Mixing Cultures
Azaria Burton
Culture Mix
"I know right! I axed her where she wanted to go.She ain't know. But you know how it be, cuz she was neva the type anyway. I be fed with her!”
When I'm with my friends I use a lot of slang. I don't feel like they will judge me or look down at me if I speak this way and so I feel comfortable. I believe that slang shows more of my personally than speaking “proper” english. By adding your own flavor to your words people can get a better understanding of who you are. In a group of my friends we could’ve made a whole new dictionary. Everyday someone was making up new words off the top of their head because different situations caused for different vocabulary. New words spread like fire in New York and before you knew it everybody knew what the word meant and how to use it. But, there were some special words that were already in the dictionary. Such as violation. The word itself was not special, when we used violation in a sentence the definition would stay the same.However, the way we said it made violation our own word. The o became longer and your voice would become squeaky making the simple word “violation” not only sound completely different but also making it sound like slang.
When speaking with my friends, my true personality came out. When going home however, I turned into a different person. My mother always told me that in order to survive in life you must know when to turn the “hood switch” off. This meant that I needed to know when and where slang could be used. When speaking to her I would use “proper” english with no slang what so ever. Whenever I would slip up and use a word that was slang she would quickly remind me who I was speaking to.
“Chalee, you are not in the streets with your little friends.”
“I know mom. Sorry.” I would reply
It never actually bothered me when my mother told me to stop acting so “hood” all the time because I must admit that I think she is right. Slang should not be used all the time. Sometimes using slang can make a person believe you are less than them or think you have no education. Having my mother in one ear and my peers in the other added some balance to my life. I knew how to speak to my elders and I knew how to speak with my friends. It was great, I felt like I understood everybody and everybody understood me.
This all changed when I moved to Philadelphia a little over a year ago. I didn’t believe it would be too different from New York due to how geologically close they are. However, I was wrong. After one week of living in Philadelphia I hated it. It looked nothing like New York, the people looked very different to me and I felt out of place. I thought once I started school I would feel more comfortable. But, I was wrong once again.
" Yea, she was mad dridd!" I screamed
"Dridd? What does that mean?" Lily asked
I looked at Lily very confused by what she had said. Everybody knew what dridd was why didn’t she? I laughed thinking everybody would laugh with me. But, nobody laughed with me, they all laughed at me.
“What did she just say!? Dridd! What in the world is that?”
“I don’t know, but why she sound like that?”
I could feel my body trembling with disgust. I was being teased for the first time and to add salt to the wounds it was about the way I spoke. Never had someone commented on my speech in a bad way. I was humiliated and for the rest of the day I kept to myself. While on my way home I listened closely to how the civilians talked to each other. I didn’t hear many differences in speech, I thought that maybe the kids in my school were just being rude and that there was nothing wrong with the way I spoke. Still, not too sure about whether or not my idea was right
I decided to ask my father and brother how different my speech really was. Not too long after asking my brother and dad about the way I spoke to people I realized it was a bad idea.
“Yeah you have this accent sometimes.Like you have a speech impediment. Oh! And you use words nobody has ever heard about.” my father responded.
My brother agreed with my dad about the situation saying that sometimes I have a little accent. Once again a very discombobulated look came to my face.I thought to myself, “So not only do I have a speech impediment but, I also have terrible vocabulary. How great!”
That comfortable place where I understood everybody and everybody understood me was gone. As the days went on everything just got worse.People started to use words that I didn’t understand and when I would ask what they meant I became more of an outcast. One day while getting on the train with my friends my transpass stopped working.
“Girl you sody!” Niya screamed
I looked back at her and then at the rest of my friends.
“Sody? What’s that?”
With just three words I became a laughing stalk. I laughed along with them although the situation did not make me happy I would rather laugh with them than be laughed at.These types of situations happened daily and I would always end up being laughed at. Nobody ever answered my question about what these words meant so I decided to ask my brother. He would tell me what they meant and how to use them but I could never catch on. The words made no sense to me they didn’t sound right rolling off my tongue so even when I would try to use them I would be stared at because of how silly I sounded. I felt defeated and belittled. I was out of my zone and whenever I needed help I would always call my grandmother to get her opinion on the situation.
“Mom I don’t know what to do. I keep getting laughed at and I don’t really understand why. “The way I sound and the way I speak is normal so why are people laughing?”
“Nobody sounds normal Chalee because everybody is different. You can’t expect everybody to sound just like you.How about, instead of feeling upset, embrace how you speak and be proud
of it.There is nothing wrong with standing out.”
This conversation made me think completely different. My feelings towards this conversation are very well interpreted by author James Baldwin. In “If Black Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me, What is?”, he says that, “Language is also a political tool”. This quote means that the way a person speaks can be used as a way to get ahead especially in politics but also, in everyday life. Not until this day I never thought that I could use the way I spoke as a tool. I decided that I would not allow my voice and different slang get the best of me. Whenever people ask me where I’m from and why I sound the way I do I always pick my head up high and answer with a smile, “New York”.
Moving to a new place can be stressful and tiring.You might not know where the supermarket is or what school to go to. But, the way you speak can also be a huge issue. I have learned to accept the fact that I don’t sound like everybody else in the world and I may even get teased about it. However, I know that being proud of who you are, where you come from and how you speak is a very important part of having others accept you.
