“ I have some good news to tell you .. “ ( Laughs nervously ) “ Well, hopefully it’s good news to you.. but today I .. I went to the doctors and they told me .. they told me I was pregnant. We are going to have a ba-” ( Face turns into utter despair ) “ Wha - what? It’s not yours? Tyrek, yes it is. You’re the only one I’ve ever laid down with. How could you say something like that? “ I’m keeping this baby, I’m loving it already and you’ll learn to love it too.” “ Don’t say that Tyrek! How could you just walk out on something so precious?” “ It is precious, you’re such an asshole. You’re just like you’re father, he left you and now you’re leaving your child. ( Actor says this forcefully ) It needs you just as much as it needs me ! I cannot do this alone, I need you to be here for me! Can’t you see that you’re everything to me.. to us.. to the baby.” “ Don’t you walk away from this, don’t you leave me here alone.” “ Tyrek ! Tyrek, where are you going.. Tyrek .. “ ( He leaves although he was never on the stage)

( Actor sobs ) I know , I know he had other girls and I wasn’t the only one .. but I was in love. I was blinded by the gifts he gave me, the love I thought we shared and the sex.. and I forced myself to believe he could be with me, and only me. I thought maybe, maybe this child could fill the void he had with me. I thought maybe if I gave him something, to love and to care for he would see that I wasn’t like everyone else, every other girl “loved” him because he had money, and flashy cars.  He was in the streets so he was going to give them the “ hood” love every girl craved..  I loved him for more than just the material things, I loved him because he had a sweet side, where he showed affection beyond compare , ( sort of start angrily rambling here ) where he told me he loved me too and now he’s leaving me here, without any help, any guidance.. and he knows I can’t take care of this baby alone, he’s know I’ll suffer without him !

( speaking to self) Calm down , calm down.. cause you don’t need him. You don’t need that no good ass nigga, who is leaving you and your baby for dead. I will get through this by myself, I do not need that tall, dark, buff and handsome man … Wait no what am I doing, I have to get over him, I just have too. ( Leaves the stage)

“Hey that's mines!”

I looked over at my squabbling classmates. Without thinking I interrupted.

“Actually it would be ‘mine’ not ‘mines’.”

They stared at me. I flushed and returned to my book, regretting my outburst.

This kind of interaction has happened to me many times throughout my life. As I got older I started ignoring incorrect grammar as I discovered slang. I did not want to be labeled ‘grammar Nazi’ or be considered stuck up. It made me feel like how I spoke was too different and wrong.

When I was younger, I used larger and more complicated words than kids my age. I was shy, so I didn't talk to my peers. I did not have many friends at school because all my buddies lived farther away. This situation made me feel separated from my classmates. Instead, I would sit with the adults and listen to the things I didn’t understand, but gave me a feeling of importance. I felt that if I wanted to talk with the grownups, I would need a bigger vocabulary; I looked in dictionaries and watched documentaries to sound older and more knowledgeable. This detached me from my classmates even more; they did not like how I spoke and I did not like how they spoke. Looking Back, it was not very important for me to correct them, because that was their environment showing through. If I did not want them judging me for how I communicated, then I should not have judged them for it.

I have been told that my West Philly accent is not very strong, even though that is where I was raised. I do not use most Philadelphia slang as my parents never used it. My Mom grew up in Louisiana and my Dad is from New Jersey. They both have subtle accents, and their language style has impacted some of how I speak. I believe my way of speaking is a blend of my parents and the area I grew up in.

This does not mean that my dialect never changes. My location can affect how I speak to others. Like most students, I am more respectful in my speech at home. I do not curse, and I use proper sentences and grammar. At school I tend to be more loose tongued, louder and willing to use slang or inappropriate language with my peers. This also happens in other environments; when I visit my friends in South Philly, my words slur together subconsciously. I adapt to the dialect like Slyar from Heroes or Absorbing Replication. For this to happen I do not even have to leave my house. I have found that if I when I watch a show from a different region, I also pick up a bit of that dialect shown on the show. The first time I noticed it was when after watching seven or more Doctor Who episodes in a row, when I spoke to my sister, I used some of the jargon from the show. This confused me and my own way of speaking sounded strange after.

My dialect is not incorrect because it is not the typical way of speaking for where I live. It can show how I was raised and what influences me. Just because someone else's accent differs from mine, does not mean that one of us is superior to the other. My dialect is mine, and everyone else has their own. You can learn a lot from someone from how they communicate; they may fall into a stereotype or they could be completely different. If your going to judge, do it by who they are, not what they sound like.

