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Artist Statement #2

1/13/11

            Origami as a whole is an interesting and creative art. It focuses on structure building and folding techniques that add up, giving the art piece all it’s magnificent details and realistic qualities. During the second quarter of the school year I wanted to incorporate origami in a form of a sculpture, to be shown as a prop or a decoration. Starting off with the design and blueprint of the sword, I then went on to create the necessary materials to create my sculpture using scrape printer paper.

            To start this project I had to find something I could get inspired to build. Looking at multiple designs I choose to create a prop sword from one of my favorite Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game, Runescape. In the game it features a great sword created by one of the Runescape Gods, a powerful great two-handed sword with the power to strike down foes with lighting under the name of Saradomin. It was something I’d really enjoyed from the game and I thought I create it as a cosplay item for my own self-enjoyment.

            Looking at a picture of the sword I started creating the blueprints for the sword. It was an easy process to do as I just simply scaled down the sword to a size I believe was right. Creating a 1ft handle with a 3ft blade that totaled a 4ft design for the sword. But also using a protractor to get the angles of the sword so that it precisely reflects the sword, it’s details, cuts, and distinct sharpness. Then it was on to the process of planning every single detail that I was going to do and how I was going to do it.   

            In order to make the prop I first had to create the material needed to create the structure and fame of the sword. Some call this glued paper layers of a single printer paper but I know it as harden paper because it is much harder then card stock. To make this material, the materials needed are glue, printer paper, and a waiting time of about twenty-four hours to dry. First step was to fold the paper precisely in half or the piece would be crooked, then applying a layer of glue, and finally repeating that process on the same paper, making sure that it is flat and there are no air bubbles. Last step was drying it under a large object such as a book for twenty-four hours as it tends to warp during the drying process.

            After the harden paper became harden, I started building the structure of the sword. Adding on layers of harden paper to a point in which it could hold its own weight and in the form of a T shape. On the structure of the sword I drew an outline of the sword with a pencil, protractor, and ruler until it fit the designs of my blueprint. Using two small long sticks as support on both sides of the sword it became clear how sturdy and balanced the sword will become and it was time for the final part. Covering the wooden support in a matter where it shows the thickness and detailed parts of the sword. Afterward getting assistance from a fellow classmate, Natalie Sanchez to paint the sword mainly due to the reason that I’m not a descent painter. Combing multiple shades of yellow and silver that truly brings out the brightness and power of the god sword.

            Through this experience, I’ve learned a lot about my abilities and creating art. This was a memorable experience as I combined two different kind of art together into one form. Such as I made it a home project to work on none stop, where one time I was up still working until 3 a.m. and during Thanksgiving. Which I’ve truly enjoyed this process and this opened a new window for my next home art project that I’ve already started.   

Vichhay Roeung

Artist Statement #1

            My name is Vichhay Roeung, and I am junior at Science Leadership Academy. We were asked to build something we enjoyed or dreams of out of recyclable material. My sketches started out as simple lines, doodles, about what I wanted to make. What is there to know about me is that I enjoy learning about war, the history, the political standards, and especially the weapons of that time. At the time I was still hook on this new video game Halo Reach, that’s where I was inspired to make a sword. Which was not just because I’m Asian, I just happen to own a sword of my own to use as a model. But as the process went on I though I should challenge myself make a working light saber because I’ve always wanted to be a Jedi, “may the force be with me,” This is why I am an Artist.

            When building the light saber, I looked around for materials I could use. I didn’t plan for what I was going to do. Maybe I should have but I didn’t because I imagined what I going to do piece by piece. It may not had been a potential plan but we needed to use our imagination more often or we will never be able to create something wonderful without the creativity and far reaching goals of imagination. Nothing really goes as plan so I didn’t expect my art to be perfect but I expect it to express me. The way I made my light saber handle shine blue in the dark or with a different shrine the color changes to an orange glow for the plastic section.