Culture Mix
"I know right! I axed her where she wanted to go.She ain't know. But you know how it be, cuz she was neva the type anyway. I be fed with her!”
When I'm with my friends I use a lot of slang. I don't feel like they will judge me or look down at me if I speak this way and so I feel comfortable. I believe that slang shows more of my personally than speaking “proper” english. By adding your own flavor to your words people can get a better understanding of who you are. In a group of my friends we could’ve made a whole new dictionary. Everyday someone was making up new words off the top of their head because different situations caused for different vocabulary. New words spread like fire in New York and before you knew it everybody knew what the word meant and how to use it. But, there were some special words that were already in the dictionary. Such as violation. The word itself was not special, when we used violation in a sentence the definition would stay the same.However, the way we said it made violation our own word. The o became longer and your voice would become squeaky making the simple word “violation” not only sound completely different but also making it sound like slang.
When speaking with my friends, my true personality came out. When going home however, I turned into a different person. My mother always told me that in order to survive in life you must know when to turn the “hood switch” off. This meant that I needed to know when and where slang could be used. When speaking to her I would use “proper” english with no slang what so ever. Whenever I would slip up and use a word that was slang she would quickly remind me who I was speaking to.
“Chalee, you are not in the streets with your little friends.”
“I know mom. Sorry.” I would reply
It never actually bothered me when my mother told me to stop acting so “hood” all the time because I must admit that I think she is right. Slang should not be used all the time. Sometimes using slang can make a person believe you are less than them or think you have no education. Having my mother in one ear and my peers in the other added some balance to my life. I knew how to speak to my elders and I knew how to speak with my friends. It was great, I felt like I understood everybody and everybody understood me.
This all changed when I moved to Philadelphia a little over a year ago. I didn’t believe it would be too different from New York due to how geologically close they are. However, I was wrong. After one week of living in Philadelphia I hated it. It looked nothing like New York, the people looked very different to me and I felt out of place. I thought once I started school I would feel more comfortable. But, I was wrong once again.
" Yea, she was mad dridd!" I screamed
"Dridd? What does that mean?" Lily asked
I looked at Lily very confused by what she had said. Everybody knew what dridd was why didn’t she? I laughed thinking everybody would laugh with me. But, nobody laughed with me, they all laughed at me.
“What did she just say!? Dridd! What in the world is that?”
“I don’t know, but why she sound like that?”
I could feel my body trembling with disgust. I was being teased for the first time and to add salt to the wounds it was about the way I spoke. Never had someone commented on my speech in a bad way. I was humiliated and for the rest of the day I kept to myself. While on my way home I listened closely to how the civilians talked to each other. I didn’t hear many differences in speech, I thought that maybe the kids in my school were just being rude and that there was nothing wrong with the way I spoke. Still, not too sure about whether or not my idea was right
I decided to ask my father and brother how different my speech really was. Not too long after asking my brother and dad about the way I spoke to people I realized it was a bad idea.
“Yeah you have this accent sometimes.Like you have a speech impediment. Oh! And you use words nobody has ever heard about.” my father responded.
My brother agreed with my dad about the situation saying that sometimes I have a little accent. Once again a very discombobulated look came to my face.I thought to myself, “So not only do I have a speech impediment but, I also have terrible vocabulary. How great!”
That comfortable place where I understood everybody and everybody understood me was gone. As the days went on everything just got worse.People started to use words that I didn’t understand and when I would ask what they meant I became more of an outcast. One day while getting on the train with my friends my transpass stopped working.
“Girl you sody!” Niya screamed
I looked back at her and then at the rest of my friends.
“Sody? What’s that?”
With just three words I became a laughing stalk. I laughed along with them although the situation did not make me happy I would rather laugh with them than be laughed at.These types of situations happened daily and I would always end up being laughed at. Nobody ever answered my question about what these words meant so I decided to ask my brother. He would tell me what they meant and how to use them but I could never catch on. The words made no sense to me they didn’t sound right rolling off my tongue so even when I would try to use them I would be stared at because of how silly I sounded. I felt defeated and belittled. I was out of my zone and whenever I needed help I would always call my grandmother to get her opinion on the situation.
“Mom I don’t know what to do. I keep getting laughed at and I don’t really understand why. “The way I sound and the way I speak is normal so why are people laughing?”
“Nobody sounds normal Chalee because everybody is different. You can’t expect everybody to sound just like you.How about, instead of feeling upset, embrace how you speak and be proud
of it.There is nothing wrong with standing out.”
This conversation made me think completely different. My feelings towards this conversation are very well interpreted by author James Baldwin. In “If Black Isn’t a Language Then Tell Me, What is?”, he says that, “Language is also a political tool”. This quote means that the way a person speaks can be used as a way to get ahead especially in politics but also, in everyday life. Not until this day I never thought that I could use the way I spoke as a tool. I decided that I would not allow my voice and different slang get the best of me. Whenever people ask me where I’m from and why I sound the way I do I always pick my head up high and answer with a smile, “New York”.
Moving to a new place can be stressful and tiring.You might not know where the supermarket is or what school to go to. But, the way you speak can also be a huge issue. I have learned to accept the fact that I don’t sound like everybody else in the world and I may even get teased about it. However, I know that being proud of who you are, where you come from and how you speak is a very important part of having others accept you.
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