Everyone gets made fun of for something, even if that something is precious. You can't please everyone because someone will always have a problem with what you do. The Japanese culture interests me. I don't understand why people have a problem with my taste, it has nothing to do with them.I don’t owe anyone an explanation as to why I love the Japanese culture. Anyone can make fun of me as much as they wish, but my love for the culture will never change.

Ever since people in middle school found out I had a thing for the Japanese culture, I've been teased for it. Non-anime lovers somehow found out about the word weeaboo, and started labeling me as such. That...is not a good thing.  A weeaboo is a person who has a serious mental condition. They think they are characters in an anime living in japan, etc.This term was coined  in Japan to make fun of manga and anime lovers. It is considered to be an insult. Weeaboos in Japan are highly frowned upon. In the past, if you were considered a weeaboo, you were even disowned!

All that being said, I think it’s safe to say that I am NOT a weeaboo. I am simply a big fan of the japanese culture, and strive to immerse myself in the language. One day I hope to become fluent in Japanese. One day, I hope to learn the language, and become fluent in it. I also want my house to be rich in cultural artifacts and encourage  my children to  explore cultures other than their own.

They say high school can be a pain.  This past summer, a girl who goes to school with me went to the same girl scout camp. We are in her tent reading a letter that her boyfriend sent her.  At some point during our letter reading, she read out loud, “Oh yeah, tell your weeb friend I said hi.”

I look at her puzzled. “What? Who's he talking about?”

She smiled at me and said, “Yeah he knows that you like anime, but he couldn't remember your name.”

I folded my arms with a curious expression and said “Well, does he even know what a weeb is? Do you? That's totally not what it means.”

She made a defensive and worried face. “Well yeah I know a weeb is suppose to be a bad thing, but you do love anime a lot, not that there's anything wrong with that,” she said.

“According to the Japanese it's an insult!” My face become flushed from anger.“It’s a big deal to people like me. It’s an insult in Japan. It means I’m mental and think that I live in an anime world. I’m not that crazy, or am I?” I smirk to try and play off my anger and she playfully smacks me.

I’ve had many experiences with this, and it’s the same thing over and over again. People really don’t know the meaning of the word, and how hurtful it can be. It’s very hard sometimes telling people I am in to the Japanese culture. If someone brings it up I will admit to liking it, but I will never bring it up on my own. Being weighed down by the insult, I am too shy to admit my love for the culture. My friends in middle school didn't know I liked anime and manga until years after I met them . I've known my best friend for 5 years, and she didn't find out till last year. It’s a shame that insults hide people. I feel like I need to lock my thoughts up in a cage and throw them in a dark room so nobody can find them.

“Honestly I thought you were really weird from your instagram.” My new friend says.

“Wait, what? Why?” I say confused.

“You’re just super tumblr.”

“What does that mean?”

How am I a website? How do I relate to a popular website at all, I’m a person. I’m known as “That Tumblr Chick.” It somewhat stems from my fashion choices, somewhat from my instagram or twitter, and somewhat how i present myself. Sometimes I dress fashionably, but mostly not to school because that takes too much work. But how does the way I present myself make me the ambassador to a whole website?

If you google “Internet and self esteem” you’ll find thousands of articles from less than reliable sources. There is science proving how it can boost your self esteem, but also impact it negatively. It’s sort of like a high in a way. You feel great about yourself for about 10 minutes after you post some picture that really has no affect to your life. Instagram probably affects my self esteem too much. Modern technology has done worse for my image issues than anything else. The amount of likes my selfies get mean more to me short term than getting an A on a paper or getting 5’s on my standards. That shows how low my self esteem is but also how I value myself

Everything makes me feel bad about myself I guess. There’s always something someone has that I want. Most of the time its appearance or personality wise. There’s always someone prettier than me or more interesting than me. Sometimes I wish I cared more about what I perceive myself as though. My mind is in this constant struggle of caring too little or caring too much and never knowing what I want. I went to private school in 7th and 8th grade and I was always the odd one out. They were all prettier than me and had more money than me, or had nicer parents than me. They had things I desired most of all. I tried to act like I had money and faked confidence left and right. It was nice short term, but then I realized “fake it till you make it” doesn’t really work in the real world. I had a friend who was a professional ice skater and probably the best life situation possible. She had amazing parents, Juicy Couture purses, 12 pairs of ugg boots (not even exaggerating), and she was beautiful. Internally though, this girl was miserable. That’s when I first realized money didn’t buy happiness. No matter what socioeconomic status this girl was at she was never content with herself. The identity she was given did not affect her self esteem in a positive way.

