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Language Autobiography

Posted by Crystalle Hutchins in English 2 - Block on

My father was the general manager of a chain of prestigious printing companies. He was a man of power. Many of his colleagues and people in a higher position than his were of Caucasian descent. I have many memories of my brothers and I being in the car with my father and listening to him answer his cell phone. We noticed his voice would immediately change to sound like a voice I associate with a white person.

“Hey Jerry, it’s Myron here. I called you to see if you received my email about the finances of the store up in Lancaster. I’d like to hear back from you as soon as possible because I’m not really sure what your guys are doing. I’m going up to the store right now to check on what’s going on.”

We would always laugh at our dad’s “white voice”, mainly because it seemed to have a higher pitched, more nasally quality to it. But I believe since we were around him so much while he was speaking with perfect English diction, my brothers and I also picked up on this way of speaking.

Numerous times I have been told “You talk white.” This statement was always said by a fellow African American in a brutal, disgusted fashion. My answer would always be “This is just the way I talk, I’m not trying to sound white.” It has always puzzled me that I am ridiculed for speaking in a manner that that doesn’t relate to my ethnical appearance . I see it as some people of African descent who encounter me feel a level of discomfort or intimidation when I speak. But, this is not the message I am trying to convey. It is simply my natural diction. But it goes to show how powerful language can be.

The school I attended for most of elementary and middle school was an Afrocentric school, and they used reverse racism against white people to uplift the African race. Though they denied this claim, every student knew it was true. Most of the moments when I felt guilty for being partially white happened while I attended that school. I very vividly remember in the third grade while I was having free time during gym, one of my classmates came up to me and asked “Are you Caucasian?” Being so young and clueless, I didn’t even know what Caucasian was. I asked her “What’s that?” and she responded “White.” I wasn’t entirely sure of my ethnicity so I told her “I think, on my dad’s side.” He was so light, so I assumed. Finally I asked “Why?” “You talk white.” There was so much venom in her tone. In that moment I realized, I was a possibly mixed kid in a black power school. I felt weird and out of place.v

Through language, you can articulate the thought patterns of your mind into something comprehensible to others. If your knowledge of language is limited, then it is viewed that your thoughts can only be so brilliant because there is no way to relay your message to others. This means that language equals power. The stronger your words, the more respect you will receive. Words are often used to offend. My experiences with conflict involving language had nothing to do with direct threat, but the enormity of my vocabulary offended those who did not possess the same amount as me.

With my father, he was required to show the extent of his knowledge of the English language when in his professional setting, but I have also heard himself “dumb it down” for his companions and allies.

“Wassup man it’s Speed I just left the crib I’m bouta swing down my mom’s house and pick her up a few things then I’m gonna shoot over to Man’s house and just chill there for a while.”

To master language, you must understand its levels. To convey your message, you must consider your surroundings and adapt. I don’t believe this is at all “Selling out” or “Being fake”. But rather, being understood. That is the sole purpose of language. To intertwine the thoughts of your mind with others’ thoughts.

Throughout my life I will continue to try my best to explain what I am feeling through language in hope that my words will fall in relation with whoever chooses to internalize what I say. As said in Mother Tongue by Amy Tan,

“I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language -- the way it can evoke an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.”

Language is a power that everyone can possess, in one form or another. I choose to take full advantage of this power.

language auto from Crystalle Hutchins on Vimeo.

Language Autobiography 2013: Shielded

Posted by Brycen Itzko in English 2 - Block on

​ In this unit, we had learned how language is one of your main identities besides race. Our class had read several essays relating to language identity in people's lives. This benchmark was to write about a time in your life where your language affected a big part of your identity. I have learned a deeper understanding of how I reacted to words that I was shielded from.


Shielded


Communication can be very complicated. Especially when you are shielded from the harmful parts of languages during your early years and then having that shield break, which causes those harmful words to be able to reach your ears. This causes many curious kids to be exposed to a world of offensive language that they have no clue that it is actually offensive.  

