Tyler Mangru
October 17, 2021
Dear Reader,
How are you? My Research Explanatory Essay is complete. My time writing has been one of the most pleasant writing experiences I’ve had in a while. Listening to music, specifically jazz while writing it, legitimately made me feel happy while writing. I was also excited due to my sources. The pieces of literature by Amy Tan and Gloria Anzaldua were very enjoyable to read. Being able to use them was pretty cool as I related to “Mother Tongue” quite a bit. The other sources I used were from CCNY’s search engine Onesearch. I was really impressed by how easily I found sources I was willing to use. I do feel that the number of sources we had to use compared to the length of the paper was a bit too much. I felt that I barely got into a source before I went to another one. This however is probably on my part, expandable my sources are something I want to learn to do. My audience while writing this wasn’t specific, I just wanted to inform any reader of the linguistic discrimination from around the world. While researching and writing, I did gain some insight as to how biased people could be when it came to language. The source I used about student therapist add to this greatly. One literature concept that impacted my REE was definitely evidence. The sources I used really helped paint how widespread linguistic discrimination is. One of the learning outcomes I achieved was number seven, locating research sources. I used multiple search engines to find multiple sources to complete this assignment, something I had never needed to do before. I also need to look through multiple papers in order to find sources that I was happy with using. In addition, I also had to choose which sources from class would fit into the REE the best. Overall, this assignment was probably one of my favorites I can remember. I hope you enjoy reading it.
From,
Tyler
Tyler Mangru
Professor Jorge Velez
FIQWS 10103
12 October 2021
Linguistic Discrimination- A Worldwide Concern
Everyone around the world speaks one language or another. The language we speak often reflects our community and background. How we speak should be something we’re all proud of, since we all come from different backgrounds. The large number of cultures that exist in the world inevitably leads to the unjust or prejudicial treatment of these different groups or discrimination. Treating someone negatively based on how they look or act also extends to the language they speak. Linguistic discrimination, according to workplacefairness.org refers to “the unfair treatment of an individual based solely upon the characteristics of their speech; such as accent, size of vocabulary, and syntax.” This is, unfortunately, a problem many people around the world experience such as the many immigrants learning a countries native language. Linguistic discrimination is a complex subject that affects many groups of people around the world.
One example of linguistic discrimination is in Yanqun Peng’s article “Not Professional enough to be a therapist: international therapists’ experience of language discrimination”. In this article, Peng explores the hardships that therapists from abroad experience when practicing in other countries such as the US. Peng states “Specifically, international student-therapists’ language has been called not proficient”(Peng 1). These international therapist students, people who are trying to learn, are often looked down upon due to their native language. Their clients often use this factor against them and blame only the student therapist for the communication barriers created when it is both of their responsibility to learn to communicate with each other. The clients often use the therapist’s language against them and claim it is the sole barrier in communication. What linguistic discrimination is doing, is essentially creating a toxic learning environment for these student therapists, which prevents them from learning their trade properly. In addition, Peng also said “English speakers from countries who have been US allies in recent decades and who have had smaller populations of immigrants were evaluated most favorably. English spoken by the French, Spanish, and Italians was rated as the most “correct, pleasant, and friendly,” whilst English spoken by Chinese, Mexicans, Indians, and Russians was rated as “bad English”(Peng 2). In this example, Peng shows the socio-political bias that people in this field have towards foreign individuals. English speakers from US-allied are preferred over English speakers from countries with a complicated history with the US. As previously mentioned, this created a less than ideal environment for students to learn in and they end up feeling the prejudice people have towards their homeland, making their studies increasingly harder.
Another example of linguistic discrimination is present in Hyung Chol Yoo’s article “Discrimination and health among Asian American immigrants: Disentangling racial from language discrimination”. Within the article, Yoo explains the hardships that immigrants could face when in need of health care. Yoo stated, “Among Asian Americans, perceived racial discrimination has been linked with increased risk of mental disorders and depressive symptoms ”(Yoo). While seeking healthcare, immigrants were often discriminated against. This leads to either mental health issues or chronic issues that were left untreated because discrimination may deter them from returning.
The way we lable languages can also be discriminatory. English is a very common language that is used throughout the world, however, the standard of which it is spoken is not as universal. This results in different forms of English that are often looked down upon such as “broken English.” In Amy Tan’s essay, “Mother Tongue” she points out how derogative referring to someone’s English as “broken” can be. In Tan’s words “It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken,” as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness”(Tan). By referring to someone’s English as broken, you are discriminating against them, by saying that their words aren’t as complete or as tan said lacked a certain wholeness compared to your own words. When Tan’s mother need help to communicate with others, Tan would translate for her since others couldn’t understand her, not because the way she spoke was inferior.
Language Discrimination isn’t restricted to the English language either as Gloria Anzaldua explains in her paper “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”. Within this paper, Anzaldua demonstrates how linguistic discrimination is present in other cultures such as the Latinx communities she was part of while growing up. Throughout her childhood, Anzaldua witnesses now certain groups of Latinos such as the Chicanos, the group she was part of, who could discriminate against other groups of Latinos. According to Anzaldua, “Yet, at the same time, we’re afraid the other will think we’re agringadas because we don’t speak Chicano Spanish. We oppress each other trying to out-Chicano each other, vying to be the “real” Chicanas, to speak like Chicanos”(Anzaldua 361) Within these lines, Anzaldua helps show how even among other Latinas, the women of her community resort to using English rather than their native tongue because they know if they do, even though they’re among there own people, they will be judged. By including how one group of Hispanics may treat another, we can, unfortunately, see how universal language discrimination can be.
Besides the Latino community, language discrimination is seen worldwide. Places like China for example have equally impactful examples of language discrimination. An article titled “Language Discrimination Examples In 10 Languages” published on the universal-translation-services website touches briefly on worldwide examples of this type of discrimination. The article states “Despite being the second most popular vernacular in the country, it is not valued highly by the majority. Speakers of Cantonese are discriminated against … A speaker of Cantonese will not get an equal employment opportunity as compared to the speaker of Mandarin.” Similar to Anzaldua, it is common that there is discrimination among a singular culture as we see here in China. Five percent or 63 million people in China speak Cantonese, and because of the prejudice against them, they are at a loss.
With so many different languages around the world, it’s a shame that some of them are often put down by others due to linguistic discrimination. With the various examples provided, it’s clear to see that Linguistic discrimination affects many groups of people around the world. One can only wonder what could be done to end linguistic discrimination so that maybe, one day everyone can speak freely to each other.
Works Cited
Anzaldúa Gloria. Borderlands -: La Frontera. Aunt Lute Books, 2007.
Midwest New Media, LLC – http://www.midwestnewmedia.com – (513) 742-9150. “Workplace
Fairness.” Language Discrimination, //Www.workplacefairness.org,
Not Professional Enough to Be a Therapist: International …
_a_therapist_international_therapists’_experience_of_language_discrimination.
Tan Amy. “Mother Tongue”(1990)
Universal Translation Services. “Language Discrimination Examples in 10 Languages.”
Universal Translation Services, 6 Oct. 2020,
-in-10-languages/.
Yoo, Hyung Chol, et al. “Discrimination and Health among Asian American Immigrants:
Disentangling Racial from Language Discrimination.” Social Science & Medicine (1982),
U.S. National Library of Medicine, Feb. 2009,
