SPECIAL NOTES: The assignment for this thesis paper required descriptions of the author's and/or others' personal experiences to support its basic argument. The author developed these descriptions using narrative storytelling conventions: use of the five senses, the five W's of journalism (who, what, where, when, and why/how), and people speaking about their experiences. She has labeled the places where she has used these conventions.

University of Minnesota
EngC 1021, Intermediate Expository Writing
Personal Experience Thesis
© 2001 by Angela Wilda

The Undervalued Second Language
by
Angela Wilda

        A year ago [when] at work, [where] Victoria Mercado [who] gave me a first-hand account [what] of migrant farm work. She wanted to educate me [why] about inequalities that continue to be maintained today. She said, "My parents worked in the fields picking crops. We were given a dank, [smell] one-room house to stay in during the harvest. The tractors would rattle [sound] the shack as they rolled by outside. At sunrise, [sight] we would start picking the vegetables, separating out those that were soft, [touch] or overripe. We would work through the day until the dirt and sweat clung to our lips." [taste]  This story of courage would have been impossible if I did not speak a second language. The ability to speak a second language has a variety of benefits. It can help bridge cultural gaps, be advantageous in the workplace, and also give us a better understanding of not only our native language but language in general.

        First, the ability to speak a second language helps bridge cultural gaps, creating a more united society. Often, we think of other cultures in terms of what we have assimilated from them, disregarding how different they have become from the original. For instance, in Ireland, they do not celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by dyeing everything green and hosting drunken parades with leprechauns and pots of gold. These events do more to destroy cultures than to celebrate them. One way to preserve cultural idiosyncrasies is by speaking a second language. When I learned to speak Spanish, I also learned a great deal about Spanish-speaking cultures.

        One way I learned about these cultures was through their literature. Literature is a key to the way a culture thinks, feels, and behaves. By reading works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I gained insight into the customs and societies of Colombia and Mexico, where Marquez was born and raised. His works are rich in description, practically bringing you to the lush, heady atmosphere of Central America. The dust from dirt roads, the aroma of fresh baked goods, and the bustle of the local market are all vividly portrayed in his writing. In addition, by reading Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) in Spanish, I learned about magic realism. This is a beautiful writing style that I never would have discovered without the ability to read Spanish.

        My second language also taught me about a variety of customary festivals. Two such festivals are El Dia de Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), which honors the annual return of relatives that have passed away, and La Posadas (The Inn-Seekers), a pre-Christmas event that observes the wanderings of Mary and Joseph before the birth of Jesus.

        Finally, speaking Spanish allowed me to learn about Mexican folk medicine. I learned from friends and coworkers about home treatments passed on through generations for a variety of ailments, as well as the religious and spiritual bases for such treatments. While at work [where] one day, [when] a group of us [who] were talking [what] about home remedies, because Rose Zapata complained [why] that she had a nagging cold. Marialissa Villalobos told her, "When I would get a chest cold [touch], my grandmother would take me into the kitchen and tell me to sit down in a chair and lean my head back. Then she would roll a piece of paper into a cone and place it in my mouth. After saying a Mexican prayer, she would light the paper on fire, let it burn for a few seconds, and then blow it out, drawing the spirits that were making me sick out of my body."

        Araceli Gomez told a similar story and then added, "Whenever I had a stomachache, my mother would have me lie down on the kitchen table. Then she would press down on my stomach and move my tripas (guts) around a bit. She told me that one of my organs had moved from where it should be, and that I had a stomach ache because it needed to be moved back where it belonged." 

        Interactions with people from Spanish-speaking countries and reading the literature from them taught me a great deal about the traditions of these cultures. It also gave me a clear picture of how our cultures interact and co-exist.

        Second, the ability to speak another language can be a clear advantage in the workplace. Staff members can be more useful to their employers when they are able to speak a second language. From the employers’ standpoint, it gives their product or services a larger customer base. This makes the employee more valuable and a greater asset. From the employees’ standpoint, it makes them more useful to their employers. It may increase their chance for a raise or other promotion. I have been able to train Spanish-speaking employees to perform jobs in environments that would have been unattainable without my help. Without an employee capable of training them, they would be relegated to jobs with low pay, requiring little skill.

        However, the advantage is not strictly professional. As an employee able to speak a second language, I am able to assist customers that are otherwise disadvantaged as consumers. They may be unaware of sales or promotions, due to the inability to read the return policy at a store, or understand the fine print of a contract. The ability to overcome this language barrier is invaluable in a work situation.

