It's who we are.

        Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells you where its people came from and where they are going. - Rita Mae Brown. When I think about this quote I think about my experiences because of my language that have come to make me the person I am today. I remember when I was 12 and going to camp Hidden Falls, nervous and scared I wouldn’t fit in, I would have done just about anything to fill that void. As I got off the bus and counselors begin to play icebreaker games a few girls came up to me and asked if I was Puerto Rican, My first response was to say no, but I didn’t. I did my best to try to sound like them. I wasn’t alone for the next two weeks, but looking back now I wish I had acted myself.       

                                                                                                                                                                  As I got older I begin to notice more how I spoke with friends, family, teachers, and other authoritative figures. Everyone talks a certain way and many of us believe we’re speaking the right way. But, what is the right way? James Baldwin has said ”I’ am curious to know what definition of language is to be trusted.” I believe Baldwin said this because we live in a society where change happens all the time. Many want to be inferior and if manipulating another gives you power to do so, then people will. Also when Rita Mae Brown said, language is the Roadmap of a culture.  She meant that one’s language only reflects their culture and who they are. Changing and trying to tell someone the correct way to speak is nearly impossible.

        Another experience of mines is my first day of 7^th grade. We had to speak about how each of us felt on the world trade center terrorists attack. I was excited because I thought I had a really good paragraph, but when I went to the front of the classroom and begin to speak, I heard whispers of why I spoke the way I did. When I sat down, a boy next to me asked ” Why do you speak that way?”

I replied  ”What way?”

”Like, white people, you speak like a white person.”

Then a girl next to me said ”shut up, its because she’s smart.”

Automatically, they connected that if you were smart you spoke more like a white person. They believed that the way a white person spoke was the right way. Slowly I noticed that people judge you based not just on appearances but on the way you speak. If it only takes 2 seconds to gather a first impression, imagine how much they think they’ve gathered about your intelligence.  Language and culture is all around us, and it’s up us to not judge a person against these things. A person’s language is always changing depending on the environment there in. When I’m with my friends I normally say ”wassup” or ”solid.”  When I’m talking to teachers I’ll say ”hi” or ”okay.” I change my words because I was raised that there is a time and place for everything, to respect those older than me, and that giving respect was not giving by telling an older person ”wassup.”  My culture is the reason I speak the way I do, and I believe that my language is neither wrong nor right.