English Only My Ass

Another legislative attempt to define America as an “English Only” country hit the Senate floor last week. And it’s bullshit. I ran across a pretty interesting piece on said bullshit written by an AP writer, Adam Geller. He briefly recalls the history of the language debate in the United States, which is helpful, and he includes some statements from language scholars, although those from Walt Wolfram, a very well known linguist, are frustratingly vague. Geller quotes Wolfram as saying, “‘Language is never about language,’…‘Why should it be any different in the United States?’” and “‘It's never about the language,’... ‘It's always about the cultural behaviors that are symbolically represented by language. That's what scares us,’" which will appear vague and meaningless to the average reader. However, Geller’s quote from Dick Tucker, “an expert on language education,” helps to clarify what Wolfram is most likely getting at (I can pretty confidently assume here, as I’ve read some of Wolfram’s work). Tucker notes, “‘The discussion is ... related to fears of immigration issues. I think it's related to a worry about the changing demography of the United States. I think it's a worry about who will continue to have political and economic influence.’"

Yep. Fuck those Latinos and their Spanish speak. We better enforce English only rules right now before they take over the country. And fuck blacks who use a lot of hip hop slang (I’m not talking about Ebonics--they’re two separate things)--they’re idiots. ([But it’s okay for white people in commercials to use hip hop slang to sell shit.)]

Please.

Making symbolic efforts like this are such a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Anyone with any bit of sense clearly understands that those without an average or above average command of standard spoken and written English (aliens, legal immigrants, or born and bred Americans) normally do not possess much cultural power. Let’s think here, Bush, et al--how many Mexican immigrants who speak very little English are running the corporations that you work for? How many old Polish grandmas who arrived here too late to truly pick up on the English language (we most easily/naturally acquire language habits when we are young) are running for local office? Clearly, there are people in power who are ignorant, inarticulate and ineffective (Bush himself included)--but people who hardly speak English (I’m not referring to English speakers with accents) clearly do not make up the ruling class.

So. It’s pointless to keep having this debate every few years. All this talk of people coming here and refusing to learn the language is so hypocritical, too, because an embarrassingly large amount of Americans who only speak English, myself included, traipse all over the goddamn planet and are accommodated by the speakers of foreign countries. If anything, our schools should be teaching children to become bilingual as early as possible. It’s happening (my friend’s daughter is in a Spanish immersion school here in Milwaukee), but it needs to happen more.

Some might argue that the government should no longer “appease” non-English speakers by translating governmental forms, etc, into foreign languages, but doing that would just create more problems. It’s just like halting all aid (yes I realize it’s an already small amount and it’s not enough) to those who are poor or mentally or physically disabled--maybe people get sick of ‘having to pay for’ for others, but if we didn’t there‘d be more health problems, which would spread to privileged people, too, and…yeah. In cities like Chicago or NYC, you have to have translated signs in the subways, because otherwise there’d just be pandemonium when there are service changes. And I can’t be sure, but I doubt that doing these translations doesn’t cost too much. But God Forbid any money is taken away from starting illegal wars and engaging in illegal wiretapping.

Do I think non-English speakers have an obligation to learn English as proficiently as possible? Yes, if they want to achieve as much as possible in society. But many need extra assistance, because for some of the older people, it’s so incredibly hard to learn a new language late in life. If you doubt me, you go try and completely master Spanish, French, Polish, or Mandarin in a year by taking classes at an American college. You won’t be able to. People don’t need more stigma placed upon them--they need more access to programs that will help them learn the language. So, unless we are going to close our borders to all aliens/immigrants--that the government focuses solely on Mexicans is bigoted--we have to help people learn the language, not just make some dumb fucking rule about how country is “English Only.” As another one of Geller’s cited experts, James Crawford, states, “‘Language conflict is something that we've really largely avoided in contrast to many other countries [because] ‘English has been such a dominant force that assimilation has been very rapid.’" There’s no need to make it an issue now. We should focus on bettering our educational system and creating more effective job training programs. But where are the Democrats? Why aren’t they pushing harder? I do not feel mobilized by them at all.
But hopefully people will keep speaking out. I’m just disgusted by this English Only bullshit. And remember, if you get annoyed by those who don’t speak English, you can either 1) Help them out in that grocery store line if they appear flustered or 2) If they are an asshole, take comfort that you most likely have more opportunities than them.

