Itamar Ben-Amos
Iron Stream
English
Mr. Block
                     Language Autobiography

    While most people believe that their language dictates how they would act or how they would grow up, I did not. I believe that my language, although it helped to shape the way I grew up, had not as much significance as many people would have thought. But as much as I say that it didn’t have a big effect on my growing up experience, it still had an effect on how people viewed me and considered me to be.

 Growing up, I lived in the household of two languages, English and Hebrew. Now my parents, not wanting that I be shut off from the world around me and the world of the Americans, surrounded me in my early years in English, so that I would be able to communicate with the world outside and not be seen as an outsider. As I entered my elementary school, chosen because it taught Hebrew along with English, and kept various Jewish practices, they began to take away my little foundation of English, and began to talk to me more and more in Hebrew rather than English. This helped in a way, since I was struggling a bit in my Hebrew class, and it helped me grasp the grammar rules of the language, but it also did something else, that I did not notice until later. Years went on, until my parents started to talk to me completely in Hebrew, with me responding sometimes in Hebrew back, but only when I was in company of friends, to wow them with my ability to speak a language they couldn’t.

Entering High school however, gave me a new revelation. My parents, had woven a web very tightly around me, giving me problems with my 3rd language, Spanish, and separating me from the rest. Just even in the way I addressed my parents, Ima and Aba, mother and father. So already I’m marked as different. Coming to this school, where most of the other people had already taken at least a year of Spanish, putting them ahead of myself and making it harder for me to grasp the basics. I found whenever I would try to conjugate a verb or think of the definition of a word, poof, gone would be the word and in its place the word, but in Hebrew. Now good as that may be for my learning Hebrew, it wreaked havoc on my Spanish grades, not to mention my differentiation between my two and a half languages. Sometimes I would find myself talking to a friend and midway changing to another language, whereupon I would have to backtrack and repeat what I had just said. Most commonly this sentence would be, “Nu? Mah koreh itcha?” gibberish right? Well that’s Hebrew in a nutshell, and that sentence meant, “Well? What’s happening with you?”

However, knowing Hebrew is a blessing, as well, and I like to think more than an impediment. Since I know Hebrew, I am able to talk somewhat like an Israeli, and speak with other people who know the language pretty well. Several times, this language was the main reason why I had such an easier time getting along with the locals in Israel and having a better time then all of my classmates on our class trip to Israel, landing me the unofficial job of being translator for some of the kids. Since I know another language that out of most of my friends and my family, my family and I are the only ones who really know this language, giving us an advantage over my friends, and giving us a language to converse in and to say things to each other so they won’t understand. It’s funny anyway. Seeing people being exposed to a language that they don’t understand may give me a bigger ego, but it is still worth it to show that just because I have problems with one language, doesn’t mean that I can’t know something that they don’t.

Mackenzie Drust
Iron Stream
Language autobiography

    When it really comes down to it, language and speech are very important to the way that you live, and the way that people are looked at as a human beings. As people get older they start to understand the importance of language. When some people are young they will talk the same way to everyone. When you are older and more mature you begin to understand the importance of “friend talk/ home talk” and “public speech”. When you are in high school, and you are talking to your friends it will be a lot different than if you are talking to your teachers, or other superiors like that. Language and dialect affects one’s entire life.
    “Stop mumbling you sound thuggish!” said my mom. “umm okay” said Mackenzie. “Stop, Mackenzie! Is that how your going to talk when you have a boss?” said my mom. “Maybe it is” said Mackenzie. “Well good luck succeeding at a job when you talk like a white trashy east falls kid”. Said my mom. “I don’t sound like an east falls kid, that’s just the way I talk deal with it, I was kidding I’m not actually going to talk to a boss like that.”  Said Mackenzie. This conversation occurred between my mom and me about two weeks ago. I chose to use this because I think it shows how people judge you by your dialect/speech. I am positive this is exactly the way it went to because I remember her calling me a trashy east falls kid, and that stuck in my head. Even though she sounds like she is angry in the dialogue she wasn’t, but she is right about how talking to a boss that way would be stupid. Talking that way to a superior is like demeaning yourself.  
    Language affects somebody’s power over a situation more than anything. Who are people going to listen to? The guy who talks like he is at home? Or the guy with the professional look and speech? People are going to listen to the more professional person. And in some cases it could be really bad if it is over something important. In today’s world if you are at work, or if you are at school or anything like that, you have to use a professional voice around your superiors. It is okay if you talk regularly around your friends at work or if you’re joking. But when things get serious you have to try your best to cover up your dialect and speak clearly.
    Your stereotype is very important, because weather you like it or not people are going to stereotype you. Your stereotype especially in high school is very important because it spreads so fast. If somebody asks someone else about you, they are not going to say that’s the really smart kid. They are going to say hey, that’s the white kid who tries to act like he’s black, Or something along those lines. So speech is very important and it affects the way that people classify you. I have been classified by the way I talk before; people have called me the “wigger” kid before. I only talk that way because I grew up around some white trashy people and that is how I came to talk. But if you really know me that stereotype is so far off, its ridiculous. If I talked more grammatically correct and didn’t use as much slang people would give me a stereotype that maybe actually suits me.
    Language tells other people who you are, especially when it somebody’s first impression of you. The way somebody speaks is the first thing that comes out of their mouth. It is not so much the actual tone of your voice, but it is more about dialect, if you have a noticeable dialect people will notice your dialect, and a lot of the time they will stereotype you because of the way you talk until they know you on a deeper level. Until that happens it is possible to lose power over certain situations because of your speech. In a country where the powerful leaders in the government believe that there is one correct way to speak English. If we do not speak their “correct” way how can we expect to have power.   

