Dw1a

Language is a complex, unique, and complicated thing. There are thousands of languages across the world, and on top of that, thousands of more dialects. No one individual speaks the exact same way, using different tones, styles, and grammar. Language, however, deepens even farther, in that it differs even within the individual. Throughout life, your vocabulary, the way you speak and how you speak it, changes and evolves. You learn that somethings are only appropriate to say in certain situations and atmospheres, and because of this, everyone does their own version of code-switching, consciously or not. The two places that my language differs the most is in the two places I spend the most time; at school and at home.

The first time I began analyzing the difference in my speech at home compared to that in school was when I reached middle school. Middle school is a time for change and a time when you begin to mature into a young adult. I began to realize that the way I speak at home and with my friends, was very different from the way I speak in front of my teachers and elders at school. Even though this process had been happening since I entered the school system, it is entering middle school that predominately sticks out in my mind. It is at this time, I began to realize that something are only appropriate at home, while others appropriate at school.

Being taught “Standard English” all my life, I came to realize that the manner in which I speak was deemed wrong to express in my writings. For instance, even though I use the slang term “wanna” frequently throughout my speech in substitution for “want to”, the term would be marked incorrect in a writing submitted for school. If i used the word “wanna” in one of my writings, I would be accused of not thoroughly proofreading my paper, and receive a lower grade for grammatical errors. At school, slang terms that I would use frequently at home such as “gonna”, “whatcha”, “ya”, or “dunno”, would not be readily accepted, therefore I would not readily use them while at school. While at home, I would use abbreviations in both my writings and speech. This is most obvious in communications such as AIM, Facebook, text messaging, or even my note taking. Slang terms such as “lol”, “wtf”, “omg”, “otay”, or even profanity would never be acceptable to use in my writings, or speech, at school. My tone is also substantially different at home compared to at school. At home, I tend to be louder and speak with my emotions, being more comfortable with my surrounding. At school, however, my tone is more serious, I speak with less emotion, use less slang, and tend to think about my vocabulary choices more than I would while at home. At home, I think less about my speech, because my comfort level is higher than it would be at school. I use slang terms that are shared amongst my friends and I, that wouldn’t be appropriate for a class lecture.

These aren’t the only two places, home and school, where I use code-switching, but they are the most obvious and drastic. Language affects everyone’s day-to-day life, even in ways that we might not realize. Our language changes along side our situations, the people we are around, and the places that we are at. Because our language and our writing are closely intertwined, our writing also changes with our atmosphere. As a society, we need to analyze and accept different dialects, and the reasonings for code-switching. Classes on subjects such as Ebonics, and other languages, are the first steps towards the acceptance of individuality in speech.