        At work [where] one day, [when] a customer [who] was bent over a sleek, [touch] new [sight] stereo. [what] I heard a small pop, [sound] and a curl [sight] of acrid [smell] smoke escaped the stereo. I approached the customer and asked, "Is there some way I can help you?"  He replied, "I want to buy this stereo, but I can’t seem to make it work." [why] I knew that a staff member had tested it earlier that day, so I went to the production area to find him.

        "Are you busy, Ken?" I asked.  "I need some help explaining to a customer how to make a stereo work."  He followed me back to the customer and I began translating for them while Ken showed the customer how to connect the stereo.

        Without my help, the customer might have thought that the stereo did not work, and my company might have lost a sale. Also, he never could have received any personal service without my ability to communicate with him. The ability to speak Spanish makes me a more useful employee, not only to my employer, but also to customers who deserve the same level of service despite the presence of a language barrier. [Best Point]

        Finally, a second language can give us a better understanding of our native tongue, and of language in general. English has its roots in several languages. When someone learns a second language, he or she is usually able to find similarities between English and their second language, allowing them a better understanding of both. Personally, knowledge of Spanish has made me more aware of the roots of English words. Spanish is a romance language, and English takes a large portion of its roots from Latin as well. Understanding these similarities helps me decipher the meanings of unfamiliar words in both English and Spanish through their root words.

        Last Thanksgiving, [when] my family [who] was gathered [what] in the living [300 w.] room [where] after a rich meal. We were letting our stomachs [touch] settle [why] before succumbing to my mother’s mouth-watering [taste] array of pies, whose aromas were slowly wafting [smell] into the room. Their golden crusts and fillings [sight] were practically calling [sound] to us through the room, but we were just too full to tackle them.

        My mother had recently received a letter from my grandmother, who always included interesting newspaper clippings. In this letter, she had included an expert-spelling test. A test of sixty words had been given to eight hundred editors and professors, and not a single person got all of them right. The newspaper printed the twenty words that had been most frequently misspelled by the experts. My mother thought it would be fun to take the quiz while we all waited for dessert. Because I had two language references to count on, I got the most right in our family. Words like inoculate, rarefy, pavilion, and consensus all have Spanish correlatives because of their Latin roots. Because of these language relations I was able to deduce their spelling more readily than the other members of my family.

        In addition, learning Spanish increased my understanding of grammatical structures. Finding similarities and differences between the construction of English and Spanish makes me more aware of the structure of language in general. I am able to analyze writing in English based on the grammar of Spanish, and vice-versa. This gives my language skills a greater scope and frame of reference. Without a basis of comparison, I would not be able to think as critically about my native tongue. [Best Point] Many people undervalue these useful skills.

        At one point, [when] my [who] store [where] conducted surveys [what] to gauge customer satisfaction [why]. However, there were Spanish-speaking customers unable to participate. I approached a woman with a shock [sight] of smoky-smelling [smell] hair, and asked if she would like to participate. She replied with a shrill, [sound] toothless [sight] giggle and nodded her head. She continued grinning while answering my questions, tickled [touch] with the attention. When I finished, she held my forearm and told me she had never taken a survey before. Then she patted my hand and planted a salty kiss on it. [taste]  Communicating with people from different cultures gives us the opportunity to touch the lives of others, and share their knowledge and experience. Many people appreciate that learning a second language has a variety of benefits. They understand that it can bridge cultural gaps, be advantageous in the workplace, and give us a better understanding of our native language.

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Sample Three: Thesis with Two Research Sources

North Hennepin Community College
Comp. 1111, English I
Final Thesis Paper
© 1991 by Julie Bushnell

Equal Pay for Women
by
Julie Bushnell

        According to Frances C. Hutner in Equal Pay for Comparable Worth, "As more and more women support themselves and their families and look forward with concern to what they are going to live on in their old age, they see sex-based wage discrimination as a serious problem" (vii).   Women deserve equal pay for work.  This is true for the following reasons: first, it is sex discrimination to pay women less, just because they are women.  Second, their careers and pay scales are just as important to them as such things are to men.  And third, many women are single parents and the sole breadwinners in their families.

