Aria by Richard Rodriguez

 Aria by Richard Rodriguez is a piece where he is able to write about his own experience as a bilingual student in a US school. He writes about what he saw with his own family and how having to change to English as his “primary” langue affects his life in many different ways. Reflection: While reading this passage I found myself reflecting on my own life and experiences with trying to learn a second language. I tried to best imagine myself in the shoes of Rodriguez and had a very hard time trying to fully understand what he went through. I have always struggled when it came to learning Spanish whether it was in middle school, high school or even now in college. Langue has always been a difficult subject in school, and I even struggle sometimes with literacy classes. To have my native langue ripped away from me in the way he did would be absolutely horrible, not having that familiar aspect of something as simple but also complicated as langue would play a major role on me. I never looked in at myself and realized how much of a major aspect of everyday life langue played and I take it for granted especially in my educational life. I found myself trying my best to imagine having a major part of my life taken away and even not being able to go home and talk in my native tongue. I have really taken langue in a social and educational environment for granted and this passage did a fantastic job of showing what it would be like to have this happen. 

Here is another article going over bilingual learners.