I remember when I was in third grade sitting with other third graders while my teacher was teaching us how to do addition when I noticed how my middle finger felt uncomfortable from all the writing we did, so I moved my middle finger upwards and the other fingers back into a fist-state and pressed my middle finger onto the table. I did a few “push-ups” with the finger before one of the girls turned around and saw it. I looked at her with a slightly laughing “what” expression, her expression was different. She looked surprised. That’s when she said to me “Ooooo! I am telling the teacher!”. I didn’t understand, what was wrong about having only my middle finger up? She got up and ran to the teacher, telling about what I did. I got up and walked to the teacher, still thinking about how is it wrong, when I then proceeded to ask why it is wrong to have your middle finger up. "Well, the middle finger is like saying a bad word to someone, so never have it up or you can hurt someone's feelings." She said it nicely, knowing that I never knew that I could offend someone with my middle finger.

Looking back on this event, I believe that my parents shielded me heavily from offensive words. That girl who told on me probably used her middle finger often until someone told her that it could hurt other's feelings. I always think that her parents didn't shield her from  offensive language as much as I parents did as she knew about it when I didn't. She must had begun to use these offensive words when she heard of it, not thinking about what it actually means to others. I can understand how parents don't want their children to learn any offensive words, so they try to hide them from this type of world. But I think that’s a bad idea, because sooner or later, they will learn these words and use them unaware of the meaning behind it. Rather than shielding children entirely from these words, we should teach them about the words before they learn of it from other sources, because if we teach them about it, then they will be prepared and know what to do when they hear it because they will know what it means.

There was a time in fifth grade where I learned how bad the consequences of saying an offensive word could be. I was outside waiting in line for our teachers to take us in one day, and I turned around to talk to another student in my class. He was a white Russian kid,  slightly taller than me, he cursed every now and then. Before I got a chance to talk to him, another student began to yell at him about something. I didn’t want to get involved as they look liked that were about to fight. A few second later, the russian student pointed at the other student aggressively and said “Fuck you!” I thought that he could have done that better, so I thought showing him a better way would be a great idea. I went to him and said “Let me show you how you could have done that better.” I then proceeded to put on an aggressive expression, pointed my finger out with a fast aggressive force, turned to my right and said "Fuck you!". It sounded pretty brutal to me, I even felt proud about it.

I realized who I manage to point to out of everyone, my mom. My mom had a very mad look and was coming towards me . "I'm dead" I said quietly. When she was a few inches away from me, she said "When you get home, dad is going to beat your ass like no tomorrow." She didn't yell it, but said it with anger.

This is the first moment in my life where I realized that the offensive word I had said came with great consequences. A quote that I had found while reading a story, called “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez, made me think deeper into this event of my life. The quote was “ I was a listening child...” (13). This quote made me feel that I was also “a listening child”, because I would always try to hear what people said around me. I heard words like “fuck” being used often in these conversations, so I thought words like “fuck” were ok to say. The environment that I was in exposed me to such words, but my parents never told me that the offensive words I heard were  actually offensive.


Sources:

Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Print.



Two ways of speaking

Posted by Pierce Meier in English 2 - Block on

Language is different for because how english is written down. I’ve had trouble with English since I could I remember. English is more hard for me to used to because o f the different ways they are spoken I had trouble speaking proper English with my writing everything. I had different kind of english accents and ways of speaking it my whole life.  My way of speaking English is like most people talk, but sometimes I use words that not many people use.  I don’t think I have an accent but some of my family does have an accent like my dad family has the southern accent and sometimes it hard for me to tell what they are saying sometimes but most of the time I can tell what they are saying. Me I still need to speak better english but I got most of english but learning another language is much harder for me because of me having trouble with English in general. In spanish its hard to speak in an accent and writing in spanish is just as hard. Like my language will improve with time but not yet because of the ba thats in front of be not letting me get there. I need to get around that barrier and keep going to my goal but then there are other barriers in my way not letting me and slowing me down, keeping me at bay.


Language Autobiography,

Posted by Joy Morrow in English 2 - Block on

 In our english classes recently, we have been discussing different ways people use language and how language effects people. In my paper and video below it shows how language changed me and how langanguge has the ability to change people also.   



Torn Between the Two
 

  Going from being placed in a community where there is no diversity to a community where your family members are the ones who are diverse is very difficult. In order to make sure that everybody is comfortable, there were some changes I had to make to my tongue. I couldn't say racial slurs that I would normally say when I was around a group of people that are just like me. I couldn't  make jokes about other different groups ethnicities. I am stuck in place where I find myself having to change they way I talk around my immediate family and the way I talk around my general family.

