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Sam Tate Ms. Hofmann Writing and Inquiry in Academic Contexts I September 23rd, 2013 The Glue of Society Unless you meet my family, you may not realize that I was born in Tennessee. I lived there for about 10 years, and I've lived in Concord, North Carolina for about 9 years. When I look back at my life in Tennessee, I notice a vast difference in language use that I never noticed before. While in Tennessee, of course I didn't realize I had an accent. because everyone else had it as well. There was barely any cultural diversity where I grew up (I believe there were less than five hispanic children in my school.) The only possible differences in language use that I noticed were between black and white people, mostly due to the use of Ebonics. Before this class, I never sat down and seriously thought about how language could correlate with identity. Language is the glue that holds society together. It enables us to communicate effectively and efficiently. I use language through many different mediums. I can talk to you face to face, text you, instant message you, give you hand gestures, and more. To be able to have all of these methods of communication fascinates me. It's also amusing that it's better to take advantage of some mediums around certain people but avoid them with others. For example, if I wanted to talk to my grandma, I would either call her or just talk to her in person. On the contrary, when I communicate with peers, it's mostly through texting. The most impactful event on my language use and how I viewed it was my move from Tennessee to North Carolina. Even when I was in Tennessee, the books that I read seemed to be written in a more proper tongue than I was used to speaking in. I read a lot of the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine in elementary school. I felt like I had accomplished something about reading each book in

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the series. When I first picked one up and started to read it, it was a formidable challenge. It was required that we read a certain amount of books in an interval of time. Afterwards, we would take a small online test on the book we chose. I thought this was a great program because it allowed you to select a book of your choice and read what you're interested in rather than have the teacher assign you a book. The only drawback to this is that there couldn't be a classroom discussion because each person had a different book. The point of me bringing this up is that even though we all spoke with lazy country accents and modified some words, the books we read didn't seem different at all. At the time, the dialogue of my peers seemed to be "normal" to me, as it was all I ever really heard. It's difficult for me to get across my point here in words,

but students in my elementary school recognized that there was a standard of English but they only respected it in their writing (with the exception of a few kids.) This could have been because the writing was as assignment that was specifically meant for the teacher to read. It was okay to speak with such an accent, but putting that into your writing was seen as taboo and unprofessional. When I moved to North Carolina, on the first day of school people started asking me where I was from and why I had a funny accent. Like I said, I wasn't even aware I had a distinct accent at the time because of course no one in Tennessee would notice it because they had one as well. I did not enjoy the attention I was getting from my peers about my accent. All I wanted to do was blend in and be like the rest of them. Although most people were not malicious when they commented on my accent, it still got to me and I quickly tried to change it. It may surprise some people that there are noticeable differences in dialect between Tennessee and North Carolina because the majority of the country simply just notes them both as "southern." The best way I can explain the disparity is that everything is relative. Now, not many people are able to

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pick up that I came from Tennessee. At first I had to actively try and forget the accent but now it comes natural to me. I was afraid that if I kept my southern accent, people would think I am slow or stupid. The irony of this is, now I often catch myself making the same assumptions. I have to try and ignore these stereotypes and be unbiased to these accents. I should be trying to learn from people of different cultures and backgrounds. Thus far, we

have read a few articles in class that all centralized around the same theme. Language affects the way you view the world and the impacts you have on it. This is obvious due to the fact that people have to code switch when in academic environments or they will be looked down upon. There is an accepted standard to some extent but depending on where you can go it will vary. In the Tan's Mother Tongue article, I was appalled that Tan's daughter was being bullied and felt insignificant because of her dialect. I kind of know what she was going through but it wasn't nearly as bad as her experience. With her situation, racism seemed to be an active factor in her troubles. She felt as if she couldn't even properly learn being in such an environment. I'm glad that her mother picked up on this and did something about it. My responses to all of our readings primarily focus on my discovery that witnessing someone code switching can say a lot about that person. I don't necessarily mean this in the sense of going from home language to academic language because that is expected. People know when they're giving you a job interview that you're not always as careful and calculated as you seem. Watching peers code switch can reveal who they really are as opposed to what they want you to view them as. I feel more pressured into code switching and trying to fit in with my peers more than my family. I don't expect my family to reject me as easily as a peer would. Besides coming from a family with a southern accent, I really don't have too much of a home language, especially since I try and avoid speaking like them to begin with. I don't look

