Aria by Richard Rodriguez (Connection)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this article.  As I was reading this, it brought me back to when I was a student  at FAU.  I was taking a TESOL class and the teacher recommended that we all go out and find an English Language Learning Center.  As most of us know, Florida is very diverse when it comes to language.  The center I went to was primarily for older men and woman who wanted to learn English.  When you asked them why they wanted to learn English, they all agreed so that everyone around them would be able to "understand" them.  But, there was one woman who I remember the most.  She was a single mother who children stopped talking to her because she was still speaking Spanish inside and out of their home.  Her children were speaking English in their classrooms and to their friends, so when they came home she had no idea what they were even talking about.  She said that she spent countless nights crying out of frustration because she wanted to know what they were saying.  She felt that she had lost the one connection that they had had together.  This was when she decided to go out and learn on her own.  At the end of her experience at this center, she was able to speak English.  Like she said it may not be the best English, but she now has an understanding of it.  Due to the fact that her children saw that she was studying English, they would sit down with her and help her to sound out her words and give them meaning.  All of this helped her to learn even more.  She was so proud that she had accomplished her goal and that she now had the connection that she was missing with her children.  The confidence that she received from this was amazing.  She also said that she would never forget where she came from or her native language, but that she was happy that everyone around her now could understand what she was saying.
During the time that I was reading Rodriguez's article, all I could think about what this woman.  Watching her from the beginning to where she is now with her English was completely gratifying.  People who have a different language than us just want to be able to be understood just like everyone else.  Bilingual education is on the rise and we as future educators need to be able to find ways to make them feel like they are at home and comfortable.