“Such was the absurdity of British colonial rule: success is commensurate with how well you can verbalize the mores of a culture that has nothing to do with your own; the alternative is certain failure. Although born in Canada, I have felt this British gaze all my life. By all accounts, I should not know English as well as I do; but it is my linguistic blueprint, it is all that they intended for me to know.
As Creators are wont to do, England made me in her own image: I am an island, but I am also comprised of many people. I am the inevitability of cross-Atlantic and cross-continental voyages. I am the consequence of Empire and I have lived for 40 years in her aftermath.”
My entire entry can be read here: http://bild-lida.ca/blog/uncategorized/bildungsroman-sturm-und-chung-by-rhonda-chung/
BILD is a critical sociolinguistic blog started by members of McGill University's Department of Integrated Studies in Education with the goal of discussing our language experiences in the multilingual setting of Montreal.