This picture is meant to question the feelings that Clare and Irene might have had in that apartment when Clare's husband confronted her about being black. Did Irene push Clare out of the window? If so, did she do it because it was the perfect opportunity to get rid of her? If Irene didn't push Clare, did she fall out of the window on purpose? Was she grateful for her death or was the whole thing an accident?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ2EWcVOLnQ&feature=plcp&context=C3f3075dUDOEgsToPDskISoykW6Sc4U4pCa50W3Hwd
Settings and Their Influences
The purpose of this project was to reveal the connection between language and identity. In our unit we talked about how language is used in various ways with different people such as family, friends, and strangers. We connected the concept to our personal lives. In my paper i discussed how language has effected how I see people. Things like accents and pronunciation of words. I also talked about other concepts like code-switching, changing how you talk while around different people. Code-switching is my most commonly used language concept.
Introduction and Reflection:
The purpose of this project was to write a language autobiography. In class we have been reading and learning about different languages and how they were used or how they are made fun of. Throughout this unit I found it very interesting the way that certain people act or speak in a certain environment. It was hard for me to write a language autobiography because I don’t see myself as having a unique accent or way of dialect. When I speak I think I am speaking normally, almost everybody thinks they speak normally. Finding the topic was one of the hardest things I had to do while writing this paper. After I found my topic, the rest was easy from there. I hope you enjoy what I worked so hard on.
Essay:
All my life my dad has always said to me, “You need to be like a Chameleon, look at your environment and make yourself match and fit into it.” Why is it that people are taught to act, speak or be something they are not? In this world people try to “fit in” they talk or act a certain way in order to fee accepted and wanted. No matter where you go Russia, France, Canada, The U.S., Africa or even 15 blocks from where you live people are going to talk and act differently. Everywhere there is a norm and for certain places that norm may be different. In General People are different. In life I have ran into many people and they all act and talk differently. People hang out in groups of people that they feel comfortable with, that talk or act similar to themselves. I wonder why the world can’t just accept that all people a different and unique? Why can’t we all socialize, get along and not judge each other?
I was about 8 years old, and I had just put my stuff in my cubby at after care. Immediately I decided I wanted to play ball with my friends. We were having a great time laughing and bouncing the ball to each other, that is when my best friend Danielle said “MORGAN HEADS UP!” I turned around, saw the ball coming at my face and ducked. All of a sudden I heard “OW! Who did that!” We accidentally hit a boy name Zane in the back of the head. Zane was white and probably a little bit racist. He turned around and saw that I was standing there relieved that it didn’t hit me. I think he thought that I through the ball, then he screamed a cruel sentence at me “Watch whatcha doing, you stupid nigger!” I had never had anybody call me such a harsh word before. I ran to my teacher and said to her “DESI DESI! ZANE CALLED ME THE BIG N-WORD!” He ran up to he and tried to play it off by saying he said nigga instead of nigger, he said that he was using slang or using black people talk. Since the after care was made up of predominately black people, he thought he was able to get away with it. Obviously he said it intentionally and to make me feel bad. Nobody bought his plead and he got suspended for a week.
People are always trying to
fit in to a certain group, if you don’t talk a certain way in a certain area
you are “made fun of” or judged. when my 10th grade class was watching a video
called American Tongues the director decided to take video of what certain
people thought of other peoples accents or way of speaking. All the people in
the video had strong accents (in my opinion), it was funny how they were making
fun of how other people sound when they sound just as funny. These people were
judging folk that they didn’t even know, they were judging them based on how
they sound. American Tongues said “Barriers are the difference between Park
Your Car and Pak Ya Ca.” People learn how speak to according to how they were
taught or how they enunciate their words. As said in the video American Tongues
“Everyone thinks everyone has an accent.” This is saying that no matter where
you go everyone has a different unique way of speaking.
When you are in an working environment people talk in their
“professional voices”. When you do not talk in that specific voice your ideas
are put down and you are looked at as if you were nothing but an accent. As
said in American Tongues, ”They don’t listen to ideas they listen to dialect
and accents.” I was talking to my mother and I asked her what do you think when
a person comes into an interview for a job at your Agency and they have face
piercings and tattoos all over them. She immediately said
“It shows me that they won’t be able to reach certain levels of my expectations or the agencies. They will not be able to go as far in management position if they have those piercings and tattoos.”
“So mom it does not matter if they are super
intelligent or if they have amazing million dollar ideas?”
