Peter Chew
ERH-101-02
Mrs. Smith
July 5, 2022
Word count: 1755
Help Received: Works cited: Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” Peter N. Chew
An inquiry About a Bilingual Sponsorship
I started my literacy journey in and out of two countries over the years of my childhood to early teenage years. My bilingual childhood influenced the development of my literacy simultaneously in both English and Portuguese languages. From an early age, I was influenced by constant exposure to both the American and Brazilian cultures, enabling me to obtain a native literacy from the places where I lived and went to school. The educational approach that I received and the friends along with family with whom I grew up in both countries are some of the countless sponsors which influenced my path in literacy.
Brandt defines sponsors as “any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy and gain an advantage.” (Brandt 167), in some capacity. There are positive and negative aspects to forming a bilingual upbringing, there are trade-offs however limited if done properly, but the advantages outweigh any drawbacks. My household comprised of two languages English and Portuguese with a minimal amount of French and German from my grandparents, However, my exposure to French and German was not enough to make a substantial impact on my literacy. The main influences are the first two languages mentioned. Within my family, my parents were crucial agents of sponsorship to my literacy development by teaching me the ability to speak, write, and read. My parents determined where I received my formal education. In the first years of my life, my mother enrolled me in a Swiss-German School (Escola Suiça) In São Paulo, Brazil. To my surprise, I do not remember much from my early school years except for some friendships and learning the Portuguese language, things that despite not remembering, make up a part of me and my literacy journey. The mid-to-preteen years of my childhood were spent in a Brazilian-American School called Escola Pan-Americana de Bahia. The school program was a mixture of Brazilian and American teachers who taught local Brazilians and American kids in Salvador, Brazil. The reason for this international school was because, in the city where I lived and went to school, there was quite a large group of American families who moved to Salvador to work for Ford and for Dow Chemicals which have manufacturing plants in that region. The school was the closest experience to going to school in the U.S. for someone living in Brazil.
My time at the Pan-American School, was a crucial phase where my formal literacy skills were developed, influenced by American and Brazilian elements of culture, a hybrid of languages and their respective culture comprised my personality and understanding. Simultaneously learning about American and Brazilian literature, and being taught mathematics, history, geography, philosophy, and other school subjects in both languages, I went back and forth between English and Portuguese which at times could be quite confusing for some school subjects such as math and English grammar. The Portuguese language and diction are more complex in structure and grammatical rules than the English language making it difficult to transition between. After I moved to the U.S. to attend High School during my Junior and Senior years, I focused more on the English Language and strictly used Portuguese only when communicating with friends and family from Brazil. In the United States, as I spoke more English, I noticed improvements in my vocabulary and grammar. Besides my parents, a major impact on my literacy was brought by an English Teacher at Miller School (High School) in Charlottesville, VA, he functioned as a sponsor who contributed to my English literacy development. He would assign readings from great authors such as T.S. Elliot, Ernest Hemingway, and many other prominent 20th-century authors and poets. The style of writing from this era of the “Lost Generation, “of writers made me more intrigued with reading and writing than ever before. It’s as if I had discovered a key to a door that opened a new world of possibilities brought by my consumption of the texts from such books. As I missed the continuation of my Portuguese language development. Since I had put a pause on my education in Portuguese while in the U.S. For a bilingual student, it is important to maintain engagement in both languages simultaneously, my mistake was that I temporarily stopped for two years.