“Christos Anesti Angeliki. Kala esai? ” said the Sunday school teacher Kostadina.

“ Alithos Anesti kai kala.” I responded and took a seat in the swivel chair located in front of the cherry wood conference table. The room filled with  more and more Greek kids with smiley and happy faces. My phone which was in my lap buzzed profusely with text messages. Glancing at my teacher and back to my phone

.“ Yo fam, wassup.” The message was from my cousin Kaylee.

I responded with “Wassup fam lol , yo that party last night was to poppin’ dawg. You got super turnt and was drunk all over the place gurl.”

My teacher then asked me to stop texting and to place my phone in a basket located in front of her. She then asked the class “ What did everyone do this weekend?”

We took turns saying out what they did that weekend in a clockwise way. When it finally reached me I simply said “ I went to my cousin’s party and it was pretty fun.”  I wondered why I couldn’t say aloud what I had said to my cousin over the phone.

To be honest, I don’t necessarily know how I ended up in a Greek Orthodox Church. When I was younger my grandmother would always bring me to their festival in May. It never really included church in it but it did include kiddie rides like mini rollercoasters and the traditional park favorite the teacups. It also had food, lots and lots of Greek food. I think that’s where I fell in love. A couple of months after that I started to come on Sunday and participate in the worship service with my grandmother. She worked during church in the Narthex passing out beeswax candles to the church’s parishioners. Eventually, when I was 10 I became one of those parishioners and I got baptised in the father, son and Holy Spirit. From there I enrolled myself in many Greek school classes which taught be the native language of the church and I also joined Greek dancing. Although I was in these activities with many Greek children, some my age and some not. I never felt like I was actually being myself. I always felt as if I was being what everyone wanted me to be, sort of like a black Greek  girl. If that’s even possible. I think all I ever wished for while being in church was another person that could understand what I was going through. I had a friend who was Guatemalan whose name was Maria, but I feel as if she could still blend in, her skin color wasn’t so easy to spot out.

A quote that really relates to my situation is a quote by Bell Hooks, as used in his essay “ This is the oppressor's language yet I need to talk to you”: Language, a place of struggle. He states “ I was in danger of losing my relationship to black vernacular speech because I rarely use it in predominately white settings.” I tend to code switch often when I am around predominantly white groups of people. I throw it all out the window and act totally different without any consciousness of it, it’s sort of something that just happens to me. I  don’t think I’ve ever noticed my miraculous change of voice when I was around everyone. At home I could use “black”  language when communicating with friends and various “ghetto” slurs but then when I when I traveled from the quote on quote “ hood” and crossed into the suburban part of town it was as if all of my black language I felt comfortable with at home and school got thrown out of the window and my inner valley girl voice popped out.  Maybe I spoke like that around them because maybe I was scared I would sound ignorant but then again why should I be scared, it’s me. I was being myself when I talked to my friends and the people around me who shared the same race but when I was in class surrounded by a different race who  probably spoke less slang and more words with an actual Webster Dictionary meaning behind them my voice started to scrunch up into a ball, and I became less vocally expressive then I was everywhere else.

There’s another quote by Richard Rodriguez, and he stated this quote in his essay “ Hunger of Memory” and the quote states “ Like others who know the pain of public alienation, we transformed the knowledge of our public separateness and made it consoling - the remainder of intimacy.” I can relate to this quote very much, I always feel publicly alienated at my church mainly because of my skin color and because of that I don’t have a voice. My “black” language cannot be expressed because I am too scared, scared of being labeled as ignorant and even possibly ignored. I only feel a consolment around my other black friends because I know they wouldn’t judge me or make fun of me. They would understand exactly what was coming out my mouth and the ways I acted, because they probably acted and spoke the same way.

In conclusion, language is something that affects my spiritual and social life because of the fact I cannot express how I really feel in my “black” language when I am with people who don’t speak the same. I just want to be myself everywhere I am, no matter what race I am surrounded by and when I do speak I want to feel comfortable  with what I am saying out of my mouth, and I want to be accepted, and not judged or labeled by people because everyone is different and everyone speaks differently than they next person. No one is alike and that is one of the things that makes this world unique.

