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The article called, Appropriating English, Expanding Identities, and Re-Visioning the Field:  From TESOL to Teaching English for Glocalized Communicatioin (TEGCOM) by A. Lin, et. al includes four authors’ autobiographies. These authors are from China, Japan, Iran and Hong Kong. In the article they discussed about the people of China’s motivation to speak English and how they were disinterested. I have never been there but my dad has. He says that that he has always been able to communicate efficiently, and he also is always in the presence of a translator who intervenes when need be. When I was in high school I was truly unmotivated to learn Spanish, I found that there was no reason for me to learn a language that was not the dominant one in my country. Obviously I was naïve and hadn’t yet come to love the Spanish culture. It was hard to only spend 50 minutes a day discussing verbs versus being able to hold an actual conversation. I never could have predicted that one day I would spend 6 months in Spain- where I was absolutely immersed in the culture and forced to hold conversations. It was the epitome of the sink or swim method. This article made me reflect deeply on the journey that I have taken to both use my Spanish and appreciate my ability to do so.

I thought it was interesting that the authors brought up how they were ashamed of their English. When I first got to Spain I was extremely embarrassed and timid to use my Spanish. I definitely had a strong enough background to hold a conversation but felt like I was always going to be judged based on how flawed I was, versus the effort I was putting forth. My señora finally told me to just start talking. Talk all the time in Spanish, who cares if I said things wrong. The more I forced myself, the more naturally it would come. I feel that although Spanish isn’t spoken in my home and was by no means is my first language- it is a huge part of who I am. I identify with a culture, a language, and a collection of experiences that many of my peers do not.

Chapter seven, McKay and Bokhorts was a huge interest to me as a future bilingual education teacher. The goal of a bilingual program is to produce a student who has fluency in both an L1 and L2 but focuses first on foundations in the student’s L1. The student need not be absolutely perfect, but shouldn’t just be skating by either. Without the fundamentals, students will be lost in translation- literally- and not move forward towards success as they struggle to make sense of simple concepts.

This chapter also discusses the rejection of westernization. I again was able to trace my thoughts back to my experiences in Europe. Students there [in Spain] were not interested in learning English- some, but not all. They were not forced at a young age as a child would be put into a bilingual/ dual language program here in the United States at a public school. In Europe, every country is very proud of their history. Ask anyone- young or old- about the history of their country and they can talk for hours. Whether it be about their flag, traditions, battles, etc; they are knowledgeable. I can understand how this pride does not want to be replaced by a younger society, one that is slowly becoming not so dominant. While I was over there we learned all about Spain’s history and it was fascinating. Again, I really felt the emphasis of pride in their classes and discussions.