            At first I knew I wanted the light saber to be authentic so there had to be a light source so that it can shrine and be like an actual light saber. I started with the handle; the handle consists of two-laundry cap, which I covered with the construction paper that holds toilet paper. But what kind of handle would it be without something that helps as a grip for the light saber so duck taped. Which worked well in giving a grip like feel to it but also an authentic look as if it was a piece of cloth on it. Now it was time for the difficult task using something that the light could shrine through but also a cylinder. Which was the reason I choose plastic bottles. I tried many ways to attach them together but it didn’t work. First was using staples, which gave no support as did glue. As a last resort I used duck tape, the only other way to attach them would be heating them together but I highly doubt I’m allow to because it involves fire.

            The light saber right now is pretty amazing. It glows; it’s durable, and it fluent in it’s movement when I do stunts with it. All in all it was fun making it and now I got a light saber. My technique in this art was simple, just create and fix later. I actually plan on adding more, adding transparent paper so the light will be trapped more in the bottle but also look more processional.

            I really hope to build on from this experience. My life’s goals from art are really just to make an energy sword from the video game Halo and my art career is finish. I saw my mistakes, the problems that came up, and even the solutions that I came up with to fix it. Such as this was truly a wonderful experience because it was building something about me, something I could use to express who I am and what I enjoy.     

For the second marking period I didn’t know what to do until one day I was so angry that I wanted to draw how angry I was. I realize I need something to do for the art and I thought that I should draw about my feelings. The first picture is about how I wanted to go back to Africa while I was talking to my friends from Africa. The flowers next to it are one of my favor flowers from Africa. The second picture was drawled before taking a math quiz and the only way I would have remember one of the question on the quiz was by drawing it. The third picture was drawled the day I realize my block is a long block. Since I live at the end of the block and every time I walk up the block I feel like I’m walking a mile. The fourth picture was drawing the day I got my history benchmark, I felt like I was in hell because I didn’t know what to do but then when I was done with the benchmark I was so happy that I felt like I was in heaven an that’s my definition of heaven and hell. When the fifth was drawing when I went back to the middle school I used to attend and I saw some of the pictures I toke during middle schooling and I want to redraw them into one picture. The last picture was drawled the last day this project to was due because I want to sign off, that I’m done with is project. I really enjoy doing this project because I got to   draw how I felt most of the time and every time I draw my feelings I feel good about it. With or without this project I will continue drawing my feelings.

            I slowly strolled down the vacant and wide hallway, carefully making my way down the small steep, still no one in sight. ‘I must be a few minutes early’, I thought to myself.  I then sit down, pull out my laptop, and opened Microsoft word. I hit the play button not sure what song will play, then I hear the instrumental of the song “Got Your Back” by T.I. featuring Keri Hilson. The smooth repeating beats started to play. As I hear the beats I started to write, not stopping to think but off the top of my head. I then felt a soft motion on my back. I pause the music and turn around to see one of my friends.

“Hey”

‘’Hey”

“What’s up?”

“Nothing much. Just listening to music.” My friend then looked over my head at my paper. She’s picked it up and started to read it.

“You writing a rap?”

“Yeah, why?”
“Nothin’, I just didn’t knew you rapped.”

“Not really. It’s just poetry I write and if I find a beat to match it then I rearrange the words.”

“Yo Bre.”
“Yea”

“Why you write so proper?”

“What do you mean?”
“Like you write the whole word out. Going, it’s ‘pose to be gonna, trying to be is ‘pose to be trynna be. If you supposed to be rapping you gotta rap like you black. Can’t use all these full and proper words. It don’t sound right. You sound so white.”

As she said those words, I thought about how I wrote and tried to relate it to how I talk. If I was doing the same thing but saying it out, the lyrics would have sounded a lot differently than how I would have written on paper.

In the words of James Baldwin, “It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof or power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identity: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.” What he’s saying is that people use different languages or dialogues in their multiple environments. This can also be known as code switching.

Growing up, my primary language was English, but since I am also Hispanic I also heard Spanish all around me. When I first started school, I was put into a Spanish Immersion Program where all my classes were taught in Spanish. When I was little I began to say small words like hola = hello, agua = water, and padre = father. I had taken the Spanish immersion classes until 5^th grade. I felt as though I had an advantage of everybody because I grew up hearing and beginning to speak Spanish.

