When I’m with my friends at School of Rock, I use an extra set of vocabulary to talk with them about music.  While we all are totally comfortable with casually using the words “key”, “chord progression”, “pinch harmonics”, and “bars” when discussing the songs we’re on, or the songs we are helping each other learn, our musical language may be incomprehensible to people who do not play music.  A few months ago, I was sitting at the dinner table with my parents, and somehow my dad (also a musician) and I started talking about harmonics, and their placement on the neck of the guitar/bass.  Although to us we seemed to be having a common conversation, at one point we turned to my mom, and her only words were, “What in the world are you talking about?”  I think experiences like this have helped me realize how many different “linguistic identities” I have, all based on my environment and who I am with.  If I had been having that same conversation with someone at School of Rock, nobody would have thought twice about it, much less paid any attention to it.  However, as soon as I was removed from the environment of School of Rock and being with my friends there, the nature of the conversation in relation to my surroundings was completely changed.  I have my own identity that goes with my friends at School of Rock, but also connects me with other musicians in general through the language I have the knowledge to use.    

Another “linguistic identity” of mine comes out when I am with my friends in and from school.  While some of our casual vocabulary would be easily understandable by most kids our age, it still would be cryptic to many adults.  I had never even thought of the language I used with my friends as being different from what I used in the rest of my daily life, until I started writing this piece.  This kind of late realization shows how different someone can seem to people in a larger community, when in a small community they are seen as normal, and see themselves as normal.  Two good examples of the kinds of phrases that are used frequently by high school students that may seem to make no sense to adults are “on point” (means something is good) and “out of pocket” (means something/someone is behaving too crazily, and should stop).  When I asked my mom what she thought “on point” and “out of pocket” meant, her responses were, “hit the nail on the head,” and “out of money.”  Although both phrases do mean something to adults like my mom, both mean completely different things to my peers and I.  The identity I use with my peers versus my superiors might be undetectable, if it weren’t for the linguistic differences between the two identities.  

My third “linguistic identity” is a good demonstration of a mixture between one I use with peers and one I use with adults––the one I use with my parents.  Parents, if you think about it, hold a very unique place in most teenagers’ lives.  Of course, they are my elders, and they have authority over me.  But I have also lived with them for 15 years, and therefore am more comfortable speaking casually around them than any other authority figure in my life.  Being this comfortable would usually mean using all of the same jargon I use with my peers, but there is also the age gap, bringing with it a vast cultural difference.  While I feel just as comfortable cursing around them as I do around my peers, I wouldn’t use the phrase “out of pocket” in a conversation with my parents, because–as is shown above–it wouldn’t make any sense to them in the context I would use it in.  I think this identity is very important to me, because it has drastically evolved and changed throughout my life along with the level of the language I use, even though I’ve been living with my parents the whole time.  

The last main “linguistic identity” in my life is the one I use when I’m speaking to adults that I’m less comfortable with–teachers, family friends, and people I’ve just recently met.  With them, I never use any of the jargon I do with my friends, and I certainly wouldn’t even consider cursing around them.  Around these adults, I am almost a completely different person, unfortunately one with less character.  Within my friend group, my schtick is being jokingly irritable, which is often really fun.  However, around adults I have just met I will usually have a big smile on my face, and try to politely agree with most of what they say.  When I text my friends, it’s often very informally structured, and most of the time I’m talking about something funny.  However, when I email one of my teachers it is often about something somewhat serious, and I can make myself sound like a graduate student emailing her professor about something.  I always use a more sophisticated vocabulary when communicating with my teachers through emails, though I use a pretty average vocabulary in person.

Thinking about one’s separate “linguistic identities” can really help you realize how well humans are at adapting to different types of situations.  Usually when people think about our abilities to adapt they think of physical evolution and survival instincts, but there is a much faster and everyday type of human adaptation, which you can see through paying attention to those different identities.  Language and identity is an extremely interesting issue, and one that authors and people in general have struggled with for a long time.  Thinking about language as something that directly connects to identity really helped me see another side of the life I live every day.

“Babciu boje sie troche.”, I said to my grandma.

“Nie boj sie. Wszystko bedzie dobrze. Mama bedzie z wami caly czas. Bede za wami tesknic ale wiedz ze zawsze bede tutaj dla was jak bedziecie mnie potrzebowac. Niezapomnij polskiego, bo twoj jezyk jest twoja osobowoscia.”

These were the last words I heard my grandma saying before we left. She told me my language is my identity and I should not forget it. My language is my identity. If I did not know it, then I would not be the same person as I am now.

I am unique because I am from a different country. I have an accent and I know about a different environment in a different country. I will always speak my language with my family, or friends because if I did not do that, I feel like I would lose something inside me. I would be empty inside. Everything that has to do with my language, which is Polish, reminds me with my memories when I was little. These were my best memories because I spent them with my close family that I really love.

I was thirteen years old when I moved to the U.S. I lived with my grandparents, and my mom was already in the U.S. working. She took us here so that we have a better future. In 7th grade I went to the Catholic school “Our Lady of Port Richmond”. A lot of people said it was a good school. My mom and I thought it would be a great school for me, and they also had an ESOL class, but I did not expect some other things to happen.

“Haha look at her. She does not know any English. She is so dumb.”

“I know hahaha. She is so stupid and ugly.”

That was my first day of school. These are the only words I remember coming out from some guys’ mouths. I was really shy and did not know what is going on around me. I did not know their language. I only knew a few words. Everyone used to laugh at me just because I did not know words in their language, or just because I could not pronounce words correctly yet. It was really hard for me to pronounce words at the beginning. I had to learn how to pronounce “r” because in Polish you roll “r”, just like in Spanish. After I talked with teachers, they apologized. They knew they made a mistake because I could see it on their faces.

