Rhina Espaillat`s Poem Bilingual

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in children, whether it is of a physical nature or difficulties in the pronunciation of the language becomes more difficult to remedy in bilingual children as each language has to be addressed individually.

The nature and degree of a child’s bilingualism is extremely challenging in most situations. Due to the narrator being an adolescent, ultimately she is dependent of her father and must respect his rules and demands in regards to her choice of language. The narrator addresses her father’s demand directly in the text, by stating, “My father liked them separate, one there, / one here (allá y aquí)” (Espaillat 1). She is clearly under the control of her father and seems to be forced to accept what he believes as true whether it is what her identity accepts or not. In lines seven and eight Espaillat quotes the father, “‘English outside this door, Spanish inside,’ / he said, ‘ya basta,.’”(Espillat 1) The Spanish words are incorporated into the poem and are separated from the English text through the use of parentheses, just as her father requested. These short lines from the text give the reader the impression that the father is guiding his daughter as to what he thinks is morally true, English spoke in public, and Spanish in the home. Although it may seem as such, her father`s statements are not intended to be rude. This is crucial to the meaning of the poem because it allows the reader to feel the same pressure to segregate language as the girl in the poem. The reader is aware of how important it is to separate language in the home. The father`s reaction toward language sets the reader in place of a young child who cannot refute the words of her father.

Biculturalism has been defined in a number of ways. Most generally, biculturalism represents comfort and proficiency with both one’s heritage culture and the culture of the country or region in which one has settled. It is applicable not only to immigrants who have come from other countries, but also to children of immigrants. Although they are born and raised in the receiving society are likely deeply embedded in the heritage culture at home with their families. It may also apply to individuals living in ethnic enclaves, where the heritage culture is likely to be maintained across generations, as well as to individuals from visible minority groups, who may be identified as different from the majority ethnic group even if their families have been in the receiving society for multiple generations.

Bicultural takes part, to varying degrees as well, in the life of two or more cultures. They adapt their attitudes, behaviors, and values to these cultures and they combine and blend aspects of the cultures involved. It has long been known that there are many advantages to being bicultural such as having a greater number of social networks, being aware of cultural differences, taking part in the life of two or more cultures, being an intermediary between cultures, and so on. Recent studies shows that biculturals are also characterized by greater creativity and professional success. Three studies were done, and results of bicultural participants were compared to those who were not bicultural. In the first study, students were shown the picture of a brick and were given two minutes to write down as many creative uses of it as they could think of. When three components of creativity were examined, the biculturals exhibited more fluency (they generated more ideas), more flexibility (they generated a greater number of ideas), and more novelty (they were more creative in their suggestions).In a second study, the researchers examined how biculturalism affects real-world innovations in a group of students at a business school in the United States. Here again the participants had lived abroad and came from different countries of origin. The study examined how many new businesses the participants had started, how many novel products or services they had invented, and how many breakthrough process innovations they had created. Biculturals once again did better than the other participants. Finally, in a third study, the question asked was whether being bicultural leads to professional success, and to an increase in managerial reputation. What was found is that biculturals achieved higher promotion rate and had more positive reputations than those who were not bicultural. It is a capacity that involves considering and combining multiple perspectives.

There are many advantages to being bicultural. Studies have shown that biculturals are more creative and enjoy greater professional success. One of the reasons for the advantage may be that exposure to diverse beliefs and worldviews enables biculturals to consider different perspectives. This is referred as Bicultural Identity Integration. Bicultural Identity Integration is essentially the level that individuals experience and view their two cultures as compatible and complementary, and can fluidly move back between them. Someone high in Bicultural Identity Integration can easily and flexibly move back between the two cultures and finds a harmony within them, not viewing either as better as or worse than the other. In contrast, those low in Bicultural Identity Integration tend to view the cultures as oppositional, conflicting and disparate. In the course of making decisions, living their lives and determining who they are, those who are low in Bicultural Identity Integration feel conflicted between their two cultures. Like virtually all components of identity, flexibility and fluidity between various aspects of our cultural identity leads to the healthiest outcome. The bicultural individual who views her two cultures as equal, complementary, and can see the good in both, can reap the benefits of being bicultural while avoiding the potential challenges. This further explains why the narrator had a problem with her father`s request to “the world, the word”(Espillat 1). There are two main issues, one relates to how the communicative abilities of the individual influences their intellectual development. The other has to do with how the of individual’s perception of their own ability influences their state of mind. The first issue is more closely related to language, and stems from the fact that the process of learning to effectively utilize a particular language as a communicative tool does not stop at mastery of the basics. In fact, the ultimate goal of language is not just to enable an individual to articulate ideas, but also to formulate them. In other words, language does not merely allow us to share ideas with others, at a sufficiently advanced level it provides a foundation upon which the student develops a type of intellectual “scaffold” (Fen 1160). This scaffold allows us to better organize, analyze and synthesize complex concepts, pushing the boundaries not just of what we can cogently articulate,

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