Blog post # 9, Global English

Chapter one of International English In its Sociolinguistic Context is about globalized of English. This chapter talks about how English is spread throughout the world. I believe that English is important and it becomes universal language. Many countries teach English like Korea, Japan, China, Philippines, and etc. The author discuss that many Asian countries teach English since they are young. However, people are wondering that if teaching English when the children are young can be effective when their home language isn’t fully developed. I learned English when I was in Korea. I learned English 3^rd grade through 6^th grade when I was in school. However, I didn’t learn any English because I didn’t see the importance of it. Many Korean parents want their children to learn English since they are 5 years old. Is learning English that important? Many people believe that learning English is equal to be successful in the future. I don’t believe that people need to learn English order to be successful. However, some of my friends in Korea desperately want to come to U.S.A. to learn English because it is hard to get a job in Korea if they cannot speak English very well. All of my friends are jealous of me because I can speak English. They don’t understand the conflicts that I go through because they think that I am lucky to have an opportunity to learn English in America.

Also, many American pop cultures influenced many countries. Many music industries influenced many countries. I remember that one of my friends in ESL class told me that she doesn’t understand why many countries want to be like American. They like American songs, and want to learn English. I think the reason is because United States influenced many countries. Therefore, many countries want to learn English. I interview my Filipino friend for the paper that I wrote. She told me that United States influenced Philippines because Philippines were a colonizer of France and United States took over. She told me that English is their native second language in Philippines that everyone knows how to speak English. They focus on teaching English so much. When my friend came to United States, her reading level was higher than any other students in her classroom.

Is learning English that important? Which one is more important, learning the students’ home language or learning English first? In my bilingual classes, I learned that order to learn the second language perfectly; students need to be fluent on their L1. However, many people believe that English is very important before the children learn their L1 first. It is interesting that many people in U.S. don’t need to learn the language other than English. But many other countries, it is necessary to learn English. 

Blog post 8

First article that I read was Becoming Black:  Rap and Hip-Hop, Race, Gender, Identity, and the Politics of ESL Learning by Ibrahim. This article is about how some African students in French become black, want to speak black language, learn how to dress, hairstyles. This article was very interesting. Many African students learn English very fast by the television, and friends. When the one of the students said people judge her as student when she cannot speak English. That is true. It was very interesting how people judge someone just because they cannot speak English in America. When I went to take a citizenship, I was waiting to take the test. While I was waiting, this man did something wrong because he didn’t understand English very well. The security guy stopped the man and called him, “Dumb-ass.” I was very upset at this security guy. I wanted to say something but my mom stopped me. I went up to him and apologized about the things that ignorant security guy said. I sat down next to him and talked with him. This man who couldn’t speak English, he was a doctor in Iran and he wanted to get a citizenship because he wanted to learn English and wanted to be lawyer. This man is very smart guy, and just because he couldn’t speak English very well, people automatically judge him as not well educated. It was very interesting to see African students learn Black English. What is proper way to speak English? Isn’t Black English is part of dialect, like how people speak in Texas? I don’t know who can judge to speak what is proper language.

Second article by Kubota is about how the idea of race can shape social, cultural and political dimension of language teaching and learning. While I was reading this article, it made me think how powerful racism is. When is it okay to talk about races? This article made m realize that it was very important to talk about race.

Third article by Rich and Troudy is about a small scale study of five male Muslim Saudi Arab learners in TEOL graduate programmed at a university in the United Kingdom. Some students felt uncomfortable to answer some questions that are true about Arab. I understand how they feel. They understand why Arab people marry four wives in closed society because it is their culture. They just know. My friend called her brother Kuya which means older brother in Tagalong. However, she stopped calling him that name because she was sick of answering to people who asking the meaning. Those Arab students feel like the outsider because people look at them as outsider. I understand that we are individually different, but why can’t we accept each other? I sometimes get so frustrated because people judge me based on my skin color. It would be the same with Arab students. When I was working at Wood Field Mall during the spring break, this woman came up to me and asked me directions very slowly, thinking that I cannot understand her. I answered her, and I was upset that she automatically thinks that I cannot speak English very well. It would be the same for many of my other friends. As a future teacher, it is important to teach racism and understand the students.

Blog post 7

The article The article Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language Texts is by Cosette Taylor-Mendes who researched and interview question to students and teachers on Sao Paulo, Brazil. The researcher wanted to know how Brazil students look at race, class and gender when they look at the images in English language textbooks. Many English language textbooks portrayed United States as white elite and blacks are represented as poor and powerless and whites are powerful and wealthy. This article is very interesting. I never thought about how English language textbook portrayed United States. Also, I learned that how powerful the vision imaginary is.

I don’t remember seeing images of black people in the English language textbook when I was in Korea. I realized that black people were portrayed in a negative way in many cultures. This might be something that I don’t want to tell people. However, my parents don’t want to associate with black people. They don’t want me to associate with black people. Last semester, I had a black roommate and my parents were really worried. Maybe, the reason why my parents have negative stereotypes towards black people is that how English textbook that they learned when they were in school, and movies portrayed African Americans. Over the weekend, I called my parents and asked some questions why they hate African American so much. My parents told me that they believe that black people are violent and poor. Therefore, I asked my parents what makes them think that way. My parents told me that because that was how English textbook, movies, books and news are portrayed black people. My parents stated that, “If black people were nice and rich, why the media portrayed black people like that? Why English textbook portrayed black people like that? The reason why media portrayed black people in a bad way is that because it is true.” I cannot blame my parents that how they feel because I understand why they dislike African Americans. However, at the same time, it is very frustrated.

I was really shocked after the conversation. As a future teacher, how can I inform the students’ negative stereotypes toward racial groups? What if the student has already believed in his/her negative stereotypes? And how can I change that?