Language seems like a relatively simple concept. Many people move through their lives for many years thinking that language is simply the words that we say to each other and write on paper and nothing more. I myself spent many years thinking that there was only one English language. I considered variations within the language--such as the differences between how people speak and how they write, Black English, British English, Tex-Mex, etc.--to be nothing more than simple variations with no further implication. I didn't think that these variations had anything to do with the identities of their speakers.
Now I like, know that this is because I come from a pretty privileged background in many ways but also in terms of language, you know? Like the way me and my mom and dad speak English is pretty much "standard" or whatever, so I've never had the experience of my identity being oppressed by people telling me that I had to change the way I spoke to be part of a situation or to be professional or something. If you grow up speaking Black English or Tex-Mex or something like that then it's a totally different experience. When you grow up talking a certain way that becomes like, part of who you are. And then when a person who speaks these dialects goes somewhere and people like laugh at them or whatever, that must be a pretty crappy feeling. They're literally saying that you have to change part of who you are and how you express yourself to be taken seriously as an individual. Which is pretty messed up, if you ask me.
No, like, you don't understand, this is so messed up! Or maybe you do understand. You probably understand if you didn't grow up speaking standard English, which means you would definitely know this better than me. But God, that's really so, so messed up I can hardly believe it. Language elitism is honestly the worst. Like, the privileged class (which I am of course a part of) is like hey, let's just glorify our own language and dismiss all other forms of speaking as unprofessional or improper, thereby systematically oppressing hundreds of millions of people across this great nation! Haha yay!"
Of course, there do seem to be some benefits to have what is considered a "standard way" of speaking. Language barriers can seriously inhibit a conversation from achieving its full depth, value, or meaning. In theory having a "standard dialect" make it easier for people to operate in professional situations and across cultures.
But obviously this ISN'T so cool when you take into consideration that this "standard dialect" just so happens to be the one that the most privileged people in the country speak. Oh yeah, not to mention that this also means that it becomes socially acceptable for people who speak the "standard dialect" to look down on people that speak other dialects and make fun of them and stuff. You ever look at those fricking "lists of words that should be banned in X year?" You think they're a harmless joke, but all of the words tend to originate from other dialects of English, especially black English. And we all think it's okay just because we pretend to not associate it with a particular race or class of people. It's just messed up, is what it is. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's cool to have a common form of the language that everyone can speak for the sake of communication, but if that means that people who don't speak it at home and in general are going to get their language and therefore their identities mocked and oppressed and discredited, then it is it really worth it? If anything, it's definitely something that we have to pay attention to.
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Overall, I think it wasn't that difficult to express my ideas in a code-switching way. If anything, it came more easily and more naturally to me to write this way, which I was not expecting as I am firmly in the habit of writing school assignments in "standard English." Although, in retrospect, I don't know why this surprised me, because when I switched codes I tried to write in the way that I speak naturally, which is obviously more comfortable for me than the way I write.
In general, I feel that I was still able to effectively communicate my point even though I was code switching. Although the vocabulary and sentence structure that I used were different from the standard, I feel like someone reading it could have understood what I was trying to say with relative ease. In addition, the style of writing that I used may have enhanced my writing in that it made it easier for me to convey the intensity and depth of my emotion. However, when writing like this I also tended towards oversimplification and exaggeration for effect. Although this is a problem, I believe that this isn't a reason that writing in such a way should be inherently condemned. One could easily work around this problem by fleshing out the exaggerations with more concise and detailed examples.
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