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Self-Reflection
Part One: Your Perception
People often refer to people with disabilities in an offensive way, unconsciously. When
discussing people with disabilities I often hear the words, handicap, abnormal, vegetable,
and mental. Some of these words and phrases have diminished, as people have learned the
political correct terms. However, the word retarded is still widely used in todays society, so
much I hear it at least once a day. Years ago, when I heard this word for the first time, I didnt
have much of a reaction besides trying to figure out what it meant. I soon found out it was
another synonym for stupid, therefore, I began to use it as well. To me it was just another word
and I was expanding my vocabulary.
As I grew up I became involved with people with disabilities, and decided to take
Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies at the University of Calgary. Throughout my
education I learned how devaluing and offensive the term retarded is. I no longer use the term
and I educated my family and friends on its reference. One of my friends used the term retarded
and I asked him what do you mean? He replied stupid or dumb, I continued to ask why not
use one of those less insulting and devaluing terms instead? He claimed he didnt mean it in the
way I interpreted it. My reaction to this was anger and frustration because there is only on way to
interpret the word retarded in the context he used.
In class we were talking about political correctness, and our professor said something
very interesting to me. She said a word or phrase used by an individual becomes derogatory only
if they understand its meaning. I am a perfect example of this. When I was younger using the
word retarded, I knew it meant stupid, however, I didnt know I was making a negative
comparison to people with cognitive disabilities. Once I understood how derogatory the term
was, I stopped using it. I have educated my friends on the term, yet some of them still use it on a
regular basis. Hearing what my professor said, has decreased my frustration, bus has also
increased it, when I hear the word retarded being used. Now, when I hear the word in public, I
cant assume they know the meaning, therefore, they arent aware of its negative power.
However, now when I hear it from my friends, who I have personally educated, I will be even
more frustrated than before. This is because I know they understand its negative power, whereas
before, I tended to think, oh they just let it slip out, when this is not the case.
Part Two: Perception of You
In 2011, my sister and I travelled around Europe with a tour group of about 20 people
from around the world. We became friends with a women from Australia. She commented on our
accents, and how interesting she thought they were. I took me by surprise that she was so
intrigued by our accents because, to me, a Canadian accent isnt interesting. However, I now
realize, she was experiencing the same thing I did in how I viewed her accent. We both had
different and interesting accents to the other. We talked about our countries and discovered the
different names we had for objects. For example, Canadians use the term garbage and
Australians use rubbish, Canadians say MikkiDs and Australians say Maccas, nick names
for McDonalds. In this situation, we both accepted the communicative burden as we continued to
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work harder to understand the different words each other used to describe objects. We focused on
main things that would come up along our trip so there was a smaller communication barrier.
Further into our trip, we made more friends from other places and someone said to me
and my sister, you guys say eh, a lot. It was because of this, majority of the people knew we
were from Canada. Interestingly enough, my sister and I didnt even realize we were saying eh
that often. However, after this conversation I was much more aware when I said eh, and
received my own evidence that I did in fact use it often. From this, people assumed my sister and
I fell under the typical Canadian stereotypes. They assumed we were polite, said sorry often,
lived in crazy cold climates, loved beer etc. Although, some of these stereotypes are true of
Canadians, it is not necessarily true of all Canadians. It was interesting to be characterized based
on our language use.
Part Three: Big Picture Connections
Language can tell us a lot about one another, but can also be a factor that divides us. This
can be seen from the examples used in the last two sections. The first section shows I care about
the language people use when discussion people with disabilities. When there is a person who is
educated on it and still choses to use derogatory terms and phrases, I view them as careless, or
trying to prove something. In the second section I discuss how people from different countries
made assumptions about my personality, likes and dislikes based on my Canadian accent. These
examples show how powerful language can be, because these situations are just my experiences.
Individuals throughout the world are going to experience these situations differently because no
one person has and uses the exact same language. This is how we can see the power of language,
because it affects everyone differently.
From the topics discussed in class, I have come to realize I have been aware of the power
of language for a long time. Growing up I was never one to curse on a regular basis, and to this
day it is still very rare. In my opinion, swearing was seen as cool and seemed to become a
norm. Throughout my school years, since I didnt curse, I was seen as odd by my peers, and they
couldnt understand why I chose not to curse. It wasnt that I wouldnt curse, I just didnt see the
point in using a pejorative term. My language choice shows my ideologies, but this is not to say
someone will know the exact reason why I dont curse. Furthermore, the odd time I do swear, it
is often clear why. If Im very angry and need to let some steam off, or for extra enthusiasm, for
example when telling a story. From the topics I have learned in Ling 309 Language and Power, I
think this is a good example of how language affects our lives and shows the power it has over
society and individuals.