My  language  defines  me  as  who  I  am.  It  depends  who  I  am  around,  if  I  am  with  my  cousins  

or  friends  I  might  say  different  things. I  might  talk  in  different  style  then  I  would  to  adults.  If  I  

am  around  my  family  I  will  use  slang.  If  I  am  at  a  job  interview  I  will  us  my  best  

vocabulary.  I  know  when  and  where  I  should  use  appropriate  vocabulary.  Some  people  think  

“Hey what’s your name?”

“Sarith”

“Shireeth?”

“No Sar, as in Sir, and ith as in eef.”

“Oohh, so Sairith!”

“Yeah, sure.”

Many have pronounced my name wrong from elementary school to middleschool. I’m usually called Alex at home around my neighborhood, but when I went to elementary, my dad had said my name was “Sarith.” I never knew about that. My dad never told me my first name, before and after, I just lived with it.

I have a lisp, and it affects the way I say my name. I sometimes pronounce my own name as “Shirith”, or “shireeth”, but I was able to take my time and fix it. I was sometimes afraid to talk since I had a lisp.

“Hey my name is Sarith”

“Hey shirift”

“SARRR RITHHH, as in SIRR REEF, not SHIRRR REEFF”

“Ohhh, sorry”

“It’s fine, happens all the time”

I was talking to a friend that I still am in contact today, although he doesn’t call me Sarith anymore, he calls me Chewy or Alex. I got the name Chewy from 5th grade. My math teacher was saying the names of the students, and when she got to mine, instead of saying Chuon which is pronounced Chu like “chu chu!” and on like turning something on, she said Chewy. After a week, everyone in my school called me Chewy. I was fine with that, as it made me more popular.I was even the favorite student in the school. My principal and Vice-Principal told me I was going to get an award for “Favorite Student”, but it shut down before I even graduated from 8th grade. Back to the story, I sometimes don’t care how I speak, but if I speak too fast, I don't even know what I'm saying. So I just take a deep breath and say it over again. I remember I used to get picked on for talking weird.

“Ahhhhhahahahaah, you speak with your tongue!”

“Aren’t you suppose to speak with your tongue?”

“You use your tongue on every word, you sound like you have a lot of saliva in your mouth.”

At that time, I was only in 6th grade, and I started to wonder how I spoke. I went on my computer and used a microphone I had and spoke, and listened to how I sounded. I noticed how weird I sounded. For some odd reason, when I speak regularly, I can hear myself speaking just as fine as everyone else. However, when I hear through a recording, I can definitely hear the lisp.

I always wanted an intimidating voice, like a deep voice or a voice that can tell someone not to mess with this guy. I’ve known people who have voices that can be easily identified. I mean, I can easily pick on the easy things about the person just through their voice. Sometimes they can be shy, with a rocky voice, or someone who tries to not be shy by trying to force their voice to be louder. I’ve noticed that our President, Barack Obama, has an interesting voice. His voice seems as though he’s intelligent, and knows what he’s doing. Some people can get jobs easily with voices. Let's say you have a really squeaky voice, and I mean a REALLY squeaky voice. There are jobs where they’ll just ask you questions, but know that they’ll decline you right after the interview (if there is one). Although, if you have a deep voice the chance will probably increase by a few percent maybe 2-5% because some jobs probably have “rude customers/clients” and if you have a deep voice, high chance they don’t want to mess with you. Therefore, wishing myself to have an intimidating voice.

Around now, I just don’t really know about how I speak. I also develop some new slangs such as “Mein, Mang (made those 2 up myself), Noodle, etc…” I never really use slangs much because I think they’re stupid, but I still tend to use them like “Jawn.” I sometimes use the word without knowing, probably from living in philly. From all the people who judged me from the way I speak, I just don’t care. I mean everyone talks differently but I honestly don’t care of the way I speak. It’s true that I want to try to speak so you won’t hear any lisp, but if I can’t, then that’s that. I can’t help it, it’s the way I speak.

I also remembered how I stutter sometimes when talking or ordering something. I don’t know why but I always feel pressured when ordering something. When I’m pressured, my voice is shaky, and I stutter a lot. When I speak, I sometimes try to listen to myself and see if i’m stuttering, check if my voice is shaky, or if I am speaking with a lisp. I always try to see if I’m talking in these ways but remember, I still try to not care about it. I always wondered if there was a way to clear a lisp, but I never decide to research about it or anything. I’ve heard that braces can help you speak more “normal” or speak without a lisp but I never asked my dentist about that. Maybe in the future I’ll ACTUALLY try to clear my lisp, and not be pressured trying to order something or have a shaky voice.