A time when there was conflict dealing with my language was when I was in Spanish class in 7^th grade. No one was paying attention in class except for a few classmates and I. The next class period people who I haven’t even met before started to come and ask me to help with the Spanish homework. I asked them why me? They replied “because you’re Spanish you’re supposed to know this stuff.” Hearing that comment made me say no and continue to say no to anyone who asks me in the future. Not only are you stereotyping because of my race but you’re also assuming that since I talk Spanish in class, I talk it every single second of the day.

Another time there was a conflict with my language was when my friends and I were hanging out. There were a few business people walking around our school, and I was talking I guess you can say “ghetto”.

“Yo brov” said Person 1.

“What’s up man? Yo Bre” replied Person 2.

“Hey” I said.

“Whatsup witchu? Person 1 said.

“Nothin’ much, just chillin. Haven’t seen you in a minute.”

“Yeah I know. Been getting that bread.”

“O ok. You better be.”

From just hearing my voice and looking at me they assumed that I was unintelligent, loud, and unproper. But what they didn’t know what that I had to perform a welcome speech in front of them.

Once they saw me again about to perform my speech, I saw this look on their face. It looked as if their face was saying, 'she's going to act the same way she had before" But once I started speaking with a lot of new vocabulary that isn't on my grade level, my grammar, and the way my voice echoed throughout the auditorium, they looked and seemed shocked. As if they didn't think I could talk and act just like them. Caucasian, businessmen and businesswoman who has excellent vocabulary, speech, dialect, and can persuade an entire audience. I was just like them, the only different is my skin tone, race, and I'm a whole lot younger.

According to James Bolding, “language, also, far more dubiously, is meant to define the other—and, in this case, the other is refusing to be defined by a language that has never been able to recognize him” 

Language is a helpful way to see the personality or intelligence of the person speaking. It cannot completely define a person but it can show you where someone came from and the way they carry yourself.

Never forget where you came from and what makes you, you.

“How is the family?” my father asked my Uncle Lyee

“ Good, we in America how bad can it be?” Uncle Lyee replied with a laugh.

“Where are the kids?” My father asked.

“ FATiMAAAAAA and HAWAAAA!” Uncle Lyee yelled out my cousins’ names but they didn’t answer or come so he told me that they were in their room and I should go and call them. My father reacted to the way my uncle spoke to me but said nothing. My uncle spoke to me in English but my father thought he was going to talk to me in Mandingo.

 “ Hey, Uncle Musa!” Fatima and Hawa greeted my father in English.

“How are you guys?” my father asked in Mandingo.

“ Good, we didn’t know you guys were here.”  Before they could finish their sentence, I kept tapping their feet so they would answer my father in Mandingo but they didn’t understand the message.

“You guys don’t know how to speak Mandingo anymore?” my father asked, angry.

 “What do you mean Uncle Musa?” Fatima asked my father in English again.

My father told her that this is exactly what he was taking about. Every time he asked them something, they always answered him in English. Then he turned to my uncle and asked him why his children responded in English when a person is talking to them in Mandingo? My uncle didn’t have an answer to the question. My father also said that no family of his is going to avoid their native language for another language, whether you like it or not, just because it is what everyone around you speaks. He also told my uncle that kids would not know the importance of their native language until the parents show their child that their language matters. Mandingo is not taught in the school they go to but English is, so kids can’t learn Mandingo anywhere else but home and if he doesn’t speak Mandingo to his children no one else would. From that day on my uncle spoke Mandingo in his house.

 One day after school one of my American friends, Jennifer, and I came into my house to do our homework. We met my father in the house. My friend and I greeted him in English. He noticed that I didn’t want to speak Mandingo because I was with my friend, but he ignored it. Jennifer and I started talking about how our day was while we were doing our homework.

“ You and Maya weren’t at lunch today,” I said to Jennifer.

“ Yeah we was,” Jennifer replied.

Out of nowhere my father asked Jennifer what she had said.

“I said we was….” Jennifer repeated nervously.

Then my father told her that she should never say, “we was” because it is not proper English. The right way is “we were” not “we was.” From that day on Jennifer never said, “we was” again. Even if she was about to say it, she stopped herself then said “we were.”

