English 150
18 December 2014 Unconsciously, we all speak different languages; we categorize the way we speak by the environment and people at which we are speaking too. Whenever a character enters an unfamiliar environment, they experiment with language to find themselves and understand reality. For immigrants, language is a means to retain one’s identity; however, as they become more assimilated in their new communities their language no longer reflects that of their identity but of their new cultural surroundings. When an immigrant, immigrates to a new country they become marginalized, they’re alienated from common cultural practices, social ritual, and scripted behavior. It’s not without intercultural communication and negotiation …show more content…

Through language, he maintains a relationship with his Dominican culture and infiltrates the customs of American culture. In Drown; Yunior identifies translation as cultural repression. Diaz writes, “A movie dubbed into Spanish, a classic, one that everyone knows. The actors throw themselves around, passionate, but their words are plain and deliberate. It’s hard to imagine anybody going through life this way.” Language is sensational, here the author illustrates that translations fail to accurately portray a message and convey the true passionate nature of language. Lost in translation is the passionate Latino culture, for it is deliberately silenced by the meandering and plain English. In the epigraph of Drown Diaz writes, “The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you.” Language threatens the authenticity of his childhood experiences; only through the incorporation of Spanish words and slang does Diaz reflect the untranslatable experiences of those who do not speak English. Language loyalty is generally evidenced by a desire to retain an identity that can only be articulated through the use of language. Diaz epigraph emphasizes the association between language and culture, his inclusion of Spanish manifest the cultural practices associated with the language that would be lost if the story was