I remember when I first moved to Philly, I was five years old and beginning my kindergarten year at Norwood Fontbonne Academy, a Catholic School in Chestnut Hill.  I walked down the stairs in my favorite polo dress and my hair in one ponytail and hopped in the car after what seemed like thousands of pictures from my overly emotional mother.  I never understood the tears, I mean, I did go to preschool for three years before that.  We rolled into the construction filled school in our Ford Explorer with the Massachusetts license plate.  Nervousness ran through my whole body. I sat down on the “magic carpet” when we went around the circle to say our names and where we are from.  When it was my turn I sat up straight, head held high, and said “My name is Gabrielle Aahrnold and I am from Amhuuuuurst Massachusetts.”  Naturally my teachers were concerned that I wasn’t developing my phonics correctly.  Fast forward 10 years later with a little “Hooked on Phonics” and “speech therapy”, I speak with little to no accent.  

My accent was one of the things that defined me.  Amherst is in my blood.  My accent made me different from everyone else.  I stood out from the crowd.  I wasn’t just a Philly girl, I was an Amherst girl, and damn proud of it.  I still am an Amherst girl... but a Philly girl as well.  My accent was a conversation starter, something distinct, something beautiful.  That’s the beauty of language, regardless of how your voice sounds, where you are and who you’re with.  There will always be someone who will listen to your voice and instantly connect with you.  Their voice rubs off on you.

I began attending Germantown Friends School September of 2003.  My vocabulary from the time I was very young has always been vaster than what was the expectation. Over time I began to talk more and more like my peers, we began our own language.  “Obvi” began to slowly creep into my “all the time vocabulary, annoying my parents and pushing my cousins to call me “white girl”.  My aunt began to taunt my cousins and I when she saw us talking, “And I’m like, and he’s like, and I’m like and he’s like”.  She says this to this day.  I’ve changed schools so the taunting hasn’t been as severe since I picked up a majority of my other cousin’s vocabulary when I began attending Science Leadership Academy in the fall of 2011.

When I began attending Science Leadership Academy, I learned a new type of English, Philly slang.  Most of my friends at GFS were from the outskirts of Philly, we had our own slang.  “That’s dead” slowly began to creep into my vocabulary so much so that my mother has begun saying it.  

My family and I live in America. A place that is mixed with so much. We’ve been here in America for about 11 years now. I’m fifteen but until a few days ago the thought about language never overcame me.

Everyone in my family knows about 3 different languages although we all don’t know the equal amount of each language. I am fluent in three languages, English, Bangla, and Hindi. My family’s birth language is Bangla.

My siblings and I mostly speak English when we’re all together so it gets hard for our parents to understand us since they aren’t that good at it. My father is better at Hindi than he is in English. My mom on the other hand understands my siblings and me a little when we speak in English but not much. Her understanding of English has become much better now than before. My mom uses context clues to figure out other words she may know, which I really like about her.

At age 5 when we came to America I began to learn English and Hindi, which became my second and third language. My siblings also learned English, as well as Hindi, but since I learned English at a younger age I became more fluent at it.

Although speaking three different languages for me has it great advantages it also has its disadvantages. Sometimes that causes a communication barrier between my siblings and my parents because they don’t understand English that well.

I remember it was October 2010, and around 6:30. I was sitting in the squash classroom, which was in the basement of Drexel. There I was waiting for my mom to come so we could have a conference about me playing squash and about my report card from school. I waited in there for a while and then saw her. She came in through the open doors, looking around not knowing any of the students but a few of the staffs. Then I went to her and we both sat down.

Katie, the academic director, and Brett, the squash director of SquashSmarts, told us to wait until the students leave so we could have the conference. We waited and watched as the students left the room to go home. And then they both came over, sat down, and we started speaking.

Katie said, "Monisha has been doing great in both school and squash." I translate what Katie said to my mom because I was older, knew more English, so my siblings didn’t have to do it anymore.

"Ami onake valo korchi schoole ar squashe" I told my mom.

My mom said "O, valo tho" She was happy to hear that I was doing good in both squash and school.