There is a negative but minimal, consequence to learning at an early age, academic subjects in both languages during the crucial early development phase of any person. The problem is the fear of falling behind in contemporary trends in a particular language, one challenge for me is the usage of novel words or the appropriate usage of slang and formal speech, which constantly changes as the months and years go by. For instance, if one lives outside their native country for a decade, they are no longer being exposed to the trends and cultural aspects of their country. Instead, the language and cultural influences are replaced by the country that one now lives in. In my case, I am starting to lose balance between the American and Portuguese cultures using more English, making it my primary language. One becomes more fluent in said language due to more exposure to that language. Making one more confident and knowledgeable of that specific language over the other, one gains more literacy in another language but loses some advantage that they might have had or could have gained in the other language. This is the trade-off since it can be extremely hard to learn both and keep up with trends in two distinct. Cultures and countries. One must intentionally choose to focus on two languages. After my first year in college, during the Summer, I returned to the routine of reading and writing along with exposure to English and Portuguese to further my development in both languages. Since my parents taught me that it is important to be able to have an intellectual and engaging conversation with someone in multiple languages such as Portuguese or English, it is good to have access and knowledge to vocabularies relative to the subject of that conversation. Essentially if one wants to talk to someone from another country who only speaks in their language, it is better to know the formal words specifically attributed to that particularly subject. For instance, if engaged in a conversation about politics with a person who speaks Portuguese, and one is trying to say the word “gerrymandering” but one does not know the specific word for it in the Portuguese language, one will probably find themselves either struggling to figure out a similar word in Portuguese or frantically attempting to explain the meaning of that word so that person can try to understand what one is trying to communicate. All this seems quite unnecessary. And frustration can arise at times. Such a situation could be avoided if one continues to maintain and care for their bilingual literacy development. Therefore, I am motivated to maintain my literacy development in both languages and enhance my skills.
Family, school, and friends were the most important influential aspect of forming my literacy. Parents are the most important because children mimic some characteristics of their parents, either figure of speech, behavior, or their interest in a particular subject. Parents usually are role models which also applies to literacy sponsors. Furthermore, at an early age, your social group is crucial to forming your basis of knowledge about social cues and proper usage of slang and social humor. Having grown up with exposure to the cultures and people of two different countries, I was fortunate enough to learn and to develop social skills in accordance to the societal norms of the two countries. For instance, I have realized that there are certain types of humor, writing, and interests that are common and adaptable in both American and Brazilian culture, while there are also certain things that are not approved nor accepted in one culture over the other. For example, the relative interest in Nascar Racing can be quite common in the rural parts of the U.S. However, this is quite the opposite in Brazil, who find more leisure in watching a soccer match. Hence, there is no point in trying to have a conversation about that sport with a Brazilian because they either have limited knowledge of it or zero interest. All these are important social cues for bilingual development, to be aware of societal norms to further be successful when writing about a particular subject, knowing what to include, and when making conversation.
Of course, aspects of culture are taught by exposure to either the local culture or through other means such as books, I read literature in English and Portuguese, which teaches the defining social parts of those cultures. Sources of mass entertainment and information such as television, movies, news, and other sources also provide literacy influences on someone. Movies act as visual storytelling and are a good way to get cultural exposure. As I grew up and started to access the internet, along with social media, I became connected, despite being in distant locations from either being in Brazil or the United States, exposing me to those cultures with more instant accessibility. Due to the internet, there is now instant access and exchange of knowledge and communication between countries, cultures, and people. Cultural exposure is no longer limited to school, a specific location, or one’s household. Cultural exposure is now broad from many different sources and sponsors. Social media sources that allow for instant exposure to distinct cultures, further develop literacy sponsors. This makes keeping up with trends and social change in diverse cultures much easier and more accessible, something which I pay attention to since it allows me to keep up with contemporary changes. The innovation of the internet has allowed people from all corners of the globe to connect with one another. This connectively along with access to educational products and services, has contributed to the rate of more people learning a second, third, or even fourth language. To be considered an educated person and maintain their education in two or more languages, one needs to access literacy sponsors to be willing to use the sponsors. To be competent in Portuguese and in English, it is more important to maintain a constant exposure to these languages and their cultures, and not lose track of their significant societal events or changes which has effects to the change of the way of language and speech.
Works Cited
Brandt, Deborah. “Sponsors of Literacy.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 49, no. 2, 1998, pp. 165–185. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/358929. Accessed 4 Jul. 2022.