Paul's Interview

Paul is born in Wisconsin but than moved to California and Florida and is now living in Illinois. So his language changed a lot of times because everytime when he changed his livingplace he speaks kind of the way the people speak where he lived that moment. And when he went on to another place he lost thi past kind of accent and used a new one. However now he is living in IL for a long time and there is nearly no accent from the other places left. His parents made the same development as he because they changed their environment too.
When Paul comes to classroom he tries to be more formal with using his language as he would do when he speaks with his friends .

critiquing and changing genres and getting personal

Different writers always make different choices and all of these choices are creative. It means that one writer will interpret the writing in one genre a little different as another writer. But it is very important that the changing or interpretation is not that big that the reader is no more able to recognize the genre.

When you write an personal essay, the writer is the only person who knows the facts and points he wants the audience to understand. So he needs to make clear what are his points and he needs to make the reader feel comfortable because you don't want to waste the readers time. In this case you can change genres to make your writing even more interesting and the reader is even more focussed on it.

my language background

At home I am speaking german because my whole family is german and they are not bilingual so there is only german. However my parents are able to speak English because of their work but it is not enough to communicate in English at home. So I learned english since the 5 grade of school. In school we learn mostly british english ant the first time I came to America I was wondering how different the pronouncation and spelling in these two differnt Englishes is. Now when I am in my room with my roommate I don't think about how I say things so there are may many mistakes because it doesn't have to be correct. But when I come to class in the college I try to speak grammatically correct english and that's really hard for me because I don't want to do any mistakes. However I try to improve my english by listening carefully and asking abut my mistakes.

From outside,in

Mellix's title "From Outside,In" reflects her steps to use official research english. She grow up just speaking black english and than her parents teach her standard english which she used when she was in a conversation with for example white people who use official english. But she still used black english when she talked to friends or with her family. Only sometimes her mother tried to teach her how to improve her english by asking her how she would say the phrase in "correct" standard english. After she was able to decide and switch between the black and the standard english depended on the situation she was in, she went to college and took a college course. There she learned about how to write papers and later on research papers. So she improved her english from "Outside,In" because at the beginning she spoke just "dirty" english but later she learned how to handle with "correct" english and so she was involved in the society. Further more she says that she "gave birth to herself" because by using and developing her english she changed the way she behaved and so herself too.

The person who influenced me the most

The person who influenced me the most is my mother. One time at christmas,when she served one more time an amazing german food I noticed that she is the most important person in my life.
She is 54 years old and in my mind the samrtest person on the planet because everytime she tries to find a solution to a problem and she works hard to reach her solution. But sometimes this even her weakness because she tries to hard and does not know when she should finish the work and rest for some hours to recover. She is working 8-10 hours a day to make sure that her children have the best future they can wish and she is happy when she can say I opend the doors for the best possible education so my children are able to live their own life without beeing depend from their parents anymore. I mean she will help them if they have problems.
Back to this situation at the christmas dinner I felt so happy about beeing part of this family because it was a feeling like there were no problems for example in school or with friends. It just was like there were only te family, the nice dinner and the celebration of the feast of love.Later on that evening my girlfriend joined the dinner and than it was a perfect time for me. The 3 most important persones in my life were sitting on one table and I just felt like flying in the sky.

Why and when we are speaking Spanish in public

Bilingual people often do not adopt English as their public language when they are together in public because "it is a matter of respect for their parents and comfort in their cultural roots".They do not want to separate from foreign people they only have respect for their language.
I think it is not a problem if bilingual people speak their language when they are together because i am german and I would prefer to speak german to my mother as well because we would change the language if there is some we are talking with who does not understand german. That's the thing she mentions in her article that you should have a closer look for the situation and than you can decide which language you speak.

The US has so many different languages and so many people from all around the world, that it is not possible to make a law which says there should be only one language. I think it is one part of american culture that they have so many people from different countries living here.

I think english is one big part to participate with american patriotism. I believe people who are really patriotism are only speaking english because otherwise you are may proud of america but you still speak your foreign language with proud because you are proud of your home country. So it is not able to compare really patriotic americans with for example spanish people who lived here for 40 years.

As I explained I am bilingual because I am german and for me it is a normal reaction that when me an my mother talking about some topic in german and one english guy joins the conversation that we will switch to a language which is understandable for every person who takes part of the conversation because it is a kind of respect that you are not alone when everyone talk about a topic and you can not understand.

The article "when and why we speak spanish in public" is powerful because the author uses a lot of example to let the reader feel like he is in the same situation so you can think about all questions in detail and not just as you were a listener.