I had just gotten home and my mom's friends were over our house (for some reason). “Aww there she is! She's grown up so much, like a parking lot weed. How have you been sweetheart?” “I've been fine, thank you. How are you?”  “Oh my goodness! You sound like a white girl, so proper.”   “Thank you!” I automatically knew what it meant when adults told me that; It was a compliment. I had always spoken that way, but when I was around my friends, I would use more slang. My friends never told me that I spoke “white”.

Just like James Baldwin wrote “ A Frenchman living in Paris speaks [a] different language from that of a man living in Marseille; neither sounds very much like a man living in Quebec; and they would [struggle to understand] what the man from Guadeloupe,or Martinique, is saying... although the common language of all these areas is French...each has paid, and is paying, a different price for this common language…” We are all speaking English, but sometimes I will speak “Black English” to get across better with some people in my family. Just so things come off smoother and there don't have to be any break in conversation about how different I sound.

“Did you have fun at the party?” My grandma would ask. “ Yeah! The food was great and there was a lot of dancing. I heard she was having another party soon.” I would say. But if my brother asked me, I would say, “It was lit. There's another one in two weeks and squads gonna be there. But before we go I need to get a jawn, ok?”. Jawn could mean anything, but he’d know exactly what I was walking about.

Language differs from where you are. If you are in Philadelphia, people will know what you're saying if you say hoagie, but in other places you need to say grinder or sub. The right lingo or translation for different words and meanings can be an entirely different things in the areas you are in. When people come to Philadelphia with a different accent, they seem funny to us but really we’re the ones who sound weird to them.

When I'm with my family, I hear different parts of the city in their accents because my family is so spread out. They are not from different states or countries, but they do speak more “proper” than my parents and I do. Since I'm around them a lot I actually know when to switch my accent and or slang. I sometimes don't know how, but I just do it automatically now when speaking.

From an accent, you can identity where they are from, who you live with, your neighborhood, and your community. White Americans and Black Americans in the same neighborhood can have different words because of where their family came from. My family came from Georgia mostly, but an Irish-American family next door could speak and entirely different variation of English. Their traditions at home can also be totally different from mine. Language relates with culture so it's different for everyone.

Words and phrases can be  stolen or switched around to mean something different to a dissimilar person or group of people. The word “jawn” could mean any noun. “Jawn” is a versatile word. For example: It's used to replace words like “store”, “girl”, or even “food” (“I went to the jawn to meet that jawn because she said she'd buy that jawn for me”.) And in different areas, our “jawn” is an entirely different word. It can be longer or shorter and that's just how communities work and how things are brought down by word of mouth or in text. They can also be interpreted differently depending on the person or people.

Words can be related to power as well. In some places in Africa the last letter “z” is “zed” because when the British came over, colonized, and took slaves, that's how they said the alphabet. Their oppressors made the language but they had to keep it to communicate and, therefore, survive (not in all places in Africa, but in some). I speak English and I speak different slang of the same language to thoroughly communicate with people of different groups, areas, and backgrounds. It makes it easier even though we could all speak the same language, it would take time and a lot of effort from here since everything we have is so developed now.

When messaging virtually, things are even shorter like “ttyl”, “brb”, and “omg”. When typing them, I read the full phrase. An entire phrase can be shortened to just a few words even though the meaning is still fully there. New slangs and new words show up every day and they are used by a certain group. But no one group is solid because people interchange and go from side to side to communicate with others as well so it spreads very quickly.

Language is not a conflict in my home because my mother and father taught me English (apart from school). We use standard English, nothing different because we (our families) are from America. Even though different accents can be used for different words, we don't know where they came from. Simply speaking annunciating words better is a sign of respect. Cutting words off in a very laid back way of speaking would be used formally with peers or younger people.

When I talk to my grandmother sometimes, she says things that I don't know of because they're not from my time. Simple words that she used to communicate with her friends and family aren't really in style now and I wouldn't use. But then again, there are things that I would say that she hasn't heard of and she wouldn't think is relevant (or that they don't make sense). Time really does change things along the way because things are altered by word of mouth most of the time.  When I grow up, the children of this generation now will have their own language, but things are already pretty simple as they are. We'll have to wait and see what's next.

“ I’m so hungry “

“ Yea me too I didn’t have time the eat BRECFIX this morning because….”

“ You didn’t have time to eat what “?