                                Victoria Monahan
                                1/8/08
                                Iron Stream
                                English
                                Benchmark

    
“So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language.  Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity- I am my language.  Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself.” (How To Tame A Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldúa)
     
“A telephone call makes my throat bleed and takes up that day’s courage.  It spoils my day with self- disgust when I hear my broken voice come skittering out into the open.  It makes me wince when I hear it.” (The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston)
    
    Language is power.  Or it power language?  Language can influence how people react to you and how you act to others in return.
    One time that I remember is when I was sitting at my bus stop and a man came up to me with an extremely heavy accent.  I couldn’t understand a word that he said; actually I could barely place his syllables in the English language.
Man With Accent: Ooo oh whaaa ee booose oh?
Me: I’m sorry, what did you say?
Man With Accent: Ooo oh whaaa ee booose oh?
Me: I’m sorry, I still don’t understand.
Man With Accent: Ooo oh whaaa ees booose oh?
Me: I’m sorry, can you please repeat that?
    This back and forth conversation went on for a little while until I finally came to the conclusion that he was saying: “You know where the bus go?”  I know for a fact that this small conversation made me feel like an idiot for not understanding him, and probably the same for the man.  
Also, I have a grandmother that was born and raised in Italy, who for the majority of her life has been living there.  At one point in time she had moved to the United States with her family seeking a better life, for it is dubbed the land of opportunity.  However, she refused to learn the language and adjust to the culture, so despite her living in a country dominated by their culture, she never desired to conform.  Just a few years ago, she came to visit the place she once resided and stayed with her family, me.  My mother, being born and partially raised in Italy, was the only one in my household who was able to understand her ways, and the only one who was able to speak her language.  So, along with her having completely a foreign background, she also was unable to relate and express the points in which she was attempting to convey.  An average day would go along with numerous hand gestures and repeated phrases, until whoever was receiving the message understood.  For example, she would ask if we were hungry, for she seemed to always desire to cook a pot of noodles.  So, she would say what sounded like manja while putting her hand to her face mimicking putting food in your mouth.  After a while, this word began to sink in to the point where she no longer needed to gesture with her hands.  It worked in both ways, we began to understand her more and she began to understand us as well.     
I believe that my grandma has influenced my sister’s love of languages, for now my sister is striving to learn and become fluent in as many languages as possible.  She has taken French, German, Spanish, is going to take Chinese over the summer, etc. Mi familia es moy diverso.  So, because of my sister’s multiple language interests I am constantly hearing small phrases originated from cultures completely foreign to me in my everyday life.  For example, my sister calls my cat, Isabella (which is Spanish for the American name Elizabeth), what sounds like mi ange lu, that means my angel or something of the sort.  My mother and my aunt switch between English and Italian in every one of their conversations.  My brother and his friends attempt to talk “gangsta.”  I am extremely quite at home.  My mother and my grandmother talk very formal.  Everyone talks a different way with everyone.  
To tell you the truth, I have not even noticed these small phrases being incorporated into my everyday life until I took the opportunity to sit in my house and observe what was “different” about us.   It grows on you.  It is something that becomes your identity that will make you or break you.  Language is power.