 “I can’t stand white people,” or “These damn crackers don't belong on this Earth” are common terms that you would hear coming out of the mouths of my immediate family, without knowing that these racial slurs could easily offended someone of the race being spoken about. I notice what is being said but I do not speak about it  because it is something that I have grew up on. These types of racial slurs were normal in my house, besides the people who were being spoke about were not near so why did it matter, was what I always thought. My immediate family and I would talk about anyone who were not like us, black of course, when we indeed had people in our family who were of another race.

 My cousin Alexander would always visit us. She was nothing like us. She was a tall white kid that lived in the suburbs with her tall white dad and his wife. Her mom was my aunt making her related to us but she still looked nothing like us. She was nothing like us, but the fact that she was my blood we had no choice but to accept her.  

 Alexander  and I would always sit down and watch tv every since we were younger. While she would shout at a basketball game when somebody did a crazy move I would shout at the tv when a clothing commercial came on “Why the fuck they always putting these boney ass white bitches on tv,” or “I’m tired of seeing these white bitches, they look like walking ghosts.” Looking at my cousin, I would notice her glancing at me and I would try to cover up my bad words of choices with phrase that went like “I’m not talking about you , you know I love you cous” or “I'm just playing, I just want to see some chocolate jawns like me up there ” knowing deep down in the inside that I had hurt her feelings. Its clear that I had struggled with changing the way I spoke around different types of people. Although I didn't intentionally try and hurt her I had did so. It was time I learned how to change my tongue when around people other than my immediate family.

 When I would hear my family talk about other groups of people, I would tell myself not to engage and for the first few weeks I had meet my challenge. When my cousin Alexander would come around I stopped myself from saying racial slurs around her, I had even eliminated them out of my vocabulary completely. I really felt as if I had changed my tongue.

I found a new way of speaking, I found  a new voice. Instead of insulting an entire race  or insulting anyone at all I made suggestions. I went from ““Why the fuck they always putting these boney ass white bitches on tv?” to “I would prefer if I saw more black women.” I didn't have to try and code switch my voices when I was placed in different environments  because I spoke in a way that was comfortable for everyone.

People who have noticed the change in my speech would say that I'm changing who I am to be accepted or that I'm trying to be something that I am not. I would have to say otherwise. I have rearranged the way I use my tongue so that I am able to communicate with any and everyone. I am no longer a prisoner of language to the point where I say something at the the wrong time around the wrong people. Now when I am around or communicating with people who are nothing like me, with people who are a different race than me it feels even more comfortable for me because I have learned that the way you speak and the words you say highly affect the amount of people you are able to have a successful conversation with or even develop a decent relationship with.

defa rvtghj;oef from ashleyspells on Vimeo.

Language Autobiography 2013: Adapting to language

Posted by Kaboni Bailey in English 2 - Block on

In Mr. Block's class, (English) we wrote an experience we had where we had an incident with language; good or bad. In my story, I wrote about being forced to change your language. I learned through my work and reading that everyone has had a bad experience with language.


 

When I was a child, around eight to ten years old, I began to see the differences in language. My home language was a completely different dialect than those used by my schoolmates; others alienated me. At my home, I spoke “Proper English;” I spoke with “correct” grammar, proper subjects and predicate, and knowledge in my words. When I was in the fifth grade, I learned quickly how to adapt to my surroundings, language-wise. Around a month after school started I began to realize the way that my classmates spoke and the tone and stressing of certain letters and words used. To me, at the time, it seemed completely irrelevant to speak in that manner. But, in need for friends, I tried to adapt to the language . Not just the language of verbal, but the language of clothes, hobbies and act.

  I began to scope out the words that were used more than others such as: Dawg, nigga, yo, chill, damn, bitch and more.  I also taught myself quickly how to dismember someone mentally. I started to watch sports more often so I could talk about it with others. I also began to use language with girls jokingly that I would never use near an elder.

 It was lunchtime; so as we were at lunch, this day I sat with Dede, Christian, Nelly, Jose and Brandon. Brandon and me were already friends; Jose was like a bodyguard to me. I helped Jose in schoolwork, and in return he watched my over back. Nelly and I rarely spoke, but because he was husky like Jose, I decided it was best for us to be friends. Dede and Christian were the two most popular kids in fifth grade and I would have preferred them as friends than just voids. I was not that unpopular in my grade, so it wasn’t a big deal about where I sat, but I wanted to get in deeper. As I sat down we began to speak, let me remind you, this is one of the first times I used this “Slang”,

“ Wat up KaBoni?” Jose asked

“Nothin’ bruh, chillin. How are you doing?’” I replied.