When Jennifer left, my father told me that he had to talk to me about something, Even though I knew what the conversation was going to be about, I still acted like I had no idea. He said that he noticed I didn’t want to speak Mandingo because Jennifer was here. I told him yes.  He said if I would have spoken Mandingo in front of Jennifer she would have been amazed and would have wanted to learned how to speak it because she only knows one language which is English that she can’t even speak proper. He said that I should be lucky I know more than one language because most children in America speak one, and half of them don’t even speak it properly. What makes me different from most of them is where I’m from and the language I speak.

James Baldwin said, “My ‘home’ tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers. ” This shows that he code switches and he feels like he doesn’t have to talk to everyone the same way. The world may not understand his home language  but it is not for the world to hear. It is for his brother and sister to hear and understand.

I feel like James Baldwin and I share this quote because my sisters, my brother and I no longer speak French because we were so busy speaking English in the house. When my father noticed it, he told us that he brought us to this country to learn, but also not to forget everything we knew. He said he allows us to speak English in the house because he didn’t know it was going to get in the they way of the other two language that we speak. Learning a new language doesn’t mean trashing the old one. It just means you are capable of speaking three languages and not that many people are able to do that. Although we can’t speak French anymore my parents still speak it and Mandingo to us, Luckily we still know how to speak Mandingo! From that day on to now we are not allowed to speak English in the house.

How I wish I could look back to understand
Back to when lives were taken
Back to when families were separated
Back to when children were murdered
I wish I could have helped to same them
I wish I could have tried to understand this senseless taking of human life, they were no different than you or I
They did not deserve this pain, this torture
I wish I could look back to understand, to set lives free to learn their pain and frustration
Trying to understand;
I can hear their screams, I can hear their pain, I can hear their fear
I can hear a mother’s cry when children are shot down
Oh, that pain so great, so terrible
I can smell the odor, the odor of burning human life
I can smell the sweat, the sweat of hard labor
I can smell the fear, such an atrocity
I can see footage today, trying to learn what had happened to them
I watch the films today, trying to comprehend the pain they went through
We all see the pictures, watch the torture just trying to imagine this tragedy
But the fact is we can’t, unless our human life undergoes this
These poor people, my heart cries out but there is nothing I can do
Oh, please hear me. I am so sorry this had to happen to you
You time is, now, it is here, time o treat, time to be reunited and live everlasting in that great kingdom called HEAVEN

       My heart burns for your love

My lips burn for your kiss

My body burns for your touch

I wish I could love you

I wish I could kiss you

I wish I could touch you

There aren’t enough emotions in the world to express my love for you

But you don’t know how I feel

Not once have I felt your love

Not once have I felt your kiss

Not once have I felt your loving touch

If only I could

My world would be complete

If only you were in it

If only you could love me

Even if it’s only for a day

If I could love you, kiss you, and touch you

It will heal my burning desire

• Have at least one SRC representative to report back to. This person will guide you through this process, answer all questions, show support, lead you in the right direction, and help you get the job done so you can reach across to all schools.
• Visit various schools to see how education is perceived there.
• Take a survey from students at all different types of schools. Refer back to the survey we created in one of our earlier blog posts.
• Attend some SRC Meetings so that the public can know what you are lobbying for. You also need the School Reform Commission’s meetings to allow the public to understand your views as attending Student Reform Commission meetings. The officials who conduct these meetings can allow the issues to reach the higher powers above. http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/s/src/schedule
• These are the allies that you need on board in order to allow your points to reach a higher power in the world. These are the people who can help you make that happen:
• Robert A. Brady
• Michael Nutter
• Johnny Irizarry
• Denise McGregor Armbrister
• The Lifeworks Alternative School.
• Ozzie Wright (Father of Maya Wright [Class of 2011] )

Never forget where you came from and what makes you, you.

“How is the family?” my father asked my uncle Lyee

“ Good, we in America how bad can it be?” uncle Lyee reply with a laugh.

“Where are the kids?” My father asks.

“ FATAMAAAAAA and HAWAAAA!” Uncle Lyee yelled out my cousin’s names but they didn’t answer or come so he told me that they were in their room and I should go and call them. My father reacted to the way my uncle spoke to me but said nothing. My uncle spoke to me in English but my father thought he was going to talk to me in Mandingo.

