Michael's Advanced Essay #2

https://vimeo.com/147284663

“But for a language to remain, it must be used.” Literacy often is seen as and accepted as, without much thought on the topic, as the ability to read and write. What people define as literacy affects things like immigration policy, school curriculum, and public opinion of people. But language itself is just communication. It may be convenient to learn english and it may make life and other things easier for you, and open you to new opportunities and possibilities in your life. It is valued to speak english, but not speaking and knowing how to read and write english isn’t necessarily being illiterate.

Because the purpose of learning language to communicate. Any form of communication, as long as it can be understood, is valid as literacy. Maybe some positions require a higher level of understanding of the english language. Take for example, a position at a company that writes manuals or something along those lines, would require a higher level of understanding, but it obviously doesn’t make you illiterate for not having that level of understanding (this isn’t to say people shouldn’t have that chance, just that it is not necessary for everyone).

It was just recently, less than a week ago when I was going home on the train, Trenton line to be exact. It stopped at 30th street station, and the train began to crowd. The seat next to me had been ignored until the last people to board the train, a family of four, came in. It was a father, a mother, a younger son, and a baby. The mother was holding the baby, and sat next to me, the father sat opposite from here, and the small boy sat next to my mom, who asked the boy if he would like to sit by the window, (he said yes).

Once we got past North Philadelphia, the conductor person came down the aisle and asked people for tickets or money. The mother was asked, and searched for something to say, but the father responded to him in slightly broken english, and handed him the money for tickets to Trenton. The baby started to make an odd sound as the conductor walked away, and the mother quickly tried to quiet him down. The father and mother looked stressed. He started kicking my leg and arm as he tried to rustle out of his mother’s grip and the mother looked to me to say sorry. At this point the father had to take a call, which he answered in fluent spanish.

She obviously couldn’t speak much english, as it took her about 5 seconds to find the word sorry, not that I was waiting for her to say sorry, I’m not petty, and when she found it took a little bit for her to pronounce it. So I just smiled and gave a thumbs up. She smiled back and kept trying to quiet the baby down. Later when the boy was asleep, his legs kept slipping down off the mother’s lap and the mother looked directly at his eyes as if to check if he woke up. She put his legs on my lap, and looked to me for a response, which was a smile, and a ‘thumbs-up’. For the rest of the ride the baby was quiet.

My point in explaining this long scene is that in this instance, or scenario, I would consider her literate. She didn’t have the best english, but she was able to effectively communicate and understand ideas well enough that it wasn’t a big deal, or any deal really. They could have been coming from a hospital where they were getting the baby treated. I’, fairly the certain the father had enough english to fill out paperwork. If not, spanish is still the second biggest language in the United States.  In this scenario, I wouldn’t consider the mother illiterate, or the father illiterate, because they have enough knowledge of communication that they can live a life. They could fill out paperwork, or what they said could be translated, and even if they don’t speak english, they could always have someone translate or just speak to someone who knows spanish, as it is the second most dominant language in the United States.

As long as you can communicate effectively with the people you need to and understand the things you need to in life, you are literate, because you have fulfilled the purpose of learning language, which is being able to communicate.