I strongly believe that our peers have a great influence in the way we conduct our speech because we first interact more with our peers as part of our social life. Secondly, we feel to have more in common with our peers when it comes to similar topics in which to discuss and thirdly because we feel more comfortable interacting with individuals that are within our age. Teachers, parents and counselors are there to guide us and correct us from our mistakes, but our peers seem to speak more our language and we feel more comfortable speaking to somebody that speaks our language and it’s all due to the age gap. Peers understand the terminology used within each other’s era such as today's word usage like "You feel me?", which is used mostly after explaining a situation and asking the other person in which you are having a conversation with if they understood what he or she was saying. Or for another instance "Your slipping" not necessarily meaning that somebody is falling, but instead meaning you don't have your head on right and you need to get yourself together.
Yes, parents are our first teachers and they do teach us everything we learn and they even introduce us to our first language but to have more than an hour conversation between a parent and a child or even a teacher can be difficult due to the age gap that exist between both. There is not much in common and it can be sometimes really uncomfortable telling an adult a story and they not understanding what you have to say. Even telling them a personal problem and later saying to them "You feel me?" because they would look at you and ask you to repeat yourself.
The people that influence me a lot is my family, I have to code switch a lot from English to Spanish and I have noticed that I began to adapt a new sort of language which is known as "Spanglish", which is a mixture of English and Spanish mixed together. It is difficult for me to sometimes speak Spanish constantly with my family when I don't speak it in my everyday basis. It's difficult because you get so accustomed to a language but you always have your roots and the language and accent that makes you who you are.
I agree with you about that, it’s the people that we grow up with influence us in the way we talk today in society. Mostly our young generation have a big impact on us, the way we talk it’s our style of communicate to each other, and we understand each other. We use slang like “what up” instead of “how are you doing” and “doing good” or “good” instead of “doing well thank you” so I agree with your topic.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if your analysis on the subject matter was right on point. I feel as if the people you connect the most within your life and vibe with as the biggest impact on you, not just in speech but in your life. I like your point on the age gap being another reason why some older folks don’t seem to speak are language. I just believe time is changing and some people need to stop clinging to the past, time for people to find out what lol means. Not saying Proper English is a relic I am just saying we don’t write in stone any more ;-). Just as times have changed people have evolved and so have are speech patterns. I still believe being professional and adopting to your environment I believe your point on code switch was on point has well. All in all I agree with your topic and feel is very beautiful written.
ReplyDeleteSorry for my chicken scratch thought I tired
Hi Naria I was reading your blog and would just like to tell you that I absolutely agree with 100 percent. The thing that caught my attention the most was the part where you mentioned how sometimes it may be hard to go home and speak Spanish to your family when you’re speaking English on a day to day basis. I have that problem as well, although it is not English and Spanish it is the Ebonics I speak outside with my friends and so forth and so on……
ReplyDeleteAlways Demeya