Second Year Winner: Language and Lies

WRIT 2100, Studies in Non-Fiction. CD: kerry doyle.

Abstract

When asked to write a personal narrative, a writer must work carefully to balance their individual experiences with the larger points said experiences make about the world. “Language and Lies” beautifully maintains this balance, exploring the writer’s personal experiences navigating various relationships that placed different expectations and pressures on the language she used and how she spoke it. In providing a peek at the often private and quieter parts of being multilingual, the narrative here lays bare the inner tensions of navigating identity shifts and rifts involved in moving between communities and their language politics. In tracing various experiences of being expected to speak Vietnamese (or later, the right type of Vietnamese) to others, and often not meeting the expectations thrust upon them by others, the author provides a riveting personal story that so clearly illustrates some of the larger tensions around language and its role in identity, both when we build our inner identities of ourselves, and the identities thrust upon us by the outside world. A must-read for all who navigate language politics, and especially language teachers.