        First, it is sex discrimination to pay women less, just because they are women.  Two federal laws and an executive order deal with sex discrimination in compensation.  The first law is the Equal Pay Act of 1963, an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.  The Equal Pay Act requires that employers pay the same wage to men and women workers doing equal work.  According to Hutner, the act defines "equal work" as "jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions" (13).  Women who perform work similar to that of men must be paid the same amount.

        Hutner explains, "'The courts have interpreted this to mean that jobs should be substantially identical, though they may have different titles, such as janitor and maid, or nurse's aid and orderly (House Hearings 17).  The act provides employers with four affirmative defenses for payments that are not equal-seniority, merit, differences in quantity or quality of production, and 'a differential based on any other factor other than sex'" (13).  The law is fairly clear in banning similar-job discrimination against women.

        The second law is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Bennett Amendment.  Title VII is a much broader law than the Equal Pay Act.  It prohibits not only discrimination in compensation, but also all types of discrimination in the terms of employment.  It includes discrimination based on race, color, religion, and national origin, as well as sex discrimination.  

        In addition, the President has outlawed another kind of wage discrimination.  Executive Order 11246 makes discrimination by federal contractors with more than fifty employees, or with contracts of more than $50,000, illegal.

        Second, women's careers and pay scales are just as important to them as such things are to men.  With the majority of women now in the work force, they have established careers for themselves.  Robert E. Kennedy Jr., author of Life Choices says, "In 1950, for example, three-quarters of wives living with their husbands were not in the labor force.  Social expectation in the 1950s assumed a division of labor between husband and wife.  The husband was responsible for being the breadwinner and for financially supporting the family, while the wife was responsible for home and family life" (60).  However, we now are in a time of change.

        Kennedy points out, "The greatest change in women's employment over the last thirty years involves working wives.  In most families in the United States today, working wives are the rule and not the exception" (61).  Women are moving up in the work force and value their careers.  They oftentimes have worked hard to gain the position they hold.

        Hutner explains, "Women have traditionally acted in nurturing, supporting roles; as mothers, wives, nurses, comforters, doers of 'menial' housekeeping tasks.  Therefore these are the roles they are assigned in the workplace.  In as much as women's work has always been considered less important than men's work and has often been underpaid, the market simply reflects historical attitudes" (10).  Women are paid less because they have often has "menial" tasks in families and are given them in the workforce, too.

        Hutner also believes that the "problem, then, is not that women are less committed workers than men, but that they may be too committed and undemanding, and therefore less able to increase their compensation" (6).  If women were more competitive, they might be able to increase their compensation.

        Third, many women are single parents and the sole breadwinners in their families.  Large numbers of women are supporting a family on their incomes. Hutner states this as follows:

Some 53 percent of the adult women in the country are now in the labor force.  In 1979, 45 percent of these working women were single heads of households separated, divorced, widowed, or never married- the sole support of themselves and their families. An additional 29 percent were married to husbands who make less than $15,000 a year.  In 1982, women alone maintained one out of every six of America's 61 million families. Clearly, the majority of women work because they must. How much they earn matters (7).

Unequal wages are especially unfair to single women with families.

        Hutner also shows one negative result of "women's low earnings": "poverty for women and for their families.  The Monthly Labor Review reports that in 1979, 'persons in families maintained by women with no husband present, had a poverty rate of 30 percent, compared with persons in families maintained by men, which had a poverty rate of only 6 percent" (7).  Women need equal wages to support their families better.

        In addition, lack of provision for old age is a serious problem for single women.  Hutner says, "In 1981, 72 percent of the poor people over 65 were women.  Half of the women over 65, living alone, have poverty or near poverty incomes of $5,000 or less.  Even though more women are in the labor force now, poor working women cannot provide for a decent old age.  A New York Times article predicted the consequences of women's low earning: by the year 2000, all of the poor would be female" (7).  Without equality of pay, women in general will be even worse off in the future.  

Conclusion

        In conclusion, Hutner sums up the issue nicely:  "As more and more women enter the labor force, pay equity becomes an increasingly important question, not only to them and their families, but also to their employers, to the consumers of their services, and to their male fellow workers as well" (18).  Women should receive equal pay for equal work.  It is sex discrimination to pay women less, their careers and pay scale are just as important to them as they are to men, and many women are single parents and the sole breadwinner in the family.

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Works Cited

Hutner, Frances C.  Equal Pay For Comparable Worth.  New York:  Praeger, 1986.

Kennedy, Robert E. Jr.  Life Choices: Applying Sociology, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1989.

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