Oh yeah, I post more blogs on Myspace now. I try to paste most of them here also, but I don't really think anyone reads this blog!?!?

A few things.

1. Fuck a Ph.D. I want a life. But that doesn't mean I can not/will not do important work. Adjuncting is such a perilous profession, but my being in the classroom means something to my students. I can not adjunct for more than a few more years, because I, well, I need to pay off loans and bills and can't do it on an adjunct's salary. But today, when I saw three students in a room this morning and later a fourth, they all gave me such a response. Having students thank me for working their asses IS so rewarding. I don't need the emotional, physical, financial, and psychological stress that comes along with earning a Ph.D. I don't want to take those fucking prelims and I don't want a committee monitoring the way in which I write a book, even though I'm sure a lot of the feedback would be constructive. Last night I filled out my tranfer credit form, had it all ready to send out, stamp in place. Then I leafed through the 2005-2006 Graduate Student Handbook. I once again digested the requirements. That foreign language requirement would be a bitch, too, and unnecessary for someone focusing on composition theory and practice. I became engulfed by the same feeling that's washed upon me every fucking time I think about prelims, orals, and the dissertation defense: Panic and revulsion. That was it. I've had enough. Now I have to work hard in a different way. I must learn how to better work with developmental writers, whose psyches are so much more fragile than 101 students', whose are also quite fragile, so that tells you how really very fragile the self esteem of basic writers is. I must assess my successes in the classroom and document them diligently so I can compile a portfolio to present to future potential employers. I must learn more about how to make use of technology in the classroom, which I will be doing by taking two two-day seminars this summer. I want to earn some kind of inexpensive certificate that would certify me to teach ESL and/or ABE courses. I just need more patience, more confidence in myself, and above all I need to become more assertive and network more. The upcoming literacy conference will be a good place to practice.

2. I am done grading. WAHOOOOO!!!!!!! About 90% of my 101 students improved immensely and like I mentioned about they even thanked me for working their asses. Some people who were earning low Cs at the beginning left with a B or A. YEAAH!!! I can teach, yeah I can!

3. I have gas. Again. I'm tired of the gas. It's from everything, even vegetables. I have gas less when I eat cheesy carby foods. It's very irritating.

4. I am stiff. I need some more exercise.

5. I was very excited and surprised to discover that the kickass Michelle Tea's latest written work, a novel entitled Rose of No Man's Land, was featured in a March issue of People magazine. The reviewer gave her cute lesbian punk ass three stars too. In People! That is amazing. Her writing always resonates with me and she makes me think I can write real stuff. I need to do that this summer. Less beer, more writing. Yeah! Will go start reading the book now, I think. Here's a link with a lot of info about her:

http://www.purpleglitter.com/michelle_tea/

That melancholy feeling enveloped me today. I’m unhappy. Most of my close friends are generally unhappy. I really do not know anyone who feels content, especially in regards to their work. I am so intensely unfulfilled, because even though I control my course content and teaching methods to some extent, there are so many outside factors I do not control, and I would not want to control all of them. At one school the curriculum for the developmental writing courses is extremely limited and narrow. Developmental writers are the ones I want to focus on, because they need the most help. But they also need the most time, encouragement, and techniques that work with students of high skill level don’t work with them. I struggle to figure out how to bridge the disconnect. I am angry in every class because I dislike the textbook I must use. The one that is forced upon me. I am forever photocopying supplements that still leave the students confused. They need the most help with grammar and sentence structure and that book is of NO help. But, really, truly, I need to learn how to use technology in my classes. I can take them to this cramped computer lab and demonstrate methods. The amenities are not a plenty at that school. My other problem is that teaching part-time leaves me lacking in support. I want to teach FULL time--I long to connect with other teachers, to problem solve and kevetch with them on a regular basis. Teaching and going home to my tiny apartment and working alone, it’s no good for me. No full time teaching job without a PhD though, at least for quite some time or unless I‘m really lucky. I don’t want to get that Ph.D. I just need to learn more teaching strategies. I don’t need to read more theory. I need the practical help. I don‘t even have a portfolio that documents my teaching successes prepared though, I don‘t use technology enough in the classroom, and I honestly haven‘t spent as much time prepping for a lot of my classes as I might. I always hear my friend‘s voice in my head, reminding me that it takes a few years for people to catch their teaching groove, and I‘ve taught about 3 years now, but the first two I only taught a class a semester as a Master‘s student. I hold myself back indulging in my insecurities. It is hard to focus because my time is split between teaching, what I want to do, and this editing job, what I have to do to “Make Fucking Ends Meet.” None of my friends want college teaching to be their careers. I feel like I am constantly floating without anchor. Life swirls around around me. I am not a part of it. But that’s my melancholy mood talking. I need to find a way to keep a hold of that anchor. I’m so unhappy most of the time. There are good times I have with friends and family. There are times when I socialize and drink and it’s still amusing. But most of the time I feel floating. Becoming more frustrated. But whining isn’t going to change anything.

