Because I am double majoring in Anthropology and Spanish, I recently decided to register for some upper level Spanish classes. I thought they wouldn’t be difficult because I spoke the language and knew how to read and write it, but they ended up being very difficult. Sometimes I felt like my Spanish wasn’t good enough or that my accent didn’t sound like the accent my other peers used. I thought about dropping some of my classes because I thought that my Spanish wasn’t good enough or that I would be made fun of. Knowledge of my heritage language has created positive experiences outside of school. For me, it’s as simple as helping someone who doesn’t speak English with directions or translating something from English to Spanish. I like to be able to help my community and also be able to communicate with my family and friends.
