POWELL_LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION:

Every community has there own language, their are certain words that originate in a place and are forgien to others no matter how close the place my be geographically. I feel like you aren't raised to speak a certain language, you grow into it, You speech and term evolve as you grow older, meet new people, and surrond yourself in new places.

ESSAY:

If I were to move to Boston right now, about a year from now I’d catch myself saying things like Pahhk, and Caaahh instead of pronouncing the “AR” and “ARK” of the words. A person’s surrondings, can play an enormous part in the way someone speaks, where they come from, how they live their life and just there everyday surroundings. I find myself altering the way I speak in several different situations. I’m proud of who I am, and where I come from, but I realize that if I use my regular tone of voice, and use some of the words that I’m use to using with my friends and close family, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be judged.
In 8th grade I had to shadow at a wide variety of schools in several different parts of the city, one of the schools I visited was, Spring Side School for girls, located in Chestnut Hill, a very suburban area, the school itself sits upon 62 acres of land. Riding up to the school on the day of my shadow I saw that the homes surrounding the school were beautifully built, each of them had huge yards and at least two cars sitting in the driveway. There were country clubs, and community and rec centers that actually looked clean and safe to be in. When we got there my mom pulled into the congested parking lot, not only did it seem like every student was old enough to drive, but they had their own cars, but they weren’t the typical “starter” cars a lot of high schoolers receive when they first get their license, these were top of the line mercede benz and range rovers sitting in the lot. I already didn’t like my visit, when we got into the school and I actually started my day, I got a better feel for the school. I saw that the school was very diverse when you’re judging from a mile away, but when you’re up close and person you see that every kid was just about the same. Yes, there were African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, and Russian, but the way they spoke was all the same. Each of them tended to drag out there words, a lot of them talked like they were asking a question instead of stating a fact, and just about everysingle one of them used atleast 6 acronyms in their sentences. I remember a conversation I had with my shadow host, Stephanie, she asked how I was enjoying my visit, and of course I couldn’t express to her how uncomfortable I felt, so I lied, smile on my face turning to her and saying,

“I love it, this school is perfect. What made you pick this school over every other one out there?”
“Well, honestly, I.D.E.K [I don’t even know], Liiikkeee, I live in SouthWest so I went to West Philadelphia high school for half of my freshmen year. Then I transferred here, I mean my mom said she was looking for a new school for me to go to but that was, A.F.A.I.K. [as far as I knew]  Then one day my advisor at West was all like, Steph you’re pretty intelli. I think you should totally apply to SSCHA [SpringSide & Chestnut Hill Academy], and at first I was all like HTP[hold the phone], no an all girls school, you’ve obviously LYM [lost your mind]. But then they told me to be opened mind and atleast check the school out, and so I did. I shadowed, loooveeedd it, BTW [by the way] I applied and got here on partial scholarship, and now that i’m here OMG[oh my gosh], I CSTP[Can’t Stand this place] ! L.O.L [Laugh out loud], J/K[Just Kidding]. I love it here, FWIW[For what its worth]”

I remember thinking to myself, how the hell was this girl from Southwest talking like that? I use to go to school in little Charter School in West Philly, my classmates in middle school were generally from the West and SouthWest Philadelphia area. They used terms like, “jawn” and “cuz” and they often cut their words to make them shorter and easier to say in sentences. So, instead of saying ‘might as well’ they might use a term like “mineswell.” The way my shadow host spoke was far from that. She pronounced all of her syllables and she tended to drag out her words instead of shorten them like the kids from the Southwest neighborhood tended to do. It was intriguing to me how someone who came from a part of the city I knew so well, spoke so similarly to a group of people that lived miles away in a completely different part.  Even though I couldn’t really understand all of what she was saying, I just shook my head, nodded and said,

“OMG cool, I love it here too”

Looking back onto that day, I realize that the way she spoke at SpringSide school had nothing to do with where she came from, it had everything to do with where she was currently. After being at SpringSide School for awhile, the way everyone else spoke around her rubbed off on her, she adapted to their speech just like she adapted to her new advisor, or her classmates, or the rules and regulations of the school. Everyone else spoke like that so she had to blend in with her surroundings. She transferred halfway through 9th grade, so not only was she the new kid which is already scary enough, she was also different from the others. I see that a lot here at my own school. Although my school is a pretty diverse place racially, when you’re up close and personal and actually surrounded by all of us, we’re actually the same when it comes to dialect. We all speak the same language,  if I were to go up to someone outside of the SLA, and said something like, “Pause. You’re such a weenie, you better chill and start working on that benchmark before Reddy hits you with fladdaapp.” or if I go to people outside the SLA community and instead of saying “True” when they something that I agree with I say “True Black” people will look at me different like I’m the weird one. A majority of people at this school, know what the fladdaapp is, everyone knows what a benchmark is, everyone knows what it means to be called a weenie, everyone knows the saying “that’s dead.” and everyone knows the meaning behind saying “Trueee Black” instead of plain old “Trueee.”

I feel like no matter how racially diverse a place can get, at the end of the day they all will evolve to using the same dialect. People at my school come from all over, bringing with them, several new customs, and ways of expressing themselves. When we all come together and try to communicate, new dialect is formed, that along with the shared experiences we have from being with each other everyday create a unique language that only people inside our community would understand. Newcomers to these communities must learn to adapt to the language that is already set in place. That’s how Stephanie felt at springside, thats similar to how I felt as a freshmen at SLA and I can assume thats how a person that moves to a different part of town or even a different state feel and I think that just comes naturally.