“We are really sorry. I know we made a mistake by calling you names when we saw you or even after school. We will not do that anymore. I guess.”

It was still confusing that they said “I guess”. This made me think a lot, but I did not care if they talked about me after school. I only cared if they talked about me at school. After school I always went home to do my homework, and learn English. It was hard for me, but I tried my best.

After this experience with students laughing at me I got really shy. I was really closed and I did not want to talk to anyone from school because I thought the same thing would happen. Almost all students laughed at me because I did not understand, or could not pronounce words. I could not understand why they did that. If they were in my place they would feel like me. Looking back now I was a really scared/shy person. You could say I was even avoiding people just not to talk to them. Right now I feel actually confident with my language and my accent. Before if someone would ask me about my accent I stopped talking because I knew they are paying attention to it. Now, I feel good with talking in English and having my accent. It actually makes people to know more about me. In 8th grade I went to McCall school where I started talking more. I did not feel confident exactly, but I opened up more. When I got to SLA I started talking a lot. When I am with my friends now, I could talk and talk. Even right now, I am mixing Polish and English together when I talk to my mom in Polish. I keep getting confused which words are which ones.

A lot of people changed around me. My old friends left and I got to know new people. I kind of changed too. I am not as shy as I was three years ago. Now, I am confident about myself because of what I went through. I do not care what people think about me. If I worried, then I would just be depressed. People should be themselves and not care about what others think. We are different from each other, and that’s what matters because if we would be the same, our world would be boring.

My first day at SLA was different for me. I was really nervous because I did not know anyone besides one friend from my old school. I knew people will realize that I am not from here. I did not want to go through the same thing again. When I met my friends they realized it.

“ You have an accent? Wow, that’s so cool!”

I did not expect people to think and say they like my accent. I would think they will say I sound weird. They accepted me unlike others at my old school. My friends were surprised that I am from a different country, and thought that was really awesome. They wanted to know everything about me and how Poland looks like. I felt really good because someone accepted me the way I am. They did not make me change myself because I would not belong, or be the same as them. They wanted me to share with them my stories when I was in Poland. I also got to know them better too. I realized there are a lot more people from different countries at SLA. I did not feel left out. This school made me a better person, and I opened up to be a more confident person.

This quote is from a book called “How to Tame a Wid Tongue.” by Glona Anzaldin. “So if you want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- I am my language.” This quotes refers to my life too. I really do not like when people talk about my language, or my country in a bad way. It hurts me inside. A person that wrote this essay I could say wrote a little bit about my life. My story is really similar to this quote. Also there is this book called “Girl in Translation”. It is about a girl that is from Hong Kong. She also came to the U.S. without knowing a language. It kind of reminds me of me.

If I could compare school now and three years ago it could be completely different. Three years ago I felt really scared about it. Almost no language, and no friends here. If I had my friends with me it could be different, but I did not have them. All of them stayed and lived in Poland. I only had my sister and my mom. They were my closest friends here. Right now I feel like I am a new person. I know English and I can communicate with people. I have a lot of new friends that I can trust. My family is really helpful and they help me whenever they can. My feeling changed about it because I do not really care what people think about me. I know that even though they think I might be stupid, I am not. I worked really hard to have everything that I have now. New friends, new language, and a new environment. These were really hard three years, but right now I am really happy I live with my closest family.

Sources:

- Anzaldin, Glona “How to Tame a Wid Tongue.”

- interview with my mom and dad

- Kwok, Jean “Girl in Translation.”

All I want to do was fit in. Not so much with the school community, but with my race. I feel like an outcast around them.

The name’s Chase. I’m mixed. My mom is African American but my dad is white. They have been together for 14 years. I didn’t come around until later in their marriage. My mom is a doctor for Ferguson Wyatt Hospital, while my dad is a lawyer for Mc Robinson law firm. They both are good at their jobs. Good enough to get bonuses and own a big mansion in the suburbs.

We live in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I like living here. It is nice and quiet. kids playing in the street, and friendly neighbors. I can’t complain.

I always went to schools out in the suburbs. My parents wanted me to have a really good education, so they sent me to the top schools. Schools where there were no fights, kids get A’s and B’s, and no one gets detentions.  When I went to middle school, I went to one of the best schools in the suburbs. Guess who sent me. My parents. Why? Because they want me to get a damn good education.

I never feel right in those schools. It feel like the teachers and student are robots. I always have to do what they tell us to do. No back talking, no retaliation. That wasn’t me. So when high school came around, I wanted to switch things up.

One Thursday night, during dinner, I asked my parents to send me to a high school in the city.

“Chase, why would you want to do that when there are high schools nearby that are extremely outstanding” my mother asked me.

“Yeah son, I think it would be best for you to keep going to school out here,” my dad chimed into the conversation.

I didn’t want to do the same thing again. “I want to try something new this time. I can’t always do the same thing in life,” I told my parents.

I wanted to go to high school in the city because I could learn so much compared to what a suburban school could teach me. There were more ethnicities, and new teaching styles. I wanted a new me. I wanted a new environment.

Days later, my parents decided to let me go into the city for high school. I was ready to try new things. After an anxious and nervous weekend, thinking about what the school would be like. The first day school started.. I had to get up at 5:00 to get ready and leave the house before 6:00 because it is a thirty minute drive to get to the city.

When we arrived to school, my mom told me, "son be careful and pay attention to your surroundings". Then she told me have a good day and drove off to work. I didn't know why she told me this. Was she warning me to watch my surroundings because I was going to a new school or because I was in the city where with so many people. But, I wasn't worried about her, I was worried about how my first day would be.

