Your English My English - RRR

Precis

Greene and Lawson, essay, Your English, My English, explores the topic of diversity and the scattering of languages. The authors share personal experiences with diverse languages and how they cultivated the language and culture associated with the language. The purpose of this essay was to examine how language allows them to express themselves and communicate with others. The intended audiences could be students, linguist, and communication majors.

Reaction Paragraph

Your English, My English by Cantice Greene and Gaiza Lawson

            I was very surprised that my current facilitator Dr. Cantice Greene had written this week’s piece for the class reading assignment.  Your English, My English (Greene and Lawson) recited from memories and experiences of how each of you experienced differences in your cultures and those that you have come in contact, whether it was at home or abroad.  While my experience with learning Spanish were not as in-depth as one of the authors, I can relate to Greene’s feelings of what was there not to love about Spanish language and Mexican culture.  Growing up in Florida where over 60 percent of the population spoke Spanish, you would have thought I would have become fluent at speaking the language.  I wanted to learn and immerse myself in the language, those that spoke the language fluently wanted to learn and immerse themselves in English.  I was very surprised at the usage of Biblical references within the text; however, I felt that is was a very good way to give an example how different language came to be.  I found Lawson’s explanation to be very interesting about how each country has tribes and each tribe within that country has its own language, yet to communicate with each other they speak French.  I have heard many times that English is the universal language, yet to attend some colleges and/or universities students are required to have two years of foreign language in high school.  Lawson made a good point in stating, “Now in America where almost everything is in English, I have to adjust.  By adjust I mean how to speak with a lesser accent so people can understand what I am saying.  Even though the aforementioned statement is a good point, it is not always true.  I cannot go to Little Havana in Miami and speak English, I would have to adjust and speak the language for that community within America. 

Analytical Paragraph
Your English, My English By Cantice Greene and Gaiza Lawson
What is Language? The authors of this essay both have personal experiences with encountering different languages and conveying what language is. Greene recollects on how in her early childhood she encountered then later immersed herself in the Latin culture and Spanish language "…when I served as student ambassador to Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico in the summer before my junior year of high school." Greene expresses the story of the Tower of Babel. She uses the story to voice her opinion on the many cultures and languages, but that people are all the same, "In Hermosillo, we found that as teenage girls we all liked to dance all night, whether in our bedroom, at the club…" Green continues to explore language and diversity by providing evidence of more than 120 language backgrounds from students who visited the Writer's Studio as Clayton State. Lawson divulges the complex variety of language on her home continent (Africa), "each country has different tribes and each tribe speaks in its own language to communicate their culture, their traditions, their laws and the way to conduct their business." The author points out the diversity of different tribe languages and how they can still communicate via a colonial dialect (French or English). Lawson states how learning a different language advanced her in life and how language articulates communication. "Learning language helps me communicate my emotions, feelings, my thoughts, my beliefs, my culture, my traditions…"

Baldwin & Hendrickson

Precis

James Baldwin, essay, If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?, 1979, argues that black English isn’t a language but a description of a person’s circumstances. Baldwin supports his thesis by explaining what joins all languages and all men and how those languages describe each individual’s realities. His purpose was to explore how black children are being failed by being taught this language by individuals who are bringing their own identities to the language, thus erasing the black child’s experience. The intended audience for this essay could be anyone who is trying to understand African American identity, cultural identity, educators, and researchers.

Tiffany Hendrickson, Talking In Color: Collison of Cultures, 2013, asserts the relationship between color and sound. Hendrickson supports her thesis by explaining her experiences growing up as a white girl in the middle of a Cincinnati ghetto. Her purpose was to explore the tremendous linguistic gap that exists between blacks and whites. The intended audience could be Communications majors, speakers, and linguists.

Reaction Paragraph 

If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? by James Baldwin

I am confused by James Baldwin’s topic, If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is? (1979) Must language be a color? We as people of different race, creeds and nationalities are already divided by the line of color must we blur the lines of language too? There are lines within the lines that are already divided us as a people, no matter what color we may be. I can agree with Baldwin when he stated, “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by reality that they cannot articulate. (And, if they cannot articulate it, they are submerged.) This statement is spoken in truth. One of the last assignments on Michaela Cullington’s “Texting and Writing” (2014) essay is a good example of how people evolve a language. Textspeak, Netspeak and Ebonics has been away for children to cope with the added pressures and to also communicate with their peers without adults being aware of what they are communicating with each other about. This piece; however, is from a different time. Don’t get me wrong, am not blind to the facts of what goes on within our country, but English is language whether it is paint white, black, yellow or brown that is currently being taught as a second language. Whether a person is speaking “Black”, Textspeak, Netspeak or Ebonics, a child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot be fooled. This can be said about any child today, that child does not have to be black, he or she can be of any race. 

Analytical Paragraph

Talking in Color : Collision of Cultures by Tiffany Henderickson

Is the way one speaks a new form of racism or simply a form of stereotyping? In Talking in Color: Collision of Cultures Henderickson grew up with a deaf mother, a father whom had a very low level of education , and lived in a predominantly low class and black neighborhood. With her unique upbringing it effected her speech and verbal skills; in which supposedly Henderickson sounded black when she spoke. “I’m a product of a household where my mother’s speech is formed neither by the white nor black world but by the deaf world? What does a black girl sound like? Illiterate?”(Page 1). The author points out that she came from a household in which there was no influence of verbal socialism, as well as the fact that there is a stereotype of colored people being illiterate. Hendrickson is influenced by her mother’s unique speech patterns and the predominately African American school that she attended, “attending a mostly African American high school is normal” (page 1). So Hendrickson’s vocal speech patterns are influenced by many different factors. The author sees herself as being judged and ostracized based on more of a stereotype, which could possibly be a new idea of racism? Henderickson has lived life ostracized by other white and black people,  which led to her learning to code switch and aspiring to be better than her parents. She is the perfect example of racism just based on speech patterns.