Tyler's Language Autobiography

When it comes to Code-switching, I switch based on the situation and how old the person is that I’m talking to. There are times when I will talk polite to people, those people are normally older people, Organizations, Strangers, and people I admire. Here is a conversation between Mehdi Adineh and I: 

“Hey Mehdi,

Sorry for not getting back to you lately. I've been busy with different projects and tennis. I just wanted to tell you for the TFI Project I'm doing the image outputs are JPEG. The other project for engineering on Pattern Recognition with cancer in medical imaging, I haven't been able to find many things on it but I've been working with my school librarian to find sources both in the library and on some internet databases he knows of. I'm going to be going back to him this week a couple times to work on it. Also, my Advanced Engineering teacher extended the due date to in a couple weeks so once I get a rough draft done I'll email it to you and any sources I find I'll email you the link or name of the book/article/magazine so you can check it out and confirm if it is a good source to use. Thanks”

As I get closer and closer to a person whether its Derrick, Mehdi, or TFI Employees, I start to become less and less formal as we are becoming good friends. For Derrick Pitts, I’ve known him since March and we talk both formal and casual to each other. Here’s a conversation between him and I:

“Is there a certain time I should come to talk with the vice president about the adobe licenses? Or are you just going to talk to him? Thanks”

One thing that I always do in my emails is say “Thanks” at the end. It’s a habit I have and use all the time. What happened was Derrick asked me to do a project for him last year as my science fair and I continued it into this year and possibly next year so it is my ILP and I work with Alex, Jesús, and Allen who I recruited to help me last year. We need adobe lightroom licenses to advance in the project so I need 2 licenses for it and Derrick suggested meeting with the vice-president of the Franklin Institute to discuss buying the adobe licenses. Derrick decided to go meet with the vice president himself though. There are many other instances I have that show my Language identity around strangers but then that would be boring, now wouldn’t it?

Another time I code switch is at tennis, especially around friends. When it comes to my friends and coaches I hang out with and hit with all the time I speak informally, but when It comes the the Board of Directors at Ashe, the president of Ashe, and the employees I don’t know I speak formally. Here is a conversation between Kein and I: 

T:“Kein, don’t tell me your actually going to play while eating pizza?”

K:“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I?”

T:“That’s true, you are Kein and you do have to teach a lesson.”

K:“That’s right and you have a long way to go to play while eating.”

T:“Oh well thats too bad since I’ve already eaten food while playing. I ate 2 soft pretzels while playing and a cookie another day. So ha.”

K:“Oh damn, Tyler’s bringing it on.”

This is what I remember from the conversation but the entire background behind it is I buy pizza for the coaches and me every Saturday I go to Ashe since I normally stay for the day and the coaches are like my second family to me. Kein is the silly, playful, and full-of-energy coach at Ashe, who likes to mess around with me. I remember one time during one of the tennis clinics, Kein ran out on court in a bunny suit and a humongous tennis racket (I’m serious, it was huge, it must have been at least the size of 5-6 tennis rackets put together) and he told the person I was rallying with to let him rally against me for a minute (with the humongous racket). It was one of the biggest fails I had ever seen in my life since I hit the ball once and I guess it was heavy for him so he couldn’t swing it as fast as with the racket he normally uses.

Another time I Code-switch is when I’m at school. I will speak informally to friends and some teachers, and formally to the other teachers and guests. I speak informally a lot to my advisor, Mr. Sanchez. Here’s a conversation between him and I:

Sanchez: “Hey, thanks for the update Tyler. I'm sure your teachers appreciate it, too.”

Me: “okay and are we playing ping pong after school today? I should be back from the art museum by the end of the school day.”

Right now its tied 3-3 in matches won between me and Mr. Sanchez. What I mean is Mr. Sanchez challenged me to ping pong (My nickname at SLA is King Ping) and we agreed that if I beat Mr. Sanchez 99 times before he beats me 99 times, then he will give all his classes A’s, but if he wins 99 times before I beat him 99 times, I have to do pushups till he says stop I think it was. I love ping pong and I’m called King Ping by classmates since I haven’t been beaten by any student at SLA. It really fun talking to Mr. Sanchez and playing him in ping pong since he continuously thinks he can beat me.

The last Code-switching I do is when I’m around family and people I love and admire. Depending on which cousin, uncle, aunt, and grandparent I’m talking to I change. When I am around my brother, Ellen, Grandpa Morales, Grandma Morales, Jen, and Cha Cha and others, I talk to them both formally and informally. Others I in my family I talk to either just informally or formally. The 4 people I love to talk to the most are Ellen, Grandpa Morales, Grandma Morales, and Cha Cha. Here is a conversation between Grandpa Morales and me:

Grandpa: “So Tyler, did you see the U.S. Open match between Nadal and Verdasco?”

Me: “Yeah that match was amazing and the intensity of their play was overwhelming.”

Grandpa: “You’re right, did you see the new guys play too?”

Me: “No I only saw the Nadal matches since whenever I turned to the US Open it was a Nadal match. Why are the new guys any good?”

Grandpa: Yeah, they are but not as good as Nadal. At least, not yet hahaha.”

This is one of my most favorite people on the planet for a lot of reasons. The major reason is because he is the person who inspired me and got me into tennis, which now makes up most of my life. Also because he gives me tips on tennis and who to watch, he is also the person who taught me how to hit drop shots. Its actually pretty funny because my grandpa plays regularly at a club and all his fellow tennis players called him the “Hermanator” since he always wins the point when he hits a drop shot, which is why he always wins. They used to tell people who got drop shotted by Grandpa, “You just got Hermanated”. He’s also the grandpa who is silly, fun to be around, and acts like a little kid, like me, even though he’s 86. When I’m with my grandpa, I usually speak both formally and informally because I admire him and am really close to him.

That is how I code-switch daily and why do I code-switch? I code-switch because it makes me feel comfortable around whoever I’m talking to so I don’t feel like I’m being mean or too nice. It’s also just something that I grew up with. Well, thats how I code-switch.