English Essay ( Languages by Keiasha Lumpkins)

English Essay ( Languages by Keiasha Lumpkins)

When you are from where I am from, you have a choice to be with a certain group of kids. Sometimes when you aren’t in that group, you tend to catch on regardless. I never understood this “belonging to a certain group”. With me, I don’t consider myself belonging to a certain group. I just think that I am automatically put in that group because of where I am from and what I am attached to.

A lot of times when I am with my friends, there are things that they expect you to do and not to do. One time my friends and I were hanging out in from of my house. We all were laughing and joking around. Something I said shocked my friend. We were sitting in front of my house, he said, “Yo its cold outside, I be freezing my but off out here like WTF!” Then added on, “I know it really is cold out here.” After I said that all my friends laughed. They said that I sound like a “white girl”. I didn’t take offense when he said that, but when I think about it, how can you sound like a “white girl”.  I was wondering how is that possible to sound like someone I’m not. I didn’t think anything of it. A lot of times when I talk to my friends I say words and phrases that they aren’t used to me saying. They always say that I talk like this because I go to a school where you have to talk a certain way. It always amuses me when my friends make fun of the way I talk. Yes, sometimes I would use the slang that my friends use, but it comes natural at times when I talk differently around them. When you are expected to talk a certain way you or do certain things other people get surprised when it turns out different. They catch the right instead of the wrong way to speak. Only time this is opposite is when I am at home and my mom hears me speaking like the way I would talk to my friend.

It’s opposite when you’re home. My mom just got me these new boots. “These jawns is nice mom”. My mom looked at me and said, “jawn? You are not outside with one of your friends you don’t talk like that in my house.” After the fact I was thinking that how what I said was wrong? Then when I thought about it my mom was right. We shouldn’t talk like that to adults because when you get out in the real world, talking like that cant gets you a job. Its as if parents, or older people in general held high standards then younger people. Older people tend to not like it when younger people talk in slang or from where I am from “ghetto.” Just like when Maxime Hong Kingston said, “her mom didn’t like it that she sounded right, and said all the words right. It seems like a lot of times our parents don’t want us to speak if they don’t speak that way. These two scenes are connected because there is a lot of irony here. When you speak proper with your friends, its as though you are speaking wrong. A lot of times when I speak with my friends I don’t talk the way I would with my as I do my mom. When I talk to my mom pronounce all my words. When you are with your friends and you say proper things, its as though I said something wrong. It gets really confusing at times.

            These two scenes connect because a lot of times you have to remember when and how you talk to your friends. The same thing goes for adults/parents. The world of language is different through people eyes. Some people don’t realize language but when you think about it, language is notice everyday, when you don’t notice.