“I’m on my grind, cuzzo.” Jose said.

“ Yo, big head KaBoni, you saw da Eagles game last night?” Christian asked.

This was my moment to prove my worth in language, so of course I was nervous. As the words of bliss left my lips, I mentally smiled with glee.

“Yo fat ass, you know I saw da game yesterday. McNabb: booty cheeks yestaday’ but McCoy, dat nigga fast as hell; he run like a fat bitch chasin’ em!”

As the sound of cheerful laughter from the kids filled my ear drums, the sound of acceptance entered my heart. I was accepted by the other school kids as the funny kid and the class clown. At the time, this didn’t seem very major to me, only that I was in the clique. From that point on, I began to tell stories and tales that would make other laugh. I would talk about someone to get respect and props from individuals. From that point on, I began to dress like them. We had a school uniform, but I would start to sag my pants a little, let my jeans flow past the anklet of my shoe and wear head attire in class. We all thought it was cool at the time, but little did I know that it was only slowing me down.  What was realized later on was that I was only halting my mental and language capacity. The more that you adapt to language, the less you will be able to as you gain age.

To this day, I still preserve the language that I learned in elementary school. It is helpful in situations where I am not familiar with the crowd and if I have to adapt to new environment. In high school now, I still use this language with certain crowds when it is necessary to code-switch. For example, I will speak a certain way with Nadir and Richard then I would when I speak to Ronald and Stephen, even if I do not mean to. It is “Proper” vs. “Irregular”. But it is a different kind of hard to put a label on the way that people speak; you cannot just say that there is a proper language because there are many languages/ways to speak and to express your opinion. So with that being said, speaking in any way is just . . . expressing who you are. As an individual though, I was subjected to adaptation. If I did not adapt, I did not fit in.[4]  It is an incentive for many to fit in so they feel like they belong somewhere in the “World” where you are alienated. It is the same reason why people who don’t smoke cigarettes would start smoking to get in cahoots with their boss. It is a way to make things better than the norm.

What I happened when I learned to adapt in middle and elementary school still follows me to this day. Without intending to, I learn how to mimic the acts and language of others easily by taking out key words and incorporating them into my own language. But there is always a cost to substituting yourself. A piece of me is now missing; the piece of me that was myself. [5] Everything changed when I adapted to what was not myself: I lost the part of me that was raised with my mother for 11-12 years, I lost the part of me that took what I like into incorporation before others. Changing or adapting your language has a very high price, regardless if you realize it or not, you will change. It takes a real man to look inside of himself and say, “I’m different, how can I find myself again.

 

AutoTHing from KaBoni on Vimeo.

Language Struggles

Posted by Rabbi Awsan in English 2 - Block on

For Q2 Bm we had to write about a language, different language in the world or our own experience, struggle and etc.. It wasn't so hard for me because I straggled a lot with language when I first moved to U.S.A.

My family and I have always struggled with english since we moved to the U.S.A. It was hurt for my little sister and I the most because we had to go to school and couldn't make friends or speak to anyone. We use to sit in ESAL class for hours with a teacher who was trying to teach us english and made us read kids books. Then after 6 months I started speaking basic english but more curse words. After all the struggles and confusion with words like “Than,Then and There,their”  a year later I started to speak fluent english and got out of ESAL class but I still had a very strong accent and my classmates used to make fun of me for that. It wasn’t a fun experience for me. I struggled  a lot with language and still am a little. Now the most hardest part for me is when i have to translate for my parents whenever they come to my school or go see my doctor.


The things people said about my language and my accent have always made me nervous to talk in front of people, because I always think people are going to make fun of me or make bad comments about my accent.

Last summer I Went back to my country with my family and thats why I there’s a difference between the way I speak english and how they speak english. When I use to speak english they couldn't understand me because the way I pronounce the words were different than them. When we say the word we sound out the letter but they don't do that they just read the letter. It would be difficult  for me to talk to people in my country if I only knew english but I remember the language.

