ENGL 101 My Father\'s English PDF

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This is an analysis/discussion post of "My Father's English"....

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Just by looking at the title of “My Father’s English” by Mindy Haskins Rogers, I expected the text to be about a father who maybe spoke a foreign language or wasn’t fluent in English. Since this piece is a literacy narrative, I expected it to tell the journey of either the father or daughter and how language played an important role. After reading the text, I found that there was a lot more to the story. Mindy, the daughter, was usually embarrassed and annoyed at her father’s use of English. His syllables would slur together, and his pronunciation was not perfect, and most days, it bothered her. When she was young, she had a hard time understanding him and both she and her father would grow angry when having to repeat themselves to understand each other. It turns out that her father was not a foreigner, as “his family has been in Vermont for generations” (310). However, he continued to have the foreign accent that his ancestors in the British Isles had. Mindy began to separate herself from the accent, as she didn’t want to be provoked by classmates, teachers, and friends for sounding different. Throughout her younger years, she made sure to teach herself to have crisp pronunciation and not slur together syllables like her father. By the time she is in college, she begins to learn Spanish and Portuguese. However, despite how well she speaks Spanish, she is told that she sounds like a six-year-old for not using the passive voice. In English, the passive voice is seen as improper grammar, but in a language like Spanish, it is completely normal. Finally, Mindy realizes that language is cultural. When she eventually teaches English to young students, she is happy to help them grow and understand her language. She remembers how she was once in her students’ shoes and couldn’t understand what her father was saying, and finally comes to appreciate everyone’s unique language and accents. The segment that I found most interesting was her realization that not all native English speakers sound the same. She talked about how her professor sends the class an interactive map, which can play the sounds

of different English speakers around the globe. She writes, “I am fascinated, and spend hours navigating the world, enjoying the musicality of so many voices speaking with distinct inflections” (312). What once agitated her is now music to her ears. This quote really shows me how this is a literacy narrative because it shows her personal growth. In the beginning of her story, she grew furious that she couldn’t understand her father. However, she now appreciates and understands the history and culture behind each language and accent. She concludes her story by saying, “maybe my father’s English was never so bad, after all” (313). Her experience with learning Spanish and Portuguese and teaching young children English has finally helped her understand the importance and power of each person’s language. She has clearly grown mentally and emotionally throughout her life when it came to appreciating the languages around the world....