“ Brecfix you know, morning time food”.

“ Oh you mean BREAKFAST”

“ Yea isn’t that what I said”.

“ Why do you say it like that “?

“ Say it like what?“

“ You sound so weird it’s breakfast like break-fast not brecfix you sound like you're from the south or something “

“ Brecfix ”

Everybody that was in a 5 feet radius of my conversation burst into laughter.

“ What is Brecfix “

“ She said Brec- Fix”

“ Like Brick and fix”

“ Hahahahahahaha”

                 I started laughing with them to hide my embarrassment. I didn’t understand why it was so funny. I had been saying breakfast the same way since I was a kid. This was in the 7th grade. I was 13 years old and until that day, I didn’t know I couldn’t say breakfast. The word had already been sprouted into the garden of my vocabulary and I didn’t know how to change it. When I got home that day I sat in the mirror for hours just trying to say breakfast. My mind knew that it was breakfast but my mouth kept saying brecfix. I felt so stupid and I was so frustrated with myself because I couldn't say a simple word. What really upset me is that no one ever told me I was saying it wrong. So how would you know when you're saying something wrong or strange? Especially when it sounds so normal to you.  When you’ve been saying something the same way for so long and someone corrects you, it feels like a slap in the face. Why do people think they have the right to correct you on the way you speak?  When a group of people say something the same way they become accustomed to it. It's their normal. But when someone comes and says it differently they look at them strangely. They laugh at and judge that person because they don’t speak like them.  I noticed that when people don’t understand something they try to put it down. These ideas of one language triumphing over another are ridiculous. Language is language, it's your interpretation of the definition of language that is different from everyone else’s. Everyone's definition is different. You're definition doesn't make you better than anyone or less than anyone it makes you who you are.

         Language is power. It's the power to judge someone. It's the power to understand someone. Our language is the most powerful thing we have. It's our language that lets us communicate with one another. People feel as though if they speak a certain language they have power over someone who doesn't speak that language. They make fun of that language because they don't know it. In the world that we live in being different is frowned upon. Anything that is not what people are used to is weird to them and they will laugh at it or joke about it. They don't understand that when they are laughing at the way someone speaks it is laughing at who they are. The way you speak is you is apart of you, it is you.

               I was laughed at because I couldn't say one word like everyone else. Imagine all the people who get laughed at who have accents or have a disability like a stutter and can't speak like everyone else. It hurts. You feel bad about who you are. You're language is your power. When someone puts down you're language they are taking away your power.  There is no perfect language to speak. Everyone goes somewhere outside of where they are from and doesn't understand the language or the slang. Where you are from influences you're language greatly. Once you step out of that zone you are lost, your language is lost.

            I tried to change who I was to get approval from others. That's what you do when you change your language you are talking away a part of yourself. I tried for months to say breakfast like everyone else. I practiced and practiced but I never got it right.

           One day I was sitting down eating at school. It wasn't breakfast, it was lunch time so nobody asked me to say brecfix or talked about how I said it. My friend Imani and I were making jokes and laughing like we always did at lunch and I started to talk to her about an assignment we had.

“ Did you finish your project for Mr. Jumpp’s class”?

“ No I didn't even start that yet”

“ You know it's due in like last week right?”

“ Yea but I don't know PACIFICALLY what I want my topic to yet”

PACIFICALLY, SHE SAID PACIFICALLY.

“ You don't what”?

“ I don't know what..”.

“ No you said you don't know pacifically what you want to do yet”.

“ Yeah I don't know pacifically what I want my topic to be”.

“ Specifically”.

“ Huh”.

“ The word is pronounced spe-cif-ically”.

“ Oh Sp..Pa..Psssifically is that right”?

          This was coming from the same friend who corrected me for saying brecfix. She couldn't say specifically. She said pacific, like the Pacific Ocean. It was in that moment that I realized something important. People mispronounce words all the time. It’s apart of life. Than I started to think about it, and maybe we aren't mispronouncing words. Maybe we are just saying the word in our own language. Putting our power into a word to make it our own. Each word that we speak is different. We each have our own way of speaking. So this is my definition of language. Language is not just what you say or how you communicate with one another. It's so much more than that. Language is the power that we put into what we say. We put power into everything that we say.  That's how language and power coincide. Power runs through the river of language and language flows out of all of us. We all individually make our language. Nobody in the world can say every word “correctly” or knows every language. Sometimes we can’t say things “correctly” and that's okay because it’s how we say it.