Reflection on "No Question Asked" (poem by Armand Garnett Ruffo)

For me this is a deep, powerful and yet solemn poem because it reveals the process of “deculturation”. It is a classic example of what immigrants go through when they migrate to countries like the United States and are placed into language programs to master Standard English. As expressed by the narrator, the immigrant gradually loses his native language through a gradual and subtle process. “You lose your tongue and hardly notice…..The process is subtle”.  Eventually the immigrants use their native language less and less and before they know it they do not have it anymore.  Their own native language becomes a burden because they have lost the language. Then as the narrator put it, “Soon you learn to live without a tongue”. This means that the immigrant eventually starts living and accepting new life without use of the native language.  The native language is only used to his advantage perhaps for some private deals or to generate income. Eventually the immigrant becomes fully converted and detached from his very own culture. Hence “Nothing to say. No excuses required. No questions asked.” It is an amazing poem and one that should be disseminated to all teachers. We all need to be cognizant of linguistic approaches that subtly detach students from their culture.

Source: Santa Ana, Otto (2004) Tongue Tied: The lives of multilingual children in public education.