Language Teaching New Worlds /New Words Like desir, language darupts,reises tobe contained within boundaries. It speaks itself against our wil, in words and thoughts that intrude, even violate the most private spaces of ‘mind and body. Ie was in my fst year of college tha I read [Adrienne Rich's poem, “The Burning of Paper Instead of Chit fren.” That poem, speaking agunst domination, against racam and clas oppression, attempts to illustrate graphically that stopping the polideal persection and torture of living beings is a more vital isue than censorship, than burning books. One line ofthis poem that noved and discarbed some- ‘hing within me: "This i the oppressors language yet I need eto tlle to you." 've never Forgaten it Prshape Teel nat Ihave forgotten it even if ried to erase i from memory, Words Impose themselves, ake root in ov memory aginst our wll "The words ofthis poem begat a lfe in my memory that I could not abort or change.When I find myself thinking about language now, these words are there, asf they were always waiting to challenge and asst me. find myself slendy speaking them over and over again with he intensity ofa chant. They stale me, shaking me Into an awareness ofthe link between languages and domina tion, Initial, ese the idea ofthe “oppressors language," eet ‘ain tha this construct has the rotenil to disempower those of luswho are just learning ospeae, who ae just learning o claim language asa place where we mike ourselves subject. “This she pps’ languages yt Imad itt tak to you." Adrienne Rich's words, Then, when Iirstread these words, and now, they make ‘me think of standard English, of learning to speak against back vernacular, against the ruptured and broken speech of adie Possested and displaced people. Standard English is not the speech of exile. Tes the anguage of conquest and dominato in the United States, iis the mash which hides the loss of 0 ‘many tongues all hose sounds of averse, native communities we mill never ear, the speech of the Gullah, Yiddish, and so ‘many other unremembered tongues Reflecing on Adrienne Rich's words, I know that its not ‘he English language that hurts me, but what the oppressors do ith it, now they shape it to become a teritry that limits and defines, how they make ita weapon that can shame, humiliate, colonize. Gloria Anzaldia reminds us ofthis pin in Border Jandy/La Frontora when she assets, °So, if you want to relly hhurt me, tlk badly about my language.” We have so litle knowledge of how displaced, enslaved, or fice Afticans who ‘came or were brought against ther wil ta the United States felt about the loss of language, aboat learning English. Only as a ‘woman did 1 begin to think about these black people in rela ‘don to language, to think about their traumas they were com pelled to witness cheir language rendered meaningless with &