WEEK 2

DAY ONE HW

After reading the first few pages of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” I found it to be interesting because I was able to understand and learn an ancient folktale from Santo Domingo. My mother use to tell me some scary stories that she’s been told or even ones that she’s experienced, and I always found them interesting. Reading the first few pages of this book, reminded me of those scary stories.  However, I didn’t understand some things from the text such as the title correlating to the curse, fuku. The writer starts by informing the readers about “fuku” and what it means but then the title doesn’t match what he states about this meaning. After reading the title I think of something marvelous that Oscar Mao has been through or has done, but when reading the first seven pages, it talks about this curse that affects the lives of anyone who says a specific word. I found that confusing and more specifically when the writer says “It’s perfectly fine if you don’t believe in these “superstitions.” It’s better than fine-it’s perfect.” I found this very difficult to understand because he just gave a list of examples of bad things happening to those who didn’t believe in this curse. Maybe he’s being sarcastic? I don’t get how the title is stating Oscar Mao has a wondrous life which is a great life but talks about a curse. But then again maybe he is being sarcastic.

DAY TWO HW

I am a part of the Hispanic community, the NYC community, and being a student. Growing up in my household, we only spoke Spanish so that was all I could speak and understand very young. However, when I was in school here in NYC, I was able to learn, study, and experience the English language. Being a student and being a part of an English-speaking community, I’ve had to get used to speaking this language only. I learned Spanish because of my parents, who are both from Honduras. They only understood Spanish and that was the language we communicated in in our home. But as my siblings and I got older, living in NYC, we were able to learn English because of school. During my middle and high school years, I lost a little of my Spanish since English is my first language and it’s hard keeping up with both languages because at home I’m speaking one language, but then at school or outside of my home, I speak English so it’s like living two lives. Nevertheless, as I speak more Spanish at home, I was able to get back to speaking and writing both languages fluently. I completely agree and can relate to this writer, Perri Klass, because when you learn something and are used to a repetitive pattern, it stays with you and you either have to make both work or just focus on one, and even so, I’ve chosen to work with both languages.