The Conflicting World of Language

Silver English

January 12, 2011

Language can be a very conflicting component of everyday life.  Language, both verbal and nonverbal can easily be misinterpreted.  It is often the case that the receiver of the message perceives the language completely different than the sender of the message intends.  Thus, a conflict ensues, as the receiver and sender battle as to who is interpretation is correct.

As I sit here today as a 10^th grader my language is pretty good I would say.  But it wasn’t always like that.  H-h-h-h-h-h I m-m-m-m-m-m- m y n-n-n-n-name i-i-i-i-s  A-a-a-a-a-Alexander. All I hear is laughter from all the other kids in my fifth grade class on the first day of school.  I paused, sat their confused wondering what they were laughing about.  The teacher told the class to stop and for and for me to continue.  I-I-I-I-I-I live i-i-i-i-In C-c-c-c-c-center city and I-I-I-I-I love s-s-s-s-s-s-sports.  I didn’t know what was happening. These kids who most of them looked like strangers were laughing at me.  I didn’t know who they were. I thought I talked fine.  The teacher said settle down kids, and the next person went and talked fluently. Then the next couple people talked fluently also. I still didn’t know what was so funny. Even the kids I have known all my life were laughing.   

This was one of the hardest times of my life, never before was I afraid to speak until now.  I wouldn’t raise my hand in class, wouldn’t read out loud.   My parents were concerned.  They asked me what was wrong.  I didn’t want to answer them.  Then I started to talk to my mom and she heard it. I always had a lisp but the stuttering was new. She didn’t know how it happened or why it happened.  All I knew was that I hated speaking!

“A telephone call makes my throat bleed and takes up that day’s courage.  It spoils my day with self-disgust when I hear my broken voice come spitting out into the open” (The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston).  She has the same problem that I do.  I hate talking on the phone, reading out loud, or even asking people questions.  I am always afraid that I am going to stutter.   It usually happens when I know the people because they expect it to happen. If its people that I don’t know I don’t to stutter. 

Now Im still scared to talk on the phone but not so much the other things. Im getting over that. When people talk to me they wouldn’t know that  I stutter cause I work so hard to resolve that Issue.

My Dream is to be a Broadcaster for ESPN. Its possibly to do and it will be hard but Im willing to do it to so how hard I work if I put my mind to it.