In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua was mistreated by her teacher and people because of her accent, and she was asked to speak perfect English. Anzaldua recalls, “I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for ‘talking back’ to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. ‘If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” (1521). When Anzaldua tries to tell her teacher “how to pronounce” her name, she is trying to speaks for herself because she knows the importance of her name and her language; she knows that they represent her unique identity. Apparently, her word doesn’t have any influence on the teacher as a child. Instead, she is defined as a different person compared to other normal American students, and she is asked to speak Standard English by her teacher because of her “difference”. Her teacher actually tries to force her to abandon her ethnic identity, to melt in the conformity and to become an American. Fortunately, Anzaldua doesn’t give her consent to her teacher to speak like an American; moreover, she encourages her compatriots to keep their language so that they can retain their precious identity. Generally, if people in the whole world speak the same language, then distinct characteristics disappear. People should stand out bravely in order to …show more content…
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which enabled military authorities to remove most Japanese and Japanese Americans from their home. In “UC to award honorary degrees to interned Japanese American students” from the Los Angeles Time, interned Japanese Americans, who were sent to federal internment camp when studied at UC, were awarded degrees after more than sixty years. Grace Obata Amemiy, one of these students, studied the pre-nurse program at UCB. She admits that “ ‘It was hard to accept but we did our best to do what we had to do. It was out of control of our hands. Yes, we had very hard times, but looking back positively, we had to go on with our lives’ ” (Gordon). The powerful government enforces a law that Japanese Americans had to move into the camp; nevertheless, there was no reason that any of these students could make the authorities feel dangerous. Still, Japanese American chose to obey and follow what the authorities asked them to do. As a result, they lost their degrees, their jobs, and their property. They point out that they struggle to move forward after the internment camp. Even though “it was out of control”, they never tried to stand out and fight back. After the internment camp, they should have chance to request for gaining back their degree, yet they stay in their status quo until the university