I walk in the front door only to see that it was a normal school. Kids were talking. It was peaceful. I liked it. I can tell that I was going to get along with the people there. My first class was world history. The teacher’s name was Mr. Timothy. He seemed nice. As I looked around the class to find a place to sit , there was only one seat left in the back with a group of black kids. I had no problem sitting in the back of the class. My problem was the kids. They were loud. They were all over the place. That was the first time that I was scared of the school and the kids in it. This was not like my old school. At my old school, kids were calm and knew how to act.

After Mr.Timothy’s class,I thought maybe I should take a look at how the kids acted. Maybe  fit in better in the school.

During lunch, I closely payed attention to some kids conversations. I thought talking like them, I would better fit in with them. I turned over to my right in order to hear a conversation with two girls.

One girl said, “I can’t believe he would do this to me. We have been together too long for him to do something like this”. I guess her boyfriend was cheating on her or he just broke up with her. I was surprised that she wasn’t crying much. Usually, if something like this happened to a girl at my old school, they would cry some much to fill a river just over something like this.

The other girl said to her,“It’s alright Catherine. You can’t let this put you down. If he wanted to do this then that’s what he chose to do”.

“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I can get over it,” said the girl who was crying.

I stopped listening to that conversation and I moved on. I kept on listening to other student’s conversations, but they were all the same things. Sex, grades, teachers they hate, what someone did to someone else. I can say I did pick up some words and phrases that might help me for about the first week.

It started to get bored listening to the same things. Until, the kids from the back of Mr.Timothy’s class came in the cafeteria. They were so loud and obnoxious, just like in class. They sat down not too far from me. Which was good because maybe I could learn something from them.

There were five of them. Three girls and two boys. One of the girls said, “Yo, what’s up with you and Tom, yo. I heard y’all were about to fight”.

“Naw man. I was about to fuck him up cause he wanna be talking all this shit. He know I can whoop his ass, then he will get knocked the fuck out. Real shit. I can even get my niggas from around my hood. I know people here will ride for me so I don’t give a fuck what he has to say,” one of the boys responded.

I was surprised. I have never heard so much profanity in my life. I’ve heard it maybe once or twice when my parents were arguing or when I someone in my old school hurt themselves. But no one said that much profanity in a single sentence. No one.

I turned my attention back to the conversation.

The same girl asked the boy, “So what’s good with you and Courtney? Y’all still together”?

“Man, fuck that bitch! I don’t care about her no more. All she was was a hoe.”

Now that really caught me by surprise. Never have I heard someone disrespect a woman like that. My mother taught me to respect everyone. She said to treat women the way I want to be treated. But I thought to myself, maybe he didn’t mean it. Maybe she was acting like a hoe. I don’t even know what that is. A hoe? Isn’t that a gardening tool? So she was acting like a gardening tool? Now I was really confused. This guy might help me fit in as bad as that sounds. But maybe him and his friends are my only chance for acceptance.

When school was over and my mom picked me up after school, she asked, “How was your new school Chase? Do you like it? Did you learn anything new today?”

Oh, I learned new things today. I didn’t want to tell her what I learned today so I just said, “I had fun today. I like the school.”

“Oh how wonderful! I’m glad you liked your school”.

Later that night, in my room, I practiced some of the words and phrases I heard from today.

“Chill nigga.”

“You fraudin.”

“Bitch, sit ya’ dumbass down.”

“Whatchu mean cus.”  

The grammar was hard to remember. “Your” turned out to be “ya”. “Whatchu mean” turned out to be “what do you mean.” And “cus,” from the looks of it, means “cousin.” I guess. The next day, I made an attempt to talk to them. I pretended to need help.

“Could you help me with this problem”?

“Sure. Whatchu need help with?”

I was surprised that he helped me. After he helped me, I asked him what was his name. He said his name was Antoine. I was cool with him. At lunch, I sat at the same table by myself just like yesterday. When Antoine saw me, he invited me to sit with his friends and him. I took this chance to learn more.

I learned more about Antoine and his friends. The three girls were Charise, Tiffany, and Taylor. The other guy was Freddy. Charise was the oldest and Taylor was the youngest in the group. They were very nice to me. I fit in with some kids. I knew now that I need to keep learning new words from them so I can be one of them.

As days and weeks went on, I became one of them. My grammar changed. I started saying what they said. Words changed. They weren’t proper anymore. I thought what I was doing was right. I never noticed it started to change at home.

I was talking to my mom one night. And everything I learned came out all at once. She said that I was changing. I thought she meant that in a mean way.

I said to her, “whatchu mean by that!”  

With a confused look on her face she replied, “what did you say”?

“Whatchu mean” I repeated.

“Did you mean ‘what do you mean by that’, Chase?”

I thought a minute about what I said. I remembered she doesn’t know what that meant.

“Oh. Sorry I meant ‘what do you mean about that”.

Later on during the conversation I made another mistake.

“You started fraudin. I never said that.”

“Chase, what does that mean? Are you ok? Is there something that I don’t know of?”

It was at that moment knew that I shouldn’t use that language in the house. I knew I could only say these words and phrases outside at school because my parents would not understand and think that I am crazy. From that day on, that’s how it was. In the house, I would speak proper. But at school, I was a different person. I would use slang.

“What’s your name?”

“Tamirwa Bell”

“Tamira Bell?”

“Yes, Tamirwa Bell”

“Oh, okay. I think it’s funny how you pronounce it!”

This happens to me way too often. Someone would ask what is my name, I’d reply, and then they’d simply laugh. They laughed because of the way that I speak.