 “ Hey, uncle Musa!” Fatama and Hawa greeted my father in English.

“How are you guys?” my father asked in Mandingo.

“ Good, we didn’t know you guys were here.”  Before they could finish their sentence, I kept taping their feet so they would answer my father in Mandingo but they didn’t understand the message.

“You guys don’t know how to speak Mandingo anymore?” my father asked with an angry.

 “What to you mean uncle Musa?” Fatama asked my father in English again.

My father told her that this is exactly what he was taking about. Every time he asked them something, they always answer him in English. Then he turned to my uncle and asked him why his children responded in English when a person is talking to them in Mandingo? My uncle didn’t have an answer to the question. My father also said that no family of his is going to avoid their native language for a language that you speak, rather you like it or not, because is what everyone around you speak. He also told my uncle that kids would not know the important of their native language until the parents show their child that their language matter. Mandingo is not taught in the school they go to but English is, so kids can’t learn Mandingo anywhere else but home and if he doesn’t speak Mandingo to his children no one else would. From that day on my uncle spoke Mandingo in his house.

One day after school one of my American friend Jennifer and I came into my house to do our homework. We met my father in the house. My friend and I greeted him in English. He noticed that I didn’t want to speak Mandingo because I was with my friend, but he ignored it. Jennifer and I started talking about how our day was while we were doing our homework.

“ You and Maya weren’t at lunch today.” I said to Jennifer.

“ Yeah we was” Jennifer replied.

Out of nowhere my father asked Jennifer what she had said.

“I said we was….” Jennifer repeated nervously.

Then my father told her that she should never say, “we was” because it not proper English. The right way is “we were” not “we was.” from that day on Jennifer never said, “we was” again. Even if she was about to say it, she stops herself then said “we were.”

When Jennifer left, my father told me that he had to talk to me about something, Even though I knew what the conversation was going to be about, I still acted like I had no idea. He said that he notice I didn’t want to speak Mandingo because Jennifer was here. I told him yes.  He said if I would had spoken Mandingo in front of Jennifer she wouldn’t had been amazed and would had want to learned how to speak it because she only know one language which is English that she can’t even speak proper in. He said that I should be lucky I know more than one language because most children in America one speak one English and half of them don’t even speak it proper. What make me different from most of them is where I’m from and the language I speak.

James Baldwin said “My “home” tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, ” This shows that he tongues switches and he feels like he doesn’t have to talk to everyone the same way. The world may not understand his home language it is because is not for the world to hear. It is for his brother and sister to hear and understand.

I feel like James Baldwin and I share this quote because my sisters, my brother and I no longer speak French because we were so busy speaking English in the house. When my father noticed it, he told us that he brought us ot this country to learn, but also not to forget everything we knew. He said he allow us to speak English in the house because he didn’t know it was going to get in the they way of the other two language that we speak. Learning a new language doesn’t mean trashing the old one. It just means you are capable of speaking three language and not that many people are able to do. Although we can’t speak French anymore my parents still speak it and Mandingo to us, luckily we still know how to speak Mandingo. From that day on to now we are not allowed to speak English in the house.

English- Language

            Slang. It's the basis of every teen's speech. Whether its shortened words or new words all together, it slips into everyday use without cause. Sometimes it's a play on words, or borrowed from another language. Either way it shapes the way one presents them self. It differentiates neighborhoods, race and even gender.

            In daily life, it becomes easy to pick up the speech that others use. The first time the word or phrase is spoken it seems foreign on the tongue, but with enough practice an outsider might think you started the trend. Language is an art from the day we learn to say the simplest of words. With art comes practice. Creating art gives an individual a certain brand of power-- the power to be anyone, anywhere, anytime, crafting, twisting and forming a second dialect of sorts as everyone gets in on the trend. Every group, being a circle of friends, a school or neighborhood holds the rulebook when it comes to their speech. James Baldwin wrote that, “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality they cannot articulate.” James Baldwin understands perfectly how many teens work in today’s world. If there is not a word for something, make one up. To feel apart of a culture or even a neighborhood within a city, one will start using unfamiliar words to “control their circumstance”. Suddenly one person hears something they have never heard of or used. That new word is added to their vocabulary. They begin to say it with fervor as if they had made up the word themselves. Then in turn the masses begin using it. Thus, if you use it you are inducted into the club. Wear the badge proudly. Now you sound like everybody else. Beat that word to death until somebody else introduces another acronym or Spanish word that sounds funny. It is like you're in on the secret now. The word may have gone over your head three or four times until you pulled someone aside and asked them in serious undertone what it means.

