Lu and Rose Essays

I found it interesting how in the "From Silence to Words" essay Lu seemed to have a fear of languages. In the "Crossing Boundaries" essay Millie and the classmates have a fear or certain words when they stumble upon them on a test. Lu was afraid of mixing words or meanings up. At one point she was afraid of making a women sound weak because of the conflict she had with getting her son involved in the revolution. Lu seems to fear the word red because she was exposed to so many different uses of the word. Millie and her classmates were afraid of certain words; not because they didn't know they words, simple because they were not used to taking test. I just found it very interesting how on one side you have Lu who is afraid of knowing to many languages, on the other side Millie and her classmates are afraid because they don't know enough. They have a fear or words and taking test. Both groups are dealing with a social class problem in completly oppisite ways. Lu was singled out because of her father being a doctor and the others are singled out for being illiterate. For Lu she is seems to be tormented by being bilingual. For Millie and others like her it is almost like they are set up to fail because no one seems to believe that they are even capable of learning. They are normally treated as having a mental dissability. I like how these essays made me think. I never think about being able to read, write, or speak because it has never been a problem.