See, it all started when I was in middle school. Those are the years when you begin to form your identity. You start to notice beauty, true friends, relationships, and etc. So while my friends were figuring out who was the cutest boy in the class or what clothes were trending, I was noticing my conflict with speech. I always knew that I had a high pitched voice, but I never knew that I had a problem with pronunciation.

In eighth grade, my school was starting a new legacy and my teachers thought that I would be the perfect candidate. So they made me the morning announcer. Every morning I would report to the office to inform the school on the day’s lunch, weather, news headlines, and etc.

“Good morning Fitler students and faculty. Today is October 3, 2011. It looks like it will be a beautiful day, with not a cloud in sight. Today’s high will be…,” I would report every morning.

I thought that I was something special because I had the opportunity to do a task that no one else in my school could do. All of the students who were in first through fourth grades, looked up to me. Everyday, they would stop me in the hallway and ask me if I was the “voice” behind the loudspeaker.

“Hey are you the one who says the announcements in the morning?!”

“Yes!”

“That’s so awesome! I hope one day I get to say the announcements on the loudspeaker,” a first grader would tell me.

I thought that everyone appreciated the job that I was doing. But little did I know how people actually felt. Although the younger students admired me, the older students dreaded the sound of my voice. Every morning when my voice was projected throughout the corridors of the school, the older students would become piqued.

“She sounds like a baby,” one student would grumble.

“It is so unnecessary for her to come on the loudspeaker every morning.”

“She doesn’t know how to talk, so why is she speaking?”

“She doesn’t pronounce her R’s correctly,” another would complain.

When those rumors spread around about me, I became discouraged. So I tried not to say words that involved the letter r. I tried not to use any words that I knew I couldn’t correctly pronounce. I also tried to speak as clearly as possible, which turned out to be embarrassing.

A famous Dutch observer of the English language by the fictitious name of Charivarius once wrote a poem about English, called The Chaos. He wrote about the difficulty of trying to speak English.

“Finally, which rhymes with enough --

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!”

So I took that advice. I chose to give up on talking. When I knew that I couldn’t live up to everyone’s expectations when it came to pronunciation, I decided not to speak at all. When I did the announcements, I said them as fast as possible. When I was in class, I stopped participating. When my friends called me on the phone, I avoided them.

 “Ding- Ding!   Ding- Ding!   Ding- Ding!”

“Hello,” my sister answered the house phone.

“Can I speak to Tamira?”

“Hold on…. TAMIRA!!!! SOMEONE WANTS TO YOU SPEAK TO YOU ON THE PHONE!!!,” my sister would yell.

“Tell her I can’t talk right now. Tell her that I don’t feel well or make up something,” I whispered in the background.

Besides doing the announcements, I remained silent for a month. I thought that if I didn't speak, people would stop making fun my voice. I thought that the ridiculing would stop. I thought that I the brash looks in the hallway would stop.

But the mockery didn’t stop. It kept on going on. And it still goes on to this very day. Where ever I go, people will snicker about my voice. But when I stopped talking, I saw how it affected the lives of others. I saw how it affected my life.

One day one of the first graders stopped me in the hallway to ask me why I didn’t say the announcements like I used to. I was so confused. How did I “used” to say the announcements? He said that I used to say it with so much glee. When I came on the loudspeaker, his teacher would smile because of my joyful voice. But for the past month, she hasn’t smiled because I didn’t sound cheerful.

When that little boy told me that, I felt so guilty. How could I be allow the opinions of disparaging children, who did even matter to me, affect the way that I lived my life? I didn’t even take it into account how I could put a smile on people’s faces every morning.

So I decided to open my mouth and speak with boldness. No longer would I allow someone to take something from me that didn’t belong to them. My voice was mine and I would use no matter what others thought.

The next morning, I walked into the office with a smile on my face and boldness in my heart. Then I picked up the phone to say the announcements.

“Good morning Fitler students and faculty. Today is November 7, 2011. It looks like today will be a delightful day. Today’s high will be 50˚F. Today for lunch, we will be having…,” I contentedly said.

I was elated to be able to overcome my fear of speech. I learned that my voice is my instrument to express my thoughts, to make a difference, and to put a smile on someone’s face.

That day, the first grader who always stopped me in the hallway, yelled at me.

“Hey you announcer girl!”

“Yes. What’s wrong?!”

“Nothing. I just wanted to tell you something amazing!”

“What is it,” I bafflingly inquired.

“My teacher smiled today!”

Works Cited Section:

Trenite, G. Nolst "Charivarius". The Chaos. New River Project, 1922. Print. <http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html>.

Once in a small town lived these wonderful and cheerful people. They had a great life with their leader, Dan. Dan had become their leader because everyone in the town agreed that he had fit the requirements to lead. He would always make smart choices that would benefit everyone. There was not a lot of violence in the town. Everyone got along with everyone else. If there were problems in the town, Dan would always sort it out and make everything better. Dan loved to play with the kids and he had a brother named Luke who looked up to Dan.

For three days a ruler and his army were walking around in the desert in search for settlement. While looking they came across a small town.

“This will be a great place to settle down and take over,” said Matthew, the dictator, to his men.

They walked up to the small peaceful town, and Matthew asked a stranger, “Where is your leader? I need to have a word with him.”

“I will go get him,” said the blacksmith. The blacksmith had gone to summon Dan, and he said to him, “Dan, someone wants to talk to you.”

“Who is it?”

“I do not know. Some strangers came into our town and asked to see the leader.”

“Alright, take me to them.”

“Okay, let’s go,” said the blacksmith. The blacksmith led Dan to the strangers. As they walked to the strangers, Dan was suspicious of the request to see him.  

“Who are you and why have you come here?”

