Half Baked
Submitted by Bryanna Bonner on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 16:11.
“Where you from?”
“Here. West Philly.”
“Huh? You can’t be. You been here all 15 years?”
“Why can’t I? But no I grew up in the suburbs.”
“Oh ok that makes since.”
The language I use demonstrates how different I am. It makes others think about where I am from. The funny thing is to me it’s just the way I speak.
I am constantly asked where I am from and why I talk the way I do. I am an African American teen and when I walk down the street that’s all people see. But when you talk to me I am said to talk like a “white” girl. Yes it’s true I don’t use any kind of slang. Sometimes I cut my words short or I may say one or two things considered black talk, but I even get shy to say nigga. For some reason it just doesn’t sound the same way when it comes out my mouth.
Maybe it’s the stereotypes that influences people to think I am suppose to talk a certain way. Maybe people create a certain image for blacks and if you don’t follow those typical guide lines your different. Or in my case you’re white.
To explain my background I am from the suburbs. I grew up in a neighborhood called Harleysville. Where everyone was friendly and they felt it was ok to leave their doors unlocked all the time. I went to Christian Academy, my teacher there was also my babysitter. I lived down the street from my church. I couldn’t complain.
I moved to Philadelphia after about 4-5 years living up there. Life in the city. I still go to church up there and I still have family there. I even have friends there. The person I was up there has followed me down here too. Maybe that is why I seem to connect to people who are diverse.
SLA is a school mixed with all kinds of people. There are so many different ethnicities and so many unique people you never see the same thing twice. And my group of friends show that diverseness.
My friends are called the G’s. We are made up of African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Whites, and Indians. Each person speaks some type of a different language. Hector, Steph and Dan speak Spanish, Sharon knows some Spanish too. Jay and Mithun speak Bengali, Mike and me speak English.
All the time we are sharing ideas about our religions and our different views. Being friends with them opened my eyes to other cultures, and it helped me learn that it’s interesting to learn something other then what you’re used to.
That is how I am shaped now. I like when Hector, Steph, Dan, and Sharon speak some Spanish to me. I would love to be fluent in it. Also I try to remember little sayings in Bengali and that’s how I want to be for now on. I think it’s important to be flexible. It’s important to be able to communicate with all kinds of people. The world shouldn’t be separated because of communication issues.
