How do the characters in the book maintain their cultural ties?
“Te preguntó el Mr. Barone, you know, lo que querías hacer when you grow up?” I asked.
“Sí, pero, I didn't know. ¿Y tú?”
A conversation between Esmeralda and Yolanda, a new 9th grader.
Page 258
This is a conversation in half Spanish half English because both of the girls were immigrants. This shows that Esmeralda continues to hold her language from Puerto Rico. Language is important to Esmeralda's family because learning English was a hard thing for Esmeralda to do. Esmeralda feels more comfortable speaking in Spanish than speaking in English, so it is really nice for her to be able to speak Spanish with one of her friends.
This quote doesn't really relate to me, but it reminds me of when I go to England because the accent wears off on me. I can remember playing with my cousins, and I sound nearly exactly like them. At first though, its uncomfortable for me to speak in that accent, but the more I am with my family, the easier it is to speak like them. It also is uncomfortable to speak in my American accent around them, because it makes me different them.
Have you ever experienced a time where it was hard to speak the way you speak?“Te preguntó el Mr. Barone, you know, lo que querías hacer when you grow up?” I asked.
“Sí, pero, I didn't know. ¿Y tú?”
A conversation between Esmeralda and Yolanda, a new 9th grader.
Page 258
This is a conversation in half Spanish half English because both of the girls were immigrants. This shows that Esmeralda continues to hold her language from Puerto Rico. Language is important to Esmeralda's family because learning English was a hard thing for Esmeralda to do. Esmeralda feels more comfortable speaking in Spanish than speaking in English, so it is really nice for her to be able to speak Spanish with one of her friends.
This quote doesn't really relate to me, but it reminds me of when I go to England because the accent wears off on me. I can remember playing with my cousins, and I sound nearly exactly like them. At first though, its uncomfortable for me to speak in that accent, but the more I am with my family, the easier it is to speak like them. It also is uncomfortable to speak in my American accent around them, because it makes me different them.
How do Americans treat the characters?
“I'd like to be a model,” I said to Mr. Barone.
“A model?” His voice was gruff, as if he were more comfortable yelling at people then talking to them.
“I want to be on television.”
A conversation about Esmeralda's career between Esmeralda and Mr. Barone.
In this conversation, Esmeralda is discussing the career that she wants to be involved in with Mr. Barone, and Mr. Barone is disagreeing with Esmeralda's decisions. He doesn't think that she will be a good model, she offers an actress. He is more open to this but still not as open as another choice of career. This might have crushed Esmeralda's confidence. I am not sure if Mr. Barone was doing it intentionally, but I do not think he was treating her very well. I think that it would have been nicer to offer a modeling school anyway.
This quote reminds me of Christmas in 2 ways.
a. When you open a present you don't like and you aren't very good at convincing the gift giver that you like it.
b. When you give a gift to a person and you can tell that they don't like it.
Either way it is hard to deal with this because you either feel bad for not being good at hiding that you don't like the gift, or you feel bad for giving a really bad gift.
Have you ever been in an awkward situation like Esmeralda's?
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