Puerto Rican Children Are Socially Deprived

Puerto Rican Children Are Socially Deprived

            Any country that conquest another country has to impose it culture by obligating its language, religion, and traditions to fully conquest the other country. To many people from the dependent country, it is hard to learn the language imposed because of the lack of good education and experience. The dominant society may think that because of their anatomy or their race they are not able to do so. In the text “Black Children are Verbally Deprived” by Walt Wolfram, the author explains how the North American society supposes that African American has a different English speech because the segregation and the poor education they have had. Nowadays, Puerto Ricans are having the same problems as the African Americans did before with the North Americans in terms of the use of English.

Something similar is happening to Puerto Rican society and their education towards English. North American people think we do not know how to speak it because we are stupid and not clever. We can speak it, not like them, but we can communicate with them. The main reason for a language is to communicate. Maybe this is happening because of the same reason African Americans talk different. The schools teach English as a second language because, as colonial of the United States, that is how this country can dominate us completely. Also, the sea between us can differentiate our speech with this language.

In the text, according to Wolfram: “the speech of a socially subordinate group will always be interpreted as inadequate by comparison with the socially dominant group.” This is a great example of what is happening to Puerto Ricans. North Americans imply this idea with how Puerto Ricans use English and that we could never use it as they do. Also, the test for college, the College Board, is appropriated to us because the tests are made for second language speakers. I guess we are more fortunate than the African Americans Wolfram describes in this aspect.

As a dependent country, we are discriminated against North Americans in all aspects, as African Americans where in that time. As Wolfram states, “When one group is economically and socially dominant over another, differences will always be interpreted in a way that supports the asymmetrical socio-economical, socio-political and socio-educational status quo.” This quote explains how they dominate and discriminate against Puerto Ricans because of our culture, economy, and social structure. According to Wolfram, the differences that Puerto Ricans have using English with the North Americans is not because we are not able to speak it properly, but that, as Wolfram suggests, we are never going to speak it like them until the two countries mix with each other.

Maybe if we learn English another way, we could learn it better and there would be not discrimination from the United States. We could teach English as an international language to benefit our knowledge, not as an obligation imposed by another country. This way, we would not end up what Wolfram describes as “language-handicapped.” This could be a solution for some of the problems we have with the United States that affect a large number of Puerto Rican people; to put politics away and enrich ourselves with cultural knowledge. Still, if a Puerto Rican kid manages English better that Spanish, it is socially wrong because this can imply that Spanish will banish from the island or that politically we are assimilated with the North American culture. Discrimination from both parties against English speakers from Puerto Rico; an irony, is it not?