Learning through Language

My name is Michael Rifino. I was born in Queens, New York and grew up in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania. After I earned my high school diploma, I moved back to New York with my mom to get reacquainted and pursue a higher education in New York. I am a second generation immigrant. My mother was born in Dominican Republic and my father is from Italy. They both moved to New York when they were young adults. Being brought up biracial has broadened my perspective on language, culture and its significance.
Growing up in Pennsylvania by Dominican and Italian parents, I was exposed to different languages at a young age. I think my parents wanted me to learn English first, because that was the dominant language in my neighborhood. It was also English, which dominated in our household. However, my mom will usually speak Spanish to my older sister and me whenever we did something to make her mad, so Spanish was spoken here a lot too! Although this is true, as of now I can understand Spanish pretty well. During high school, I took two Spanish courses that helped improve my writing and reading skills. So as of now I can understand Spanish and I am able to read and write it moderately. Working in retail, and living in New York has also helped to improve these skills. Taking literature courses was the main tool I used to use English.
I learned English and Spanish mostly from my classes throughout my educational career. Going through elementary and middle school, English grammar, was focused the most throughout the school program. So we as students received a concrete foundation of the English language. As for Spanish, I learned the majority of what I know from my family.
My hypothesis of how language is developed begins when a unique structure of symbols is used to put into action and is embraced by a large population. This means when certain text, pictures, and/or symbols are used in a structure to message others, this becomes communication. When this specific structure of text, pictures, and/or symbols become developed, builds awareness and is embraced by a vast majority of a population than it is considered language.
A question I have about language is what if everybody spoke the same language in the world? One unified language; I wonder how our county and others’ foreign affairs would change.
Deutscher’s article in the New York Times was about how language shapes our mind and perception. This article has challenged me with a lot of new information. I never thought of how language could actually shape our ways of thinking and perceiving. It’s true when they say words are powerful. When discussing about what shapes our minds I always think about our culture, social status and childhood experiences, but I never considered language to be part of the influence. What interested me the most about this article was the examples of the feminine and masculine objects in Spanish, German and French and how that dictated the perception of that object. The question that I am left with is, how is the language we speak influence our self identity and how does it affect our perception of the world?