            Besides fitting in, speech can be crafted as a sport. Trendsetting becomes recreation. My friends are big on the whole “making fun of each other and not really meaning it”. One friend made a joke about the status of another friend’s relationship.

“Ohhhh burn!”

 “Dude, you salty!!”

I exclaim, trying out my new word while motioning of screwing a top on a jar, “You just got jarred!”

 My friends looked to me with inquisitive faces. Though I knew that they didn’t know what it meant I still said,

 "Oh! You never heard that word before? Wow."

I had learned Australian slang and wanted to pass it on. Most people strive to introduce the next big thing. My best friend traveled to Australia over the summer. We had quite the time dissecting some of the things she had heard during her time there. With that, I told my friends at school about this Australian slang. Every time I said one of the words, I felt that individuality. James Baldwin’s quote works in this sense as well. I wanted to know something another didn’t and in an effort to “articulate a reality” I continued to evolve language we already used. It didn’t matter that we already had a phrase for what we meant. It was easy to get over that awkwardness when asked what something I said meant. It didn't matter because I got their attention and next time when I heard them say my word I would know I had started that. Before you realize, it melds into common language. Now that everyone knows, or pretends and asks later, what it means, a new trend has been initiated and accepted by the majority. I used a word from another country to stand out in a crowd.

            Anyone can start a transformation of language. It is human instinct to learn and be curious as well as adapt to surrounding. One may find they speak in a way they didn’t think they could or never realized they did. To adapt to the people around you, change the tone or speed. To sound smart, use “big” words. Use a word from another town. You start out being the only one who says it, it gets people's attention, creates interest. If you have a British accent and cockney slang you may just be in the running for most popular kid in the class.

Rebecca Rainis

English – Ms. Pahomov

Brian’s Language

I have 3 close friends; Taylor, Jade and Brian. They all come from different parts of Philadelphia, and none of them act the same. The way I speak with every one of them individually is the same because I don’t feel the need to monitor my language around different people, unless it’s teachers and elders. I can talk to Taylor, Jade and Brian seriously, goofily, or just normally, but regardless the type of our conversation, my language and speech is the same with all of them, as theirs is with me.

            I’ve experienced Jade and Taylor around other people, and it seems as if they speak the same way they do with me, with others. I believe it’s easiest to have one type of language for all groups of people, because in a way, language shows others who you are.

            Because Brian is one of my best friends, as well as my boyfriend, I’m around him often. During the week, he meets me after school and we hang out together, alone. The way he talks around me when we’re alone is a lot like the way I speak. I speak with proper sentences, and I don’t use much slang. A typical conversation between Brian and I would go like this:

            “Hey Brian.”

            “Hey. What’s up?”

            “Not much, how about you?”

            “Nothing’s really up with me either. How was your day at school?”

            “It was alright; a little bit stressful, but I’ll get through it.”

            “Well that’s good to hear.”

Despite our weekly plans, on the weekends, we usually go to hang out with his friends. Majority of his friends are from the projects, which is a very bad neighborhood. For this reason, Brian’s friends come to a small park outside of the projects to hang out. The way they talk could be referred to as ‘ghetto’. They drag their words, and combine words to make their sentences shorter. Instead of hi or hello, they say yo. Rather than saying “with you”, they say “witchu”. They even abbreviate each other’s names. For instance, a lot of Brian’s friends simply call him B.

When we’re around Brian’s friends, he talks more like they do. It’s as if he has two completely different personalities, because he uses two completely different languages. A typical conversation with Brian and one of his friends would go like this:

“Yo B, wassup?”

“Nut’in, jus chillin’. How you been?”

“I been ard. Did I tell you ‘bout las weekend?”

“Naw cuz, what happened?”

“We got in the whip and drove to a party. It was poppin’!”

“Thas wassup!”