“I would not hire
them because they do not look the part they are supposed to look, it looks bad
for my agency.”
One day in middle school I got in trouble for getting in a
confrontation with a girl that I did not like at all. Of course I did not hit
her, I do not fight in school, that doesn’t mean I was not thinking of it. I
was sent down to the office, to go to the principles room and she said to
me
“Morgan why would you do this, you were always such a good student.”
“ I
know, I know Ms. Fitzpatrick, but I didn’t do anything. The teacher saw the entire
thing, if the teacher was in the room right next to me you know I would not
behave in such a manner.”
“I believe you Morgan, you are a fantastic student, one of our best.” “Thank you Ms. Fitzpatrick, I am sure you know I would never disrupt the class during such and important standardized test.”
“Of course not,
especially when you are taking it yourself, you may go Morgan.”
“Thank you Ms.
Fitzpatrick for sorting this whole thing out.” When I went back upstairs to
class I realized that the person I got “ in trouble” with took video of my
entire conversation with the principle and sent it to the entire 8th grade. I
got made fun of for “being friends” with the principle. At my middle school all
of my teachers used to say to my mom “Morgan has a higher level of maturity
than the rest of the students, she know how to talk to adults and that is going
to get her places.” When I got into almost every high school of my choice they
all said “No wonder you got in, you probably rocked that interview you went to.
You have a way with showing your intelligence. You have a great fun and serious
side.”
According to my dad if you know how to act like a chameleon
you will make it far in life. Knowing how to mask yourself in a certain
environment is very good because you will be taken seriously. Being taken
seriously in this world is extremely important. To me, I somewhat agree.
Fitting in is important because it will help you survive, survive in our
society with work, friends and school. On the other hand being yourself is just
as important.
Bibliography:
"American Toungues." PBS: 07/05/1988. Television.
<http://video.pbs.org/video/1553932059/>.
Code Switching In Language
This was one of my regular Friday’s when I was suppose to get my cut. I walking to my room and my cousins comes over my house. So my mom calls me down stair to get my hair done. I walk to the kitchen and wait i know you may think hold up I’m getting my hair cut in the kitchen but we have been doing this for the pass 3 years so it’s cool and they make me clean it after anyways. So back to the story. My cousin Boo was staying in the kitchen, he has a full Beard, my skin completion, and very husky.
“Wassup! cousin boo ” He turn around and give me a hand shake. When he give me hand Shakes it feel like he trying to break my hand.“Goodmorning, what’s your name” This man was a tall and white with a naval suit on and a white hat. “My name is jermel sir and how is your morning going?”
Right here is where you can see i code switched for one respect and two it’s in my personally. Code switching is a major part of language because you need to know how to approach certain people in certain ways. if you don't know how you can get laughed at and never get token seriously, you can never get a job, or you won’t fit in where ever you go.
With both events, I showed you that happened in my life and overall conflicts wit language. With these 2 events I summed up Code switching in language. Slang is a friendly way of talking to people your around everyday, which is a shortcut for the way anyone talk. And talking proper is just a professional way to speak to someone. With Code switching you will learn that you will always do this wit everyone you talk to in your life. Everyone have a different way you talk to them. Code switching is just a name of how you live your everyday life...
This was my only linguistic influence until probably sixth or seventh grade, when heard mostly from not my parents but the people at my middle school, who were predominantly black. My seventh grade English teacher, a black woman named Mrs. Clarke, especially influenced me. She was the first black teacher I had ever had, and she was a very powerful speaker. She was the one who started to teach me how to speak to a crowd, so I began to have traces of her accent within mine. She also had a slight olde Philadelphia accent, being an older woman, but she had a classic turn of phrase that you would expect from most black women, not pronouncing her “er’s” and saying phrases like “Tore up from the Floor up”. By that time, I had been into anime and Japanese culture as well. I was very slowly learning Japanese, and used my new skills whenever I spoke for short periods of time.
By high school, I had learned more Japanese and was also learning Spanish. It quickly became a trend to use Spanish words when my classmates spoke to each other. I still often do that, usually to my Spanish 2 classmates. Plus, in the high school that I attend, I am far from being the only one interested in Japanese language, anime and culture. Some of my newer experiences have been the most influential to me. The more comfortable I get speaking around a person, the more I tend to match their speech patterns. So, I guess I don’t really have one language Identity, but many. I am an olde Philadelphian with new turn of phrase and Spanganese words sprinkled in.