“I am Matthew, and these are my men. We are on a journey to a large town up north to trade. We are in need of shelter, food, and water. Would it be okay if we stayed the night? We will leave the first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Alright, you and your men may stay here but under one condition.You have to set up your own tents and buy your own food, but we will provide you with water, that’s all.”

“Thank you,” said Matthew.

Matthew lied to Dan so that it would not seem suspicious. Dan did not know that Matthew and his men were planning to take over the town and kill him. So Matthew and his men planned a way to take out Dan early in the morning; they wanted to do it in front of everyone so that the whole town would be scared. Later that night, Dan rang the bell, which meant the whole town would meet in a secret location that no one knew except for them. When Dan felt like something was wrong, he held these meetings to protect his people and town from outsiders.

“Everyone, I have called you here tonight to tell you to be aware of the strangers who have come into our town. They have a lot of equipment with them and their leader said it was for ‘trading purposes.’ Do not let your guard down. We do not know if they are dangerous, but we will not take any chances. They are suppose to be leaving tomorrow morning, but something might come up. I am not sure. That’s all I have to say. Thank you for your time.”

They all agreed with Dan because they knew that he was usually right. They all left and went back to their homes after that speech.

“They fell for our trick. Now it’s time to plan out our movement! We have to take out their leader first; he is our main objective. Tomorrow morning, I’ll find him and start a conversation. After a few minutes, I want Mark, William, and Lewis to come up and grab him, then bring him to the bell. Everyone else surround the bell. Once we are there, I will ring the bell. Then we will kill him in front of everybody.”

Everyone witnessed the assassination and it was horrible what happen to Dan. Luke was furious and devastated about how Dan died.

“Everyone, I am your new leader. You will obey me from now on and if you choose not to, you will suffer the consequences,” commanded Matthew.

“We will not listen to you!” yelled a food sales woman.

“Lewis, grab that lady! She will suffer for disrespecting me!” Lewis brought her over to Matthew. They stoned her then cut off her head, arms, and legs. Then they tied her remaining body to the pole and left her there.

“Here is a sign to everyone not to disobey or disrespect us. Since I am now your leader, you will learn to speak my language. You may not speak English anymore; if we hear you speaking it then you will be tortured. Your new language that you will be learning is French. There will be signs to assist you in speaking the language but everyone will be taught it.”

After he was done talking, everyone went back to what they were doing before and talked about the situation. He commanded his army to put the posters and signs around the entire town. After one week, everyone was broken and torn apart. They were so scared of speaking English for the fear of getting caught. They did not know what to do now that they did not have a leader or someone to strengthen them. In that week, someone was caught speaking English and was tortured. It was not like how Matthew killed the lady. This time he burned the man to death.

“Si vous ne voulez pas suivre mes règles, vous serez punis,” said Matthew. Everyone was terrified now. Luke spread the word around to everyone to meet in the secret place that night to discuss the problem because he was afraid to ring the bell.

“We have a crisis on our hands. Matthew has changed our language and lifestyle. We need to do something about this. We will not survive if this keeps going on,” said Luke.

“What do you suggest we do?” said the blacksmith.

“We fight back for Dan, our town, and our language! Everyone will have to fight because we are doing this for ourselves and for everyone in the town! We have a better chance of defeating Matthew and his army if everyone helps.”

“YEAHH!” everyone screamed.   

“Blacksmith, go and prepare weapons for us to use.”

“When will we strike, Luke?” asked the Blacksmith.

“Tomorrow night, we will go in and kill the guards first, then make our way to their leader. Now go back to your homes before he knows something is up.”

The blacksmith worked long and hard to prepare the weapons for battle. Luke was there to help him to help speed up the process.

“Looks like we have enough weapons for everyone,” said the blacksmith.

“Yeah, this should be enough,” said Luke. Matthew’s men were walking by for their morning stroll and they walked past the blacksmith’s shop.

“Comment allez-vous?” said one of the soldiers.

“Je suis bon vous remercie.” responded Luke. The soldier carried on.  

“That was a close one,” said Luke

“Yeah, it was,” said the blacksmith.

Later that night, everybody gathered around the blacksmith’s place and received their weapons.

“Tonight is the night we take back power in our language, our town, and our lives!” said Luke.

Everyone then ran to Matthew and his men’s huts. They started killing all of his men. Cutting their heads off, arms, and stabbing them until they died. They fought for a while. When Luke and the blacksmith went to look for Matthew, they found him trying to escape so they grabbed him.

“You killed my brother. You came into our town and changed everything for us. Now you must suffer.” They started to fight. Luke was wounded, cut in his arm and leg; Matthew was wounded, cut in his arm and chest. During the fight, Luke had been knocked down to the ground.

“Say hi to your brother for me.” As Matthew was about to kill Luke, Luke took his sword and quickly pierced Matthew right through his chest. Then Luke also cut off his tongue because Matthew had done that to his brother, and it is a symbol of their ability to have power of what language they want to speak.

After the battle was finished, ten people died in the town and fifteen were injured. They tossed all of the bodies of Matthew and his men outside the town walls. They buried all of the bodies of their people next to Dan’s body. The townspeople later told Luke to be their leader because he was brave and stepped up when they were in need of help.

“I am honored to be your leader. I will follow in my brother’s footsteps. I know he is proud of what we did and he is looking over each and every one of us.”

You wouldn’t think that moving from Chicago to Philadelphia is a big move. But it really is. Especially if you lived there your whole life before you moved to Philly, so you have that Chicago accent. My first day at my new high school all the other juniors thought I got kicked out of my last school all the kids did all day was talk about me...and they were NOT quite about it.

‘Cause like- have you heard Damien talk? He sounds like a drug dealer or something. He probably got expelled and he always slurs his words together. He might even come to school high. Do you think he would get expelled for that?’

