Page 20 - Language and Literacy Project StoryBook

CLOSING

REMARKS

This collection of stories represents the stages of the
development of my personal perceptions of my identity. As a
child, I lived in a home infused with my hybrid culture, without
an outside influence to tell me that anything else was more
correct.

The first realizations that my culture may be considered
“incorrect” or “different” came in the forms of stories 1 and 2.
Early on, I heard discussions between my parents, in which my
mother was adamant about my siblings’ mastery of English,
even at the detriment of her own language. My mother in these
conversations was extremely stubborn. I am now extremely
cognizant of the difficulty of that decision. At the time of these
conversations, I had already begun speaking Igbo and could fully
understand my parents’ conversations in the Nigerian language.
My intersectional linguistic identity had already been instilled.

Another level of this realization came with my parents’
communications with people outside of my household. I heard
my mother speak on the phone, at the store, and with my
teachers. I saw my father make a point of using his impeccable
English when speaking to his patients and whenever he got a call
from a nurse. When my younger sister pointed out this

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