I know this language sounds confusing, but to clarify things, ard means alright; naw means no; cuz is just another slang term meaning friend, similar to homie; a whip is a car; and poppin’ means fun. 

According to James Baldwin, language “…is the most vivid and crucial key to identify: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.” He is saying that language is one of the most important things to consider when it comes to identifying someone, and it has the power to join people with or separate people from the public, as well as the identity of a community. Brian’s language around one group of people revealed who he was around them, and his language when him and I were alone revealed who he was when he was with me. It was hard for me to figure out what Brian’s true language was, because he was so different when it came to two groups of people. I agree with James Baldwin, because as Brian and my relationship went on, the differences between Brian’s two languages taught me a lot about him.

When Brian and I first became good friends, I noticed the language he used around his friends and I, and how different they were. I immediately figured that the reason for this was because he wanted to fit in with his friends, but as we grew closer, something changed my mind.

There are times when Brian and I are alone, and he starts to talk like his friends. When he talks to me individually that way, I sometimes get offended, because it seems as though he’s talking to me as if I’m just his friend, when at the same time, I’m also his girlfriend. However, this helped me to understand which language was true to him.

He wasn’t using the language he used around his friends with me because he looked at me as one of his friends; he would slip up and use that language because that was what was true to him. He’s known his friends much longer than he’s known me, and aside from the fact that I would get offended when he used the language he uses with his friends, with me, I assumed that the reason he talked a completely different way with me than with his friends is because his friends and I have two completely different languages. His friends use slang; I don’t. His friends find simple ways to abbreviate words; I spell and speak my words wholly and properly.

Although I was mislead by Brian’s two different types of languages, I appreciate his effort to make me happy in a simple way by speaking the same way that I do when with me. It shows me many things, other than the type of person Brian is. It teaches me that language can define a person, and people can change their language for other people, which is a very valuable thing to know.

Inconsistency

Taahir Henry

Gold English

January 13 2011

“I thought you was dumb at first.” said my friend

“Why you say dat?” I asked.

“Cuz, you just big and you talk like everybody else.”

“So everybody dumb?”

“You know what I mean.”

“Ard, but you still don’t make any sense.”

“Its cuz of the fact that you just sound kind of slow when you talk.”

“How?”

“Cuz, you just sound slow sometimes.”

“Maybe I’m thinking about what I’m gonn say.”

“Or you just sound dumb.”

“Ard, but then why do you think I’m smart.”

“Cuz the way you talk to us and the way you talk to teachers not the    same”

“Huh?”

“When you talk to us you don’t talk the same, like when you talk to a teacher you use the whole word and your voice change”

“Ard”.  I didn’t really know what he meant because I never heard anything like that before.  How could I sound dumb one minute, and then sound intelligent the next?

 I noticed that I actually did change my tone and fully pronounced my words when I spoke to teachers.  He was right, but how could I have never recognized this myself?  I started to notice that I was not the only one who changed their voice and speech based on who they were talking to.  My mother, aunt, and grandmother did the same thing.  I must have picked up the habit from hearing them.  They used a more relaxed natural tone when they were talking to someone that they knew personally.  The opposite occurred when they were trying to be professional.   I first noticed this when my mom would call the bank to get account information or if she called to get her car serviced.   It only happened in situations where they wanted to be professional and taken seriously.  Being taken seriously is important if you need to get things done.

I would have been mocked by my peers for being proper, but would have been perceived as incompetent by adults and teachers for using slang.  “Code switching” is something that made things a lot more convenient, because I could choose the appropriate time to speak a certain way.  The way I spoke was as a result of growing up around people who usually didn’t use proper English, except in situations where they thought it was necessary.   I sort of had an at home voice and a voice that I used for those I didn’t know so well.  Richard Rodriguez said, “They regarded the people at work, the faces in crowds, as very distant from us they were the others, los gringos.”  The people in the essay saw themselves as being completely different from “Los Gringos” because they spoke a different language, which caused them to feel separate.  This is similar to how the members of my family and I felt about people who spoke differently than we did.  I know this is true because my family tends to use “business like” voices when they are at work and they would speak normally anywhere else.  Language can show who you are, and your level of education, which is important.