English isn't my first or second language for me. Other than english I learned 4 other languages just by watching tv. It wasn't so hard for me to learn them but I guess english was really hard for me to learn. I am also taking spanish classes in my high school hopefully before I graduate from my high school I will be an expert in spanish.

Language always have been a huge part of my life and it helped me to get a lot of fun memories. Fun memories because I cough so many people in the train/buses talking in their language and saying terrible things about me or my friends so it was a really fun experience for me.



Kids Vs Adults

Posted by Lala Doumbia in English 2 - Block on



Kids are changing up language everydays. The make up words that are call slang. It’s like there cord to talk to other kids. But when the start to talk to an adult it change. They sound like they when to school and very educated.  Everyday I see kids talk like they don’t speak english. Yo wha you doin’? Nuffin chillin abou to go to class. Wha class you have? Why u askin all them question? You ratched. YOLO! That dead. You don’t have any pics. To Adults they are asking themself what are y’all saying, speak some english.

One day in math class. We were all sitting to talking to our classmate doing math. Our teacher Mrs. Thompson came up to my table. Ask me Lala What dose bars mean?? Everyone in the class started to laugh.  I hear everyone say that word but I don’t know what y’all mean. I know y’all not using it like music note. Ron said Bar in a line from a rap. It you got bars then it about rapping.

Everyone one of my friends says that they don’t talk like to talk to the parents like that  like my friend  Emily she told me this. I'm in 5th grade, watching Full House on my couch. My dad's in the basement, and my mom's in the kitchen. I have a bookbag filled with homework, which i ignore. "Em!" mom shouts. "Yeah?" i respond, eyes glued to the tv. "It's 7 and you still haven't started your homework?" muting the tv i yell back "My bad! starting it now."  unzipping my bag my mom sits next to me. "I'd appreciate it if you'd stop saying 'my bad'." "why? i'm not curisng." im confused. "i know, it just... makes you sound.... i dont know...." i know where she's going with this so i interrupt and say "okay mom, i get it. sorry." she smiles and goes back to the kitchen.

What I am trying to say is we change the way to thing to people. We never talk to the older people that same. But we talk to are friend in code.

New Project 4 - Medium from Lala Doumbia on Vimeo.

Langauge.

Posted by Ronald Harper in English 2 - Block on

​For my 2nd Quarter benchmark, we had to write an essay about language, the different languages that is used, not only from English to spanish, but accents, slang, you're lingo and more. You're prospective on grammer isn't always the same as the person sitting next to you, it makes the difference between you & that person, but we all find connection in another way to come together.




Where your accent stands, can also depend on where you live, your environment, culture, “Hood”, street, it all trickles down to something as simple as that, it can spread from the east coast to the west coast, to someone in your neighborhood & someone is the neighborhood right next to you, The language that people use in philly, differs from the language for people in Florida, even though both of the states/cites are on the same coast of the united states, It can range from anything.


Society can judge you based on your accent, your lingo, your slang, it can really be determined if you’re accepted into the community you’re in, even clique that the new kid wants to be apart of at school, morley this has to do with fitting in, people can even judge you on your speech, maybe assume you’re smarter than you are, or even dumber than you actually are. Your accent can go back to your ancestors, the way the language can also determine the way of someone’s life, you’re in your comfort zone, talking to a group of people who speaks different, can easily pull you out of the same comfort Zone, “Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.”  - Carl Sandburg, New York times, 13 February 1959


I have a close friend named Dovi, she’s lived in philadelphia her entire life, she’s grown to be quite comfortable with the people she talks too, & even more important, The way she speaks, maybe when you’re so used to speaking some type of way, you start to think that everyone speaks the same way. Well last year her mother told her that they were moving to Florida to start a new life, when you’re moving, language isn’t the first thing that you think about when you’re also thinking about starting a new life, new friends, new atmosphere. She just assumed that since we’re all the same age, we spoke the same, she was in for something more when she moved. She started school in florida, she soon learned that almost everything is different, what people’s hobbies are, people’s opinions, including the language that people used down there, the generation gaps with elderly people, and the slang and lingo, the terms that she bought down there, the kids didn’t accept it, she felt like an outsider, different, but in a bad way, she was always the type to stand out and stay apart from something so regular and what was considered ordinary, but language can be the reason you don’t feel the same way anymore, it felt awkward and even threw her more out of her comfort Zone, she was used to the way people talked in Philadelphia, she loved the way people talked in philadelphia, she went down to florida with the philadelphia language, Philadelphia language, words such as “Young Boul” which means someone who's younger than you, or someone whose Immature, or “Dickeater”, means someone who is in your business, or someone who is annoying, “Bars” which means making fun of someone, or rapping, In florida Bars is “Roast” means talking about someone, “Spitting Game” means in philadelphia that you’re trying to talk to someone, get to know them better, but in florida, to talk to someone in florida, it means “Caked-up”, One more word “Lay” means that you have nice clothes, but in florida, it meant “Dress code” She noticed that slang there was different, She felt like she had to quickly adapt to what kids were saying in her new life, like that was the only way she was going to fit in, like you’re pushed into talking the way that they do, or else no one will understand you, you’ll be locked up in your own world, you couldn’t laugh with anyone, more importantly, you wouldn’t be able to relate to anyone but yourself.



