I write in English, read in English, think in English,
and speak in English. I simply can’t do these things in any other languages. Lu
would probably say that I’m lucky because I don’t have any feuding ideals or “voices
in my mind”, but I think that communicating with English exclusively is more of
a curse than a blessing.
As far as writing goes, it makes sense that Lu is a
distinguished author because she has a more holistic view of the world. Lu has
gained this holistic view because of her firsthand experience with two
different political cultures or “voices”. Therefore, credibility depends on
experience.
The routine of my daily bus ride to and from campus is occasionally
rattled by competing “voices” or languages that I fail to recognize. Cell phone
screens in the seats in front of me are lit up with text messages made up of
strange and unsettling characters. At the beginning of college, I felt as if
the people that these “voices” belonged to were more intelligent than me
because I didn’t understand their form of communication, but they understood
mine.
I grew up in an exclusively Standard English-speaking, homogeneous community where I felt comfortable communicating at home and at
school. The truth is that I had been isolated from diversity and the “melting
pot” that defines America, even though I physically grew up in America. Coming
to Texas A&M gave me an opportunity to become more accustomed to languages
and dialects other than my own, which gives me more credibility in writing
about culture.
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