When in reality I’ve never been suspended. Another great thing about my school? Their speech department. Or at least thats what the vice principal was telling me in her office. She thought that because I was the talk (no pun intended) of the school that it might be in ‘my best interest’ to take two speech classes. One to assess if I had any other ‘setbacks’ and the other is specifically for kids with accents and slurs. So of course I agreed so that she would dismiss me. Biggest mistake of my Junior year. No my high school career.

So all my speech classes started the second week of school. My first two classes of the day on Monday and Friday. Let me just tell you- when I walked into that class I felt like an asshole. There were kids in wheelchairs and girls without hair and here I am just standing in the doorway. The least impaired looking one in the whole room. I mean, I don’t think you need to be impaired to need or be sent to speech therapy, but it was really obvious that I didn’t really belong in the room.

“So...Damien, what brings you here?”

“I was referred here by the vice principal. She said my accent was a ‘setback’ so here I am. “

“Well, I noticed you’re from Chicago. But you don't have any issues with your sentence or word structure. I’m going to send you down the hall to your next class, this one isn’t really for you, this class is for the mentally and physically disabled.  So I am not really sure why you were sent here.”

I didn’t even bother going to my next ‘therapy’ class. I left and went straight to the office. I walked past the nurses station and past the waiting chairs, then walked straight up to the secretary's desk.

“I would like to talk to vice principal Rasheed. I can wait.”

Twenty minutes later I’m admitted to her office. I just walk right around her and sit in the most comfortable chair I can find, I’m going to be here awhile. She takes note of my obviously pissy disposition and just gives me a snarky once over.

“I hope you know I am counting this as you skipping your speech classes- if you need to talk to me, I want you to do it on your lunch or between classes, plus you are just counteracting what is in your-”

“Don’t you dare say ‘my best interest’.  There is nothing wrong with the way I talk, I am not from the same city as you, therefore I have a different way of talking to people. Its how I grew up. That does not make me anymore or less than you, and I would love to know why one of the classes you sent me to was for the mentally and physically disabled.”

I didn't even have to wait for her to answer me. The head of the school walked in and escorted me out onto the school’s lawn. He told me to go home, that my parents had been called and that I was going to get into serious trouble the next time I skipped classes- for a ‘good reason’ or otherwise. So I walked my angry ass home, a thirteen mile walk. Took me two hours, but I was pretty mellow once I got home...my mother on the other hand was completely livid. They told her that I was cutting and causing a scene in the office.

“Those self righteous bastards.” That was all she could manage after hearing what actually happened to me. So then she went into full out terminator mode. She wanted the school to be publically humiliated. So she pulled me out of that school and she started researching everything she could think of to make what they did seem as incriminating as possible.  

It took about two weeks for the whole state to find out about the issue I was having. Apparently there is a small recording device in the V.P’s office, that had caught the whole thing on tape. One of the secretary's had found it very sad...so of course what did she do? Upload the video to YouTube spilling all my information in the info bar. After that people started paticians, walk outs and strikes, all under my name. So naturally I have been getting all the heat and love for this movement. Thats were I am going now, Im in a cab in New York on my way to central park to give a speech about the issues people go through, because of course a hormonal seventeen year old would know best.

So here I go, walking up the steps to the podium, about to spill my guts on the altar of sacrifice. Just because I lived in Chicago until I was sixteen.

“Hay there. This is a huge crowd...wow, well Im flattered. I just wanted to say- That no matter the language, accent, or even dialect- we are all entitled to our voices. They are a part of what makes us special and should never be ridiculed; or under appreciated. To quote my favorite movie “Pump Up The Volume”, ‘TALK HARD. THE TRUTH IS A VIRUS.’ Goodnight”

Serge Mass

Dave Chappelle

The “Chappelle Show” written by the comedy legend Dave Chappelle, presents its characters in ways that make fun of their stereotypical speech and it influences the audience to think differently about certain groups of people.

With the show “The Chappelle show” Chappelle likes to bring out the best and worst of characters in the show through the selection of their language. With Dave being such a powerful man in the comedy strip today, he really influences people on how they view and group people. In Dave’s show, he uses a lot of stereotypes to bring out the language and tone of different races and religions to get a hook on the audience. It is as if, that is his secret weapon.  In his show, he likes to make fun of certain races speech to draw attention to his point which is to make people have a good time, but sometimes people take it too far...

For example in his most controversial skit, with the title “The Race Draft” Dave plays multiple roles. In the race draft, he plays an announcer, a black candidate, and a white candidate. With Dave being the white candidate, he spoke with a clear deep voice that is a “generic white american male voice”. When he speaks like that, the audience can hear his natural voice come out. When he is the black candidate, he just speaks with his usual voice, but with a southern tone. When he plays the announcer he is a black male, but he has a tone of voice that is very clear and contains no ebonics. When the black candidate is up to pick, his physical language is very clear that he is rooting for them. So when Chappelle uses the white voice, you can hear the black voice under it. The Audience can hear the black voice which makes Dave sound very funny. The way Dave describes the other candidates in the skit is no way that makes the audience assume that David being racist towards other races other than his own race which is black. During the skit when Dave is playing a white man he is very insensitive the other races on how he talks. For example in the skit Dave talks about trading Eminem for Tiger Woods because Eminem acts a lot more black Tiger Woods is. Dave’s definition of black is someone that wears baggy clothes and someone that listens to Hip-Hop.Then later in the skit the switches back to the African American representative and he starts talking about how Eminem is a lot blacker than the Tiger Woods, also how Tiger does not deserve to be black. Being white like me this picked up as being very racist and I'm assuming as an audience member that this could be seen as racist. In the skit when Chappelle is playing the African American candidate, towards the end of the skit when he is having his closing speech he talks with a white tone. For someone that may not understand Chappelles message, they could see it as “Black People just use ebonics and they can code switch at any point”. That is not right because the accent and the way you speak is how it will be in your roots. It may change, but it will always be what it first was.

