Lu adopted a view of languages as a “tool of survival” in order to survive her life at school and her life at home. She believed that each language was a, “tool made by someone else and then acquired and used,” by herself. Along with each dialect came a certain culture, beliefs and expectations that she had to obey. In order to not be ridiculed at school, Lu had to change her beliefs and suppress her English dialect. Likewise, to stay true to her upbringing at home, Lu had to reject the political views taught at school as her own. She believed that the key to coexisting between the two languages was that each was only, “relevant in each place”. Lu “saw language as a tool”and, “how the other made it before I acquired it determined and guaranteed what it produced when I used it”.
Lu was passive and unable to participate in public discussion, because she felt as though she could not control the barrier that separated each dialect and the beliefs that came along with them. She was torn between the ideologies of two opposing cultures.
No comments:
Post a Comment