But the same way that language separates people, it can also bring people together, being with someone different from you, you learn more, you find it interesting, it’s not the words that connect you with another person, “Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words”  is a quote from the Islamic poet, jurist, Rumi. What this quote is saying that is isn’t always quite the language, but the person, doesn’t matter what language you’re speaking, what lingo, or slang you’re displaying to others, everyone can connect in some type of way.

Language Autobiography

Posted by RubyJane Anderson in English 2 - Block on

In this unit, we learned a lot about language and power. This unit really helped me reflect on language, and it helped me realize that I judge people based on their language when the truth is that you cannot tell a persons character from the way they look or speak. 



My mother is white. My father is black. I have never really considered myself black. I am black, but I don’t feel black. Yes, black DNA runs through my veins, giving me nappy hair and a wide nose, but I don’t feel black. I was raised in University City, the bourgeois part of West Philly. There were some black people in my neighborhood, and my best friend growing up was black, but she struggled with language in the same ways I did. We were both physically black, but not culturally black. 

I went to a very diverse elementary school. About 70% of the students were black, and about 50% of the students were classified as “economically disadvantaged”. None of this really made a difference to me (or anyone else). We all got along (for the most part) and I had lots of friends, both black and white. It wasn’t until middle school that I really noticed the cultural divide between other black students and myself.

My middle school was not as diverse as my elementary school. Although it was a public school, most students were white and middle class. There were some black students, but they only hung out with each other. I didn’t really notice this until my best friend Ivy said to me “Ruby, why don’t you act black?”. At first, I was very offended. 

“How can someone act black? Is it because I’m smart? Because I speak proper english? You’re a racist”

This isn’t what she meant. I know that now. She was referring to my language. I don’t speak in Ebonics, Black Vernacular, African American English, or anything of the sort. But, probably due to some internalized racism, I associated speaking in Ebonics with being dumb, and (indirectly) I associated being black with being dumb. 

I didn’t realize that I was harboring some serious internalized racism until about 8 months ago. I stumbled across a few social justice bloggers, and one wrote a really long post about code-switching and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). He basically said that AAVE is a first language for most black people, and many have to change the way they speak in professional setting because AAVE is seen as “unprofessional”. This is still a common belief, and it’s really racist. Saying that AAVE is unprofessional or wrong is like saying black people are unprofessional or wrong. AAVE is a dialect of english, just like people from California and New York speak in distinctive tones and have different words. The only difference is that AAVE and the black community is the only dialect that is singled out to the extent that it is. This reflects a greater issue: racism in America. 

Africans were brought to the US by slave traders. They were forced to learn english, and (like most english language learners) developed a distinct accent. Because the Black community was (and still is) so isolated from white america, this accent stayed. AAVE does NOT include slang words, and has rules and pronunciation.

After learning about AAVE, I realized that I judged black people for using it and immediately wrote them off as dumb and not worth my time. Since many black people use AAVE, I made judgements about the entire race and didn’t associate myself with them. I was a racist. Not the kind that you see on TV, burning flags and wearing t-shirts with bright red swastikas, I was the kind of racist you most often find in the US. The kind who scoffed at black teenagers on the bus, and the kind who said things like “Just because I’m not dumb doesn’t mean I’m not black”. I thought that I was a champion for my race, but I was just whitewashed, and because of this I saw myself as superior. This was wrong, and I understand now that AAVE doesn’t make a person dumb, it’s just another way of speaking.