Another example is the Clayton Bigsby skit which is also a very controversial skit in Chappelles career.  Dave Chappelle plays a blind KKK member which turns out to be black. For the skit, Chappelle has a very deep southern’ accent. For the bulk of the episode, Chappelle is in a KKK suit when he was at meetings until the end. People did not know that he was black other than the man that was visiting him from Fox’ DATELINE and his mother that fostered him. Clayton is a writer of KKK books and he goes to a book signing. No one has not seen him without his mask. The KKK members start chanting him on to take it off then he does. Peoples heads actually explode. With Chappelle acting out such a very sensitive subject, a lot of the viewers could be potentially be turned off of the show by the way he talks and some of the viewers could pick up the speech and think it is okay.

About eight years ago when the show is first broadcasted, NBC had a whole news article about the Dave Chapelle's given the wrong message that is not racist at all. Now from them saying that they obviously have not seen the show because almost every episode and most of every sketch touches on different types of racist insults and stereotypes. Then years later NBC says that Dave Chappelle is a very racist man on the way he speaks. The fact that NBC one the biggest news channels in America contradicted themselves with this outrageous claim is crazy. This is a very touchy subject in the US today about how people speak and how they're influenced by each other. Today the TV shows people want to be funny. Well sometimes they do indeed go overboard with the way stereotypes in speech are played out. There should be an equilibrium with this. There should be a board of people that can rate these television programs other than the FCC because they obviously did not catch this. If someone were to break down the way people were speaking and where they pick it up from in the United States, then about half of us would admit to picking up certain slangs from TV shows or Movies today.

Recently A show with the name of Key and Peele started getting a lot of attention. So I decided to check it out; It was an alright show, but there is one skit which made me want to do this piece. It was when this African American guy standing on the corner waiting for the light to turn green. Then another guy is walking down the street, and he is talking on the phone and he says “Yo whats up homie” and all of this stuff to make him sound like he is a gangster. Then as soon as he crosses the street he says “ oh my god, I just like almost jumped”. From this whole sketch, the audience can tell that Key and Peele are trying to make fun of the way stereotypical Gay and also Black people talk.

In conclusion, the “Chappelle Show” written by the comedy legend Dave Chappelle, presents its characters in ways that make fun of their stereotypical speech and it influences the audience to think differently about certain groups of people.

WORK CITED:

The Race Draft: http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/b224ei/chappelle-s-show-the-racial-draft

Chappelle, Dave .. "The Racial Draft." Comedy Central. Comedy Central, 10 Feb. 2008. Web. 03 Nov. 2013.

Clayton Bigsby:

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/7nnosh/chappelle-s-show-frontline---clayton-bigsby

Ameer forte

“¿Como está?”

“What?”

“¿Como está?”

I looked at my great grandmother my eyes fixed on her strange words.

“What?”

She shook her head in disapproval but I was used to this. My great grandma and I have never been close, I mean she did live in new york but when she was here I felt more distant to her than ever. She was the only person in my family who only spoke spanish and I dreaded the days I would have to speak to her. She would only use simple spanish of course but I still felt intimidated at the age of twelve. I would wish my mom or dad or somebody would’ve taught me spanish. Why wouldn't they, it is my culture and I had as much right as any one of my brothers and sisters to learn. I’m the oldest of my two brothers and one sister and they are all being taught spanish with every passing breath whether it be at home or school but I was taught nothing not even the simplest verb, the easiest noun. I never understood why, perhaps I still don’t. Maybe it is because I was the first child, maybe I was the test subject the kid no one really knew what to do with.

“Mom, why didn’t you let dad teach me spanish.”

I’d ask that question over and over again and she would just say, “Ameer we just weren't prepared to put you or us through that besides it worked out fine right?”

But she was wrong it wasn’t fine I couldn’t have a reasonable conversation with my great grandmother because of them. I repeatedly found myself blaming my parents for everything that had to do with spanish and when I had no reason I found a reason. In the sixth grade, I had my first spanish course and I purposely came home with a D to prove that it would be different if they would have taught me themselves. This must have went on for a couple years and then when I was in 8th grade my mom picked me up from school early which was a rare notion so when this happened I figured something had to be wrong. She told me my great grandmother was in the hospital and may not have very much time left. My heart stopped. I was pretty sure she was going to have to put me in the hospital right there with my great grandmother but somehow I pulled it together and tried to stay as strong as possible.

“It’s going to be ok Ameer, hey, she is in a happier place now right?” My mom tried to comfort me as best as she could but I remember being pretty silent the whole ride. My mom wasn’t very close to my great grandma because she was my dads mother not my moms and my mom faced the same language barrier I did at the time she also didn’t know spanish very well, but she did understand how much she meant to everyone. My mom ended up picking up on some spanish after living with my dad but she didn’t need to speak the language to see how great a person my great grandma was. I interviewed my mom and dad now and asked them the same question I used to ask them when I was younger, “So why was I never taught spanish?” This was my dad’s response,

“Well it would be easy to say we didn’t know what we were doing yet, I mean it had all happened so fast. But that wouldn’t explain why we didn’t teach you while you were growing up. So honestly I don’t know why we decided not to teach you how to speak both maybe we thought it was too much work at the time, I don’t know, but looking back now I really wish we did.” This was my mom’s answer,

“Ameer I think it was really because we just didn’t really know how to work that in, now that were older we are able to teach your siblings because we learned and we didn’t want to make the mistake if not teaching them like we did with you.” I had an understanding response to both answers. I started to realize that I was the rough draft for my parents which was why they didn’t teach spanish. This thought made me feel very uncomfortable, I couldn’t understand why I was being treated so unfairly. None of it made sense.