Now, let me think of my friends. One has a BA and is a talented artist but she faces the quandary of trying to promote her work and make new stuff being fatigued to work a 9-5 job at an unorganized small company. She works really, really hard. But when you are a new artist, you can’t make a living off your art. So her life is split between Making Fucking Ends Meet and trying to manage her time to be productive. She is thinking of going back for a bit more schooling, like a certificate. Like me, she feels like she needs something more. A bit more skills. Like me, she is split.

Yet another friend admitted to me she doesn’t really feel content often, either. She has a child to love, which I’m jealous of sometimes, in a way, even though I can not be a mother. Well, I have no man, so I can’t even make a baby, but a baby most likely is not for me even if I ever do meet a man who I want to see/speak more than a few times a week. But when you have a child you have responsibilities, your time is filled, you can become so elated just hearing them talk, watching them play. She has a Master’s. Her work, which is unrelated to her degree, gives her time off, but she needs a bit more action, it seems. She doesn’t have to work a full 40 hour work week, which helps alleviate stress, but she‘s smart and creative and maybe she just doesn‘t get to apply those skills with as much vigor as she would like. Maybe. She‘s not sure what it is, me either.

I have another friend who is constantly bogged down with her activist job and a million varying commitments. I don’t know how she just doesn’t fall down from exhaustion sometimes. She is so there for her friends. I can not do all what she does. Not many can, but I don’t think she should push it so much.

There are other people I am acquainted with. People who work 9-5 jobs and proceed to drink and smoke weed every (other) night. Who are single. Two of them lament where they are at. Dislike their jobs, live with roommates or in a small apartment. But they don’t know what they want, what will make them happy. You go to the bar after work and there’s so many people drinking away their dissatisfaction. Some people aren’t there every night, but may of them are. We are so bored in Milwaukee. We need that buzz to move us along, to get us to interact with one another.

I keep thinking there are people in Milwaukee who do more than this but I haven’t found many. I will keep trying though. I don’t want this life, all the uncertainty and tension from day to day. I trained to start volunteering at this place the other day, and even doing that bit of training made me feel better. Like I’m contributing. I’ll be able to contribute there because it’s welcomed. It won’t be like at the schools where I teach where I feel inferior to the full time staff, at one school, or where I don’t have any support, the other school. I can come up with ideas and maybe implement one or two of them. I would love to be able to run some type of literacy program where people can just drop in. But where would the funding come from? How would I live on such a salary? It just seems that for so many people I know what would make them happy doesn’t pay much at all.

But I know some people who seem to be doing what they want. The married couple in Georgia--freelance editrix who actually makes a living from it and her husband who writes/markets/designs/does web stuff/don’t even know what success he’s completed now, Harvard degree, etc. A guy I know published his own book without even taking a loan. He promotes himself very well. I have another friend who is kicking ass doing research for his psychology degree and is being recognized by governmental bodies. He acts like it’s no big thang, though.

The people that I know who are doing what they want have worked harder at than me. I know this. I’m not inferring that they are always happy. But I hope that they feel a sense of accomplishment. I know for me, I need to build up more perseverance and patience. I am horrible at taking initiative. I don’t know what I think will happen to me if I “put it out there” more fully. It’s my insecurities. I am battling the bitches, but it’s hard. It’s hard for everyone who has them, and everyone does, in one aspect of his or life…I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately, but that’s a different topic for a different blog. That whole American dream myth shit is bullshit, I know, but I also know I need to get more focused and work harder, and maybe some of the people I know do too if they really want to be happier. A lot of us are lacking relationships also, which can greatly contribute to a feeling of emptiness and dissatisfaction, but that’s only a third of the equation. Significant other, friends, career…People need each other to get past these roadblocks though, and if few people around you are motivated in the way you need to be, it can also be hard. Bootstraps equals bullshit. It’s much easier to get ahead by not working towards your goals alone.