I don’t feel black. I have never experienced black culture. All my life I’ve listened to white music, eaten white food, and spoken in white english. But, I don’t feel white either. My tanned skin and curly hair have always served as a reminder of my otherness. I still don’t know where I stand with my race. When I refer to the black community as a whole, I never know whether to say “them” or “we”. I feel silly saying “they”, but “we” feels strange. I’m not black, but I’m not white. I don’t really know what I am. 

Language Autobiography from Betty Louis on Vimeo.

Language To Me - Brian Birkmire

Posted by Brian Birkmire in English 2 - Block on

For our Quarter 2 benchmark we had to write an autobiography about Language. We had to discuss points in ou life where language was a big deal in our life. In varied from incidents with friends, to simply realizing that language can come from multiple things. My language is in my music, this is my way of getting through to people and it's where MY VOICE is. 

Language to me, is not just a way of communication, but a way of interaction that can bring people together or even do the opposite. Over many years I have noticed differences between languages but also many similarities. Language is incredible, it is the connection creator, we as humans have when we first use it with another. I always think, how did languages come to be? What first language influenced those we have today as well as how did they evolve? Language can be changed infinitely. What’s the most interesting fact about all languages is that each branches off from another and in total all languages came from one used long ago.

You hear a lot about slang words in modern day English. Words such as “jawn” or “naw” , etc. These words are terms with meaning but that are not actually in the English Language. The slang term “jawn” has the same meaning as “thing.” It can be used to identify an object, person, and place. Now I personally have had incidents with slang words and how I have been judged and others I know have been also. My opinion on slang words is that using them can be good but also bad at the same time. When I’m around family and good friends, I usually speak “Proper English.” When I’m around friends that I’ve met in school or so I use slang terms then. Some words such as “naw”, “swerve” , “guap” , etc.


In middle school, I had multiple friends I spent many years with. My two friends, their names, were Rahsul, and the other Dan. Rahsul is African American while Dan is white, and he used to speak in only slang terms. No one ever thought anything about it, until Rahsul one day spoke up and said “You’re not black stop talking like that.” It never occurred to me until that day, but I wondered did you have to be a certain race to speak a certain way? I began thinking about that and asked myself why Rahsul was judging my friend Dan on how he spoke. Just because he is white doesn’t mean he can’t use slang terms.

Another incident, this time where it was me who used the slang term, was when I kept saying “Naw” to my parents questions. It was a Wednesday and I was doing my newspapers and my mom and I were in the car. She kept asking questions about my day at school and if I had any paperwork for her. Each yes or no question she asked I responded with “Naw.” Finally she told me to stop saying it because it isn’t “proper English”. I knew it isn’t proper English, but I’m so use to using slang terms that it has basically become a habit. The abbreviations and slang words I use in my text; Facebook posts, Tweets, and other social networking sites are used so frequently that they are simply just a habit. But if I know when to speak like that, and when not too, why should I be judged for using slang terms?  

Also, I believe language can evolve from the environment around you. If you live in a place where education was not common in family or friends, you may speak in properly, but you can’t help that. Comparing someones “Proper” way of speaking to “improper” ways of speaking is like comparing Salt to Pepper. You need both and you use both no matter who you are. It bothers me when I hear people judge another for how they speak but compare them to another race. “Why do you speak so properly? Like a white person.” Or even the opposite situation. What does it matter if they speak weird, how does that affect you and your speaking? It doesn’t.

No matter what you do, where you go, what you wear, what you like, people will always judge you. The fact that no one can ever do something where they aren’t judged is depressing. The other factor to this though is people claim it’s their own opinion which they clearly have the right to have. So through that factor this gives people the opportunity to judge one another. I personally don’t believe in judging of language. No matter what we all have a language unique to who we are. I don’t believe language should be separated by race either, what is “Black English” to “White English?” Look at the second word in both of those terms and you see; English. English is English, it’s a language, just like Spanish, Latin, Italian, Chinese and thousands of others from all around the world. My question will always be; “Why judge someone if you don’t know them?” What I mean by this is, someone could be going through the roughest times Life has to offer, and they could be one word away from snapping. If you don’t know them and don’t know their background or feelings, why judge them? Don’t judge someone from how they speak, and they won’t judge you.

ENG2-011

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2012-13

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