I told them that my mom said “Oh, that’s good.” We were going back and forth like this for a while. And then I saw Brett looking at the way my mom and I were speaking.

Brett looked at me and said "It amazing how quickly you can transition from one language to another, with no problem. One second you're speaking English and then the other you're speaking Bangla. I’ve never seen this side of you." Brett and Katie both knew that I knew English and Bangla but they never heard me use the languages back to back. I smiled at him and then translated that to my mom who then also smiled. We continued with the conference on like that.

Since I know three languages sometimes I combine them together and then speak. I mostly do that when there are some Bengali or Indian food that I don’t know how to say in English because they are so different or me just randomly speaking in two languages.

Just the other day my best friend, Sabrina, came over to see me, it had been a year since we last saw each other even though we live right around the block. My sister, her and me sat on the carpet and played a board game called Ludo; its really fun if you play the Bengali way.

“No etha cheating, etha fair na. Choir.” I yelled at Sabrina.

“Na tuih dakohos nai” She yelled back to me.

“Okay, whatever. Game continue kor.” My sister said to the both of us.

We finished the game. Then when Sabrina was about to leave she just said a random sentence using English, Bangla, Hindi and Spanish, although we’re not that good at Spanish.

At those two times and many others, I didn’t realized how much language played a role in my life, making me who I am or even showing people how educated I am. The way I spoke gave people the first taste of who I am.

During this unit, I learned about the different aspects of language and the overall different views on it from a great deal of perspectives and opinions. As this unit progressed, we read analytical short stories and quasi-vignettes from many different authors including Richard Rodriguez, Amy Tan, and more, who spoke of their own deeper analysis of languages and personal experiences. As a wrap-up for the unit, we were given an assignment that entailed writing an autobiographical and analytical essay centered on both revealing one’s own experiences in their life, as well as analyzation of languages. We were given many topics to use as the focal point of our essays such as, code switching, regional dialect, and language versus emotion. Throughout the unit and completing the work given in it, I as an individual took an extremely inquisitive approach to what we read. I was highly interested in the multifaceted characters in the works observed. Mainly because of the unique exposures of the authors. In this essay, I attempted to apply the same characteristics that the other authors had within their stories.

The Words Less Spoken

There are many ways in which we represent the different things that were are influenced to how they affect us in every aspect of life, no matter how slight that change may be. This can be any number of things. The people that are around, the places they see and are present in, what they see on tv and the people they are introduced to. Those effects can be observed and narrowed down to the smallest detail. Sometimes, that detail can be as miniscule as the way a person talks around different people and groups. This becomes evident and can become noticeable as more and more people get used to how you talk to them and it can come as a surprise to them if they hear how you talk to other people that you don’t use the same tone of voice and or speech with when you talk to them as opposed to when you talk to that person. Unfamiliarity can be a strange thing. For instance, when you’re meeting someone new, it is always a quick decision on how you will speak to that person. Whether or not you will use your normal voice or something to make you sound more professional or mature. The choices are endless and everyone’s are different. It all boils down to first impressions and creating a persona for yourself.