Soon after that I started changing the way I viewed hispanic people, I started to feel like I couldn’t talk to them, something like the Key and Peele skit we watched in class. Both men acted different around eachother, thats how I acted around hispanics, I would change completely when in their presence.The language barrier I felt with my own family had widely expanded and hispanic people became like an unknown species in my life. I ignored them every time possible, made no effort to learn spanish in school, I completely abandoned spanish. I was tired of spanish. I hated spanish and the people that bore its fruit.

After what seems like such a long time I slowly started to change. There still isn’t a moment where I don’t feel uncomfortable when in the presence of a spanish speaking person. But now I just don’t really think too much of it. As the years passed by I like to believe there was a bigger reason as to why they never taught me spanish. I think it’s because my mom and dad didn’t see the importance of me having to learn at the time. They figured I would either grow into it or wouldn’t need it at all but they admit that that was wrong. I also changed my view because of being reminded of my great grandmothers death. The day she passed I was upset and confused, now years later I look at it as an opportunity to make her proud and learn the language she always wanted me too. Thats what keeps me from giving up on spanish.  

Works Cited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzprLDmdRlc

In the world there are many different types of corporations and these corporations have a number of different occupations that need to be filled with specialized workers. The CEOs of these companies are very different from the interns of of these companies. Furthermore the language is very different between the CEO and intern. In corporations there are things that you should not say and do in the office. In corporations there is a definite qualified language that is used and a definite way to act in a corporation. Overall, each corporation has it’s own qualified  language and each corporation chooses to add or subtract from that qualified language.   

In a corporation there is a CEO and there is an intern and other occupations within the organization. The CEO is the leader of the corporation and the boss. An intern is at the bottom of the corporation and learns from the company workers. The intern can learn more about that corporation from the people who work there because they know the business the best and they have the time to teach the intern about the company. Furthermore an intern has a different language than the CEO. Kevin Plank who is the CEO of Under Armour said “There’s an entrepreneur right now, scared to death, making excuses, saying, ‘It’s not the right time just yet.’ There’s no such thing as a good time. I started an apparel-manufacturing business in the tech-boom years. I mean, come on. Get out of your garage and go take a chance, and start your business”. Frederick W. Smith who is the CEO of Fedex said “Leaders get out in front and stay there by raising the standards by which they judge themselves – and by which they are willing to be judged”. Steve Ballmer who is the CEO of Microsoft said “Great companies with the way they work, first start with great leaders”. Overall, the language between a CEO and an intern is very different because an intern has not learned how to communicate with others, unless the intern knew before they came to the business.

One way to be successful in a corporation is being able to speak professionally and to be able to talk to all kinds of people. This will help you be successful in a corporation because you will be able to interact with other businessmen and businesswomen. One corporation that has a set language is Exxon Mobil. One reason is if you do not know anything about the gasoline business you will not be able to sell your product to other gasoline corporations. Exxon Mobil has many terms that they use in their corporation such as proved reserves, prime product sales, proved reserves replacement ratio and total shareholder return. Proved reserves are the amount of resources that can be recovered from the deposit with a reasonable. Prime product reserves are business’s expenses from the materials and labor it uses in production. Proved reserves replacement ratio is a metric used by investors to judge the operating performance of an oil and gas exploration and production company. The total shareholder return is the total return of a stock to an investor. Overall, the way knowing the terms of the company you work for is very important.

The most important part of a presentation is the speaker and how they present their idea to their audience. According newyork speechcoaching.com, “the coach would use methods from drama and would use a wide variety of methods to helps you become a better speaker”. The language and the tone that the speaker uses is very important also and will make the presentation better. According to silvermanspeechcoach.com, “there are four steps to a successful presentation which are the goal, the challenge, the solution and the result”. Overall, the key to presenting your idea is to have the knowledge of the idea and the skills to let your audience understand what you are talking about.

The reason why language is so important is because it is the way other businessmen and businesswomen respond to you and the way you get noticed by other corporations. Furthermore language is important because if you do not speak the same way as your coworkers or your boss you will not be able to work on many group projects and you will not be able to get your work done. Also you would not be hired if you were not able to speak the language of the corporation and you would probably not be able to volunteer for that corporation. The way that this all would be learned would be to go to business school and then to become an intern at a corporation and to learn from the workers there. This job would not be paid but would be worth the time because it would pay off in the future. The way to become the CEO of a corporation would be to work your way up the system and to learn from your superiors about the corporation. Overall, there are not many people who start off as the CEO of a company they usually have to work their way up the system for many years.

All CEOs start off somewhere and most have to work their way to the top of the corporation. To become the CEO of a corporation you must have the drive to get yourself to that position because everyone wants to become the CEO but not everyone wants to do the work to become the CEO of a corporation. The CEO position is also gained by being able to speak professionally in the office. This position must be earned it is not given. Overall, you must have a drive to become a CEO and you must be ready to do the work to become the CEO of a corporation.      

Works Cited:

"Silvermac.com." - Silvermac. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

"New York Speech Coaching." New York Speech Coaching. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

"25 Inspirational Quotes By The Highest Performing CEO’s." 25 Inspirational Quotes By The Highest Performing CEO's. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.

"What We Do." ExxonMobil: Taking on the World's Toughest Energy Challenges. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

"Prime Cost." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

"Proved Reserves." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

"Reserve-Replacement Ratio." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.

"Total Shareholder Return - TSR." Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013.