numerous sports such as football in ADYFC, swimming for the school team and occasionally badminton. I also like watching T.V series and also learning about the environment with subjects such as Geography, Biology and Environmental Systems and Societies. I care about improving myself physically by doing sports and weightlifting and expanding my knowledge on my interests. Some of my goals for this year, academically, would be passing all subjects with a minimum score of 5 and improve my time management skills so I don't leave assessments to the last minute, which would be pretty troublesome in Grade 11/12.

Language has a very important role in my life as it is how I communicate everyday with different people, like my family in Spanish and school (and pretty much everywhere else) in English. Also the ability of being bilingual, specially in these 2 very commonly spoken languages in the world, can be very benefiting, like in getting a job and just moving around the world with very few language barriers. It is very important to study language because it will not only improve my reading and writing skills but also my overall communication skills, so things like presenting in front of people, persuading and informing them on certain subjects can be result to be quite profiting in the long run, specially when it comes to getting a job.

I have previously felt excluded due to language barriers multiple times in my life, primarily with me just starting to learn English in my first international school. Even though I understood some of the things that were said to me and around me, I couldn't communicate with anyone therefore not being able to make many friends. Some other language barriers that I have faced would be in these past few years were I have only spoken English except for some words in my house that when I went back to Colombia to visit my old friends and family and couldn't understand some of their slang and vocabulary that my parents and everyone else were raised with, therefore creating some minor awkward moments when you have to ask your friends what they meant with whatever they said.