Jared's Language Paper

 Jarred Luckey                                                                                                  1/4/11   Silver

 

After a very long night of fun, my cousins, Josh and Joel and I fell fast asleep while trying to stay up all night.

  

“Hey, wake up. Get up man.”

“Whaaat,” Josh replied in a dying voice.

“I said get up, me and your brother have been up for a while waiting on you. Why are you so tired anyway, we only stayed up until like 6 in the morning.”

“It’s actually your brother and I,” Said Joel in a joking manner. “You have to say it proper, replied Joel while smiling.”

“Oh my bad, didn’t mean to offend you.  Ard, Josh your brother and I have been up waiting for you to get out of your slumber for a while now. I would really appreciate it if you got up,” I said in a proper voice. “Was that proper enough, Joel?”

             “Oh yeah, that was chillin cous,” answered Joel in a joking manner. “YO JOSH, Get yo butt up now, you hear boy.” “I’m not gown tell ya no mow,” screamed Joel in his best southern enunciation. “Get up Now!” roared Joel while hitting Josh with a pillow.

“Oh My God, I’ll get up if you stop talking like that Joel,” Josh grumbled irritated.

“Is my southern accent getting to you boy, didn’t mean it, sometimes it just comes out, like a fart,” Joel said in a kidding manner.

“Oh would you stop already.” “You sound so stupid,” grumbled Josh. 

“Hahahah, I thought it was pretty funny, come on lets get going. I want to check out your area’s mall, haven’t been there yet,” I said.

“Wait, we have to go get Juan. I told him we would go get him,” said Josh.

“Ok, lets go,” replied Joel.

“Who is Juan,” I asked.

“A kid we met at our new school,” answered Josh.

While walking over, the three of us enjoyed some Laughs, talking about all the good times we had on our old block. Knock, knock, knock. The door opens.

“What sup dudes and other dude who I don’t know,” said Juan. 

“Sup,” Josh and Joel replied.

“Hey I’m Jarred, nice to meet you.”

“Hey, I’m Juan, if the twins didn’t already tell you.”  “Lets go out and rock this place.” “Where are we going exactly?” Asked Juan.

“To the mall,” answered Joel.

“Lets go to the Mall, yeah lets rock and roll dudes,” yelled Juan.

“If you haven’t noticed he’s a really hyper guy,” Joel whispered to me.

“Yeah I see DUDE,” I whispered back in a mimicking way. 

We start walking to the mall. All four of us, full of energy, ready to go hang out and seek out girls to talk too. While entering the mall, Juan began to talk again. 

“Oh yeah ladies, Juan has arrived; gentlemen lets get started shall we. Wow, aren’t you modest, I replied.  I try, answered Juan in a goofy way.

We all started laughing.

“Just kidding, Oh yeah I meant to ask you, where are you from, Jarred?” Asked Juan. 

“Philly,” I replied in a nonchalant way.

“Oh just like Josh and Joel, Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly love. Makes sense,” said Juan.

Why does it make sense, I asked.

I don’t know, because you have an accent, just like the twins. You all sound like city boys to me,” answered Juan.  

Just as he spoke those words, in the back of my mind the word accent rang and rang. I thought me, an accent, this guy talks so weird and he claims that we have an accents. Also I thought, I’m from Philadelphia, no one who speak with a Philadelphian dialect has an accent. I couldn’t believe what he was saying, I wasn’t angry, I was just really surprised of the fact that he said we had accents.  I guess me being so accustomed to the way I speak made me feel that I spoke a natural dialect. I thought that everyone who spoke normal, spoke like us (Philadelphians), and if you didn’t you were not normal and you had an accent. I never thought of myself as being the one who sounded different. But then again, when I thought of accent I thought of southerners and their twang.  My closed-minded thoughts of different dialects, kept me believing that “Philadelphia talk”, was the proper way to speak.  But I wasn’t going to change my diction just to fit in this area. The Great writer, Richard Rodriguez said, “ In public, my father and mother spoke a hesitant, accent, not always grammatical English. And they would have to strain their bodies tense to catch the sense of what was rapidly said by los gringos.” His parents changed the way they spoke in order to fit in with a group of people, and that just wasn’t me. I couldn’t image changing the way I speak, think and act because of some kid! My so-called accent was what made me, me, and I wasn’t about to give up my 14 years of “Philly talk”, erase my speech just so I feel more accepted. I thought about it and said to myself, your own dialect helps to express what you feel. It also helps to make you, who you are and I wasn’t about to change, who I was.

“Wow, city boys, really,” replied Joel. 

“You’re the one with the accent, and you talk weird,” said Josh.

“What, no way dude, I totally talk normal, replied Juan shockingly.

“You say dude, like every 5 seconds, now tell me that’s normal,” answered Joel while laughing. 

“Whatever, I’m not the one who can’t pronounce the “ing” part in my words.  I’m “trippin cous”,” Juan said, in a mocking tone.

“Laugh out loud, you’re pretty funny.” “He is right about that, I admit we don’t pronounce all of our words correctly.” “But at least we don’t start off every sentence with ‘Like’ or ‘Dude’.” “‘And like he totally wrecked Dude’,” I replied mocking Juan in a playful manner.”

“Whatever, man hey you don’t even know me,” answered Juan.

“Oh, I was just playing man,” I replied. 

“I know, I’m only kidding. Now lets go hunt some girls,” shouted Juan.

“Oh My Gosh, we are not hunting girls, we are just here to chill, I said.

“Hey speak for yourself,” replied Juan.

We all burst into a loud uproar of laughter while walking and enjoying ourselves in the mall.