Brian Perguachi

Caitlin Geoghan

FQWS

Oct 13 2021

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Society dialects

Language in our society is constantly changing, the way is being spoken to the way is being learned. Even if its communicating in another language, everyone learns differently. Language can be really basic initially, but very complex at the same time. This is due because there’s a lot of language dialects, and this changes to fit the speaker’s needs. This actively shows that language itself is something with its own life, the dialects that can be created could be really different to the point that some people could understand, and others won’t even have a clue. 

English for example, there are many different ways to speak it around the world, things along the line of vocabulary, accent, and even some writing can be changed depending on the culture and of the needs of someone. Even knowing this information, our society’s expectations are not changing. In a famous reading called “mother tongue” by Amy Tan saids “That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and in restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.”(pg2) According to this quote, a Chinese mother with imperfect English is not being accepted by people. Instead of this, people make fun of her, or they just don’t respect her because she don’t have “perfect” english. Your society sees unperfect English as a form to measure intelligence. If a person has an accent, or can’t read well or even understand something, they think that the level of intelligence of that person is lower than someone who can speak this thing called “perfect english”. I mean knowing how to speak a language correctly is really impressive, but this has nothing to do with how smart and intellectual you are. A person could be the smartest but don’t know how to speak english that well. Language and intelligence are not connected in any way or form. They expect us to speak “standard” English. If you don’t have this type of language people look down on you, they call this “broken” English, it could be by things like your accent, or the way you talk, even the way you write. Many of these things make people think that someone with a broken English is less smarter than someone with the standard English. The idea of having only one way of speaking a language is called language ideology, in “mother tongue” we can clearly see how society believes that people that speak the ideal lenguaguege are superior in many ways, when this is not true. Learning a new idiom is hard, but that doesn’t mean you are less than someone else. 

Language and language identity has really played a significant role in my life. Growing up, I had experienced many different forms of communication. Being borned in another country with a different language than moving to a place where you can be judged by society, because of your accent or your understanding of English was really hard. This has happened to many people around the world. For example Arlinne, a girl who came to the US when she was four years old, experienced the language difference at such a young age, the language barrier prevented her from making friends and living a normal and fun life for a child, Arline says in her narrative (pg2) “ proceeded to talk to this girl and she came to talk to me as well. I had no idea what they were saying and I got very frustrated. What? Why can’t I understand anything?… Why couldn’t I be like them and fit in?”. Even though she struggled she had to work hard to be able to communicate with people that had another language, and to be accepted. At the end of everything language is a beautiful but complex thing that the world has created. Even if language is created for everyone in many different ways, society doesn’t accept most of the dialogue that are not “standard”, we can really see this in a text called “how to tame a wild tongue” by Gloria Auzala. The author said “cannot accept the legitimacy of Myself. Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate.” (pg 362) This quote represents the fact that even if language can be anything someone wants, it’s not something that is accepted, but it could be something that is not respected, instead of this, the dialect is being rejected. Now we have to change our own language to fit in with the others, but why don’t they change their language to understand us? And when i say “they” i mean to the people who reject other types of language that is not “standard” by doing this they are suppressing someone’s culture and identity itself, this is called language ideology. 

At this time there are a lot of different dialects that are really impressive, language can change everything about a place, a person or even a thing. The different way it’s said represents the culture of the things. So people can learn different dialects in many different ways, it could be music, movies, video games, and many other forms. Ashley’s narrative really supports this argument. She explains how movies inspired her to write and visualize different scenarios, this helped her open her mind to different ways a person can possibly speak. In her narrative Ashley Gusman  said “i feel that movies really inspired me and helped with being able to visualize certain scenarios better in my head and being able to go with the flow while speaking but in a smooth way”  This shows how many things of our world are impacted and can impact language. Depending on the way it is spoken it could make a movie scary, funny, sad. All of these emotions are shown just by the language that is used. Also the type of language used in scenes can bring things like movies or books to life, this actively demonstrates that it can really show something, like culture if the correct language is used. 

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, language is a key factor for someone’s identity. Even if we judge your language is your pride, and there are many ways to express it. Language is something that can be learned in many different ways, it could be school, home, friends, songs and many other things. This is how many different types of languages are created. Some are more unprofessional than others, some more formal, some fast, some slow. It all depends where you are coming from. For example there is the language of spanish, but there’s a lot of variance of the same lenguaguage, this meaning that even though its written the same, people pronounce it differently, some speak fast, others slow, and each country has their own accent, and this is what identify them.

Cites:  

Bernard, A. (2021, September 26). Language Narrative. dropbox. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ba9g6ke5gv0hkae/AAChwZIOpkYFmv-Fa1fM1v3Na?dl=0&preview=Arlinne+Bernard.pdf

Gusman, A. (2021, September 26). Language Narrative. dropbox. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ba9g6ke5gv0hkae/AAChwZIOpkYFmv-Fa1fM1v3Na?dl=0&preview=Ashliy+Guzman.pdf. 

Perguachi, B. (2021, September 26). Language Narrative. dropbox. Retrieved from https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ba9g6ke5gv0hkae/AAChwZIOpkYFmv-Fa1fM1v3Na?dl=0&preview=Brian+Perguachi.pdf 

Tan, A. (n.d.). Mother tongue. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from http://www.theessayexperiencefall2013.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2013/09/Mother-Tongue-by-Amy-Tan.pdf. 
Anzaulaza, G. (n.d.). How to tame a wild tongue. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from https://drinkwateronline.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/how-to-tame-a-wild-tongue.pdf.