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down on them for speaking that way, but I think it's beneficial for me to not fall back into using the accent. It just feels lazy to me now. I like to get straight to the point, but still afford to spice up my speech without the cost of boring my listener to death. What I mean is, if you look at different dialects, they have different information densities with respect to the amount of time spent speaking. I'm sure that a New Yorker would get bored fairly quickly speaking with someone from Alabama. They might also seem impatient to the southerner and assumptions will be made just based on language. That just puts into perspective how powerful language can be on shaping how others perceive you. They say first impressions are everything. What are the first qualities people notice about you? Your appearance and your language of course! Countless times I have seen people that may fail the first impression appearance test but are able to make up for it with their language use. Also if your appearance is fine but your language seems "off," sure you may have an upper hand at the very beginning, but later on the person will begin to question why you're speaking and acting the way you are. I realize that being able to manipulate and master language is a power worth wielding. Learning how to do this can be easier for certain people, mainly extroverts as far as I've noticed. You have to learn how to interact with people in a socially acceptable way to fully take advantage of this. Otherwise, you'll likely just embarrass yourself. After the first few years of being in North Carolina, I noticed I was tweaking some of my words without even noticing it. My mom noticed it one time when I asked what time I should be home from a friend's house. The word "time" is what she noticed being different. I certainly didn't learn to pronounce it that way from my family, so it must have been my peers influencing me. For the last few years of my life, I have never dealt with people questioning my accent or assuming I came from Tennessee. If anything it surprises them. I'm very glad that the

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importance of language itself is being emphasized in my first college English class. It has been an underlying tone in my previous classes, but never explicitly addressed or given designated class time to talk about. When you think about it, this should be one of the first things mentioned in any English class. It would help lower the amount of prejudice based on language and motivate people to learn about it. A consistent theme throughout my life dealing with language use has been to know when to use what type of language and the tone to deliver it in. I remember in middle school when I met this boy from New York who spoke very sharply and quickly. I was taken aback at first and thought he was being unfriendly and angry towards me. I responded to him warily and he picked up on it. He apologized and explained to me that I was not the only one who misunderstood his demeanor. We got into a lengthy discussion about how I was also from an area with a different dialect and went through some of the same issues. He seemed so relieved when he realized he found someone who can understand his situation. We never became that close of friends but that doesn't nullify what I learned from him. I have also met people that speak very proper sounding English but they think in their native language. This is one of those phenomena that I just love to sit and think about. I couldn't possibly understand what it would be like to be able to switch so fluently between languages to the point where you're thinking in one and speaking almost simultaneously in another! The friends of mine from different countries that speak this way are so interesting to me. I imagine that code switching is even more difficult since they're already switching languages to communicate. My point in bringing this up is that there is only so much I can address on the topic on language. I do not claim to know all of the answers. Some people have spent their entire lives studying this subject and still don't have a solid answer. I believe the answer itself

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may evolve with the language. I may not have a family that speaks a second language or a dialect that isn't understood by the majority of Americans, but I still understand that language contributes to shaping who you are. The way my language shapes me evolves with me. When I interact with people, I keep in mind that they are probably making mental notes about me and are likely to remember if I rub them the wrong way. However, there are different ways to act in different circumstances so there's no surefire way to please everyone. I intend on doing more research on the subject now and in the future, as well as trying to convince linguistically biased people not to be so quick to judge. There's so much we can learn from other people and it's a shame to not be able to unlock that potential just because we cannot overlook something like an accent.