I have discovered that through time, and through observing by listening, anyone can pick up on the manner with which one person talks to another. Even though at times it may not be apparent, the code switching is still present because everybody does it, no matter how slight it may be. The first time that I started to listen to people when they talk, I didn’t immediately think of it as anything out of the ordinary, but it was peculiar to me how that person’s voice had sounded, in comparison to how it sounded when they talked to me. The first time that I really deeply observed the trait that everyone develops at some point early in their life is when I had involuntarily done it when I was talking to my friends one day. It was about three years ago. I was holding just a normal conversation with my friend, Dave at our grade school. Now, before I get into how I analyzed our conversation, I want to preface my statement with saying that Dave was generally known as a tougher character, one that could throw a pretty hard punch, and take one, too. It was early in the school year, about November or December. Me and a my friend were sitting down in the cafeteria, talking about god knows what. Dave had gotten some of the less than appetizing food offered by the school for those who didn’t bring a lunch from home. Which, when I think about it now, was not worth the money paid for it. He sat down at our table, inhabited only by me and another person. I vaguely remember one of us cracking a joke about something and then I watched Dave look at his “lunch” and grimace with disgust. He then cursed and muttered something under his breathe. We both began to talk about our days and the oddities that tended to occur at our school. We shared laughs here and there and by the end of lunch, I had noticed something about my voice. It had gotten deeper, slightly, and I spoke much more loosely, not caring much for proper grammar or fluid pronunciation. I was trying to sound... tough, I guess is what I would call it then. In comparison to current day, I now call it “making a first impression.” The reason I did this was to... well, fit in. I felt it necessary to do so because I wanted to have that sense of toughness. Now, when I compare that to how I talk to my dad, it’s a whole other story. The words I speak are much softer and completely articulate when I talk to my father. Back to the story. The way I spoke to my friend those years ago, is generally how I’ll speak to strangers when asked a question or just when having a conversation with a store clerk. I always have tried to keep this demeanor and appearance of a tougher person.

The reason that it’s involuntary is because when you become so adept to talking certain ways to different people, it becomes second-nature to us, a passing thought. Not at that specific moment, though. I stopped myself, after I had finished my thought. I noticed that I just spoke in a different tone of voice to my friends... almost out of nowhere. It seemed completely new to me, even though I had been doing it so long - it just never occurred to me because I was unconsciously doing it.

In life, the people we meet and have human interaction with greatly influence and mold ourselves as individuals. One of the very first things people notice when meeting someone for the first time is how they speak and in what tone of voice they do it with. Depending on the impression the person makes, your voice and movement will be influenced. Often times, when a person has become so used to talking one way for a while, they become lost and unable switch their voice when they need to, especially when talking to someone who only knows of their voice one way. The main reason why people in everyday life code switch is to not only develop a relationship with nearly each individual they meet, but to know who they’re around in a sense that they know who they have to impress and who they can be open with. Lastly, people in society use code switching to learn about another person.

I’ll try to keep at my own speed by switching lanes and letting everybody go past, but it is hard. My brain is a sweatshop. All of the work it has to put up with and the only reward is knowing that you’re living to do it all again the next day. When I’m in my speech class I speak at a more slower and relaxed pace and my speech tends to be more fluent. I may only stutter a few times, but for the most part I’m very smooth in my talking. My heart's not beating fast, and I’m comfortable. I think the reason that happens is because of my speech teacher. She expects for me to stutter and since she already knows it’s less pressure. Besides, if I didn’t then I wouldn’t need to go to speech class. I do change up not just the speed of my voice, but the way it sounds. Most of the time it’s natural. Especially when I’m with my friends, It sounds a little different from when I’m talking to my family or talking to adults.

Learning english at an earlier age was going to benefit us when we grow up. Other than Jose,  I didn’t know people who were in that class, and my life shifted completely. There cultures were completely different right of the back because even though a lot of students in that class were hispanic, they did not know spanish as well as I did. I had my desk, my name tag, my books everything. And even though my name didn’t stand out from the rest of my classmates names, my background did. From the way I spoke English and Spanish, things changed completely.

Change is not a bad thing. Its something that we have to adapt to. Change is good.It was really easy to make friends too. When you’re the “new kid” everyone wants to be friends with them. The same day, I became friends with Gennyliz and Andrea. Gennyliz was Puerto Rican like I was and Andrea was African American and white. I went from the new girl to the cool girl. Jose was also there and it was good to have a friend. They were extremely friendly. I keep thinking about the day I met them and it wasn’t hard to adapt. WIth Gennyliz, I spoke both english and spanish to Gennyliz and Jose. But with Andrea it was only English. It was easy to be friends with them but sometimes I couldn’t find the correct words to respond. Sometimes when I spoke english, I responded with a spanish word. Not because I chose to, but because I didn’t know how to respond. Sometimes instead of saying okay, I would say “ o okey”. You were able to tell that english wasn’t my first language. It didn’t make me angry, it just made me want to learn more English.