About The Way How Someone Speaks

Are you more likely to judge the way someone speaks or the way someone writes? Do you think it is a more serious offense to use non-mainstream English in writing or in speaking? What sort of writing? What sort of speaking?

Personally, I would judge the way someone writes more than they speak. I find myself judging more on how someone speaks because when we first meet a person we hear them speak before they write. Based on my experience, however, if I get to see someone’s writing or even just their texts I would begin to judge them more on their writing. I, myself, am a very sensitive and quiet person. I have never enjoyed talking in front of a group of people. For some reason, I have never been able to speak comfortably and truthfully when talking to a large group. It is most likely due to me being thin-skinned and having a fragile mindset; I persistently think, as I live, of the worst case scenarios that could happen. I know that I shouldn’t be ruminating in such a manner, but I can’t help but think, “What if they think I’m weird?” “Will I sound weird if I say this?” “What if I’m wrong? That’s going to be so embarrassing!” Thinking this way even frustrates myself, but it just happens to be how I live. I grew up in a household where being wrong led to consequences and these consequences trained me to think that being wrong is not allowed. I know I will not go to jail for being wrong. I know people will not hate me for being wrong. I know everyone makes mistakes constantly, and it’s normal. And I know that even sometimes, there is no “wrong”. I know. Yet I still fear. Simply put, I hate being wrong. I also hate that I hate being wrong. Still, I fear.

However, when I write, I can just let everything out, like right now. No one is watching me as I write (at least most of the time). If some people saw me writing this, I would feel unnerved. But they’re not watching, and I know it, so I’m not afraid. When I talk to someone in person, versus when I text them, I find myself exposing more of my true self as I text. My true, bubbly personality shows up through texting. I no longer fear the others’ thoughts because I can not see their face, and am unaware of how they react.

On the other hand, it actually may be fairer to equally judge one based on both speaking and writing. Though there are many people like me, who are able to express who they are stronger through writing, there are also many people who are much better at revealing who they are through speaking. Unlike my experiences, some people are worse at hiding who they are when they are in front of people.

Different people come from different places, and the words, grammar, and accents all vary. This usually only applies to when they speak, so some English accents may seem harsher than others. However, the way one speaks, accent-wise, is just how they learn the language growing up as that is what they are exposed to since they are young. So, it can not be fair to judge someone on how they speak.

I had read an article about accent discrimination a couple years ago. My parents were telling me their story about their immigration to the States from Seoul. Though my father speaks English pretty well now, his accent is not even close to any standard English accent. He told me about his struggles with his accent issue and how he felt looked down on at times, and sometimes he was nervous to speak because he was so conscious of his accent. That night I wanted to know if any others had experienced something similar, so I searched online. I thought that if one were exposed to the environment for long enough and practiced speaking the language, wouldn’t their accent improve? However, the article that I came across, “The reason you discriminate against foreign accents starts with what they do to your brain,” said otherwise. The article states that no matter how perfect one understands the grammar of a language and how great one’s vocabulary is, one will have a foreign accent if one learned the language as an adult, due to one’s “developmental window” closing. And my parents started learning English when they were close to 30 years old. So, it is indeed unfair to judge someone’s accent, especially if they are an adult because it is likely that they moved to a foreign country as an adult.

At 6:21 in Do You Speak American?, Pam Head talks about a conversation she once had with a Texan girl when buying a “cah”, and the Texan girl could not understand. And when the girl clarifies “car”, Pam denied her Texas accent and exclaimed “cah!” once again. But if Pam Head had written “car” down, it would be the same as how the Texan girl, and anyone else, would write the word. If the girl saw the word written down, she would have understood Pam immediately. Speaking and writing are different, and technically, this shows through writing, people would be able to understand each other more comfortably, though people tend to judge others by the way they speak. At 30:09, Barbara Johnstone states, “This local accent which is different from how people talk elsewhere is available as a way of talking about place, and all the while they’re talking about who they are and where they live and what it means to live here.” Essentially, an accent can represent where the person is from and through their accent, they can show what it is like living where they are from. An accent merely represents the person’s living. For example, say that two people from different areas with different accents both state something meaning exactly the same thing and they say it with the same heart, but they sound completely different due to the varying word use and enunciation on certain syllables. However, when writing, there is no enunciating on certain syllables and words. No one usually portrays their local accent while writing. So, if the two people were asked to write down the statements, they would sound more similar, or maybe even the same.

I think that depending on who someone is speaking or writing to, it can be a serious offense to use non-mainstream English for both. Speaking or writing, conversing with a close friend, it is not a serious offense to use non-mainstream English. It, in fact, is stranger nowadays to not use mainstream English. Vice versa, speaking to someone formally, it would be a great offense to use non-mainstream English both when speaking and writing.

Overall, based on what I have experienced and observed as I watched Do You Speak American? people should judge one another less by how they speak, and try to pay attention more to each other’s writing as well.

Does instant messaging present a threat to spoken and/or written language? Does e-mail? Consider that people have been writing informal personal letters for centuries. How is e-mail similar to or different from informal letters? How does the range between formality and informality in written language compare with the range in spoken language? Can there be a standard instant messaging language?

Instant messaging does, in my opinion, present a threat to the traditional language, spoken and written. When messaging friends, the language people use is different. Since years ago, slang and abbreviations have been used. For example, words such as “LOL”, “LMAO” or “OMG” are used commonly in messaging. I do not even realize myself that as I talk to my friends I am saying “l-m-a-o” instead of saying something like “That’s so funny!” This happens because this is the kind of language I use when I text my friends. My friends have told me funny stories when they wrote “smth” instead of “something” when writing their essay. It has become a habit for many people to use this “texting language”. There is not a standard instant messaging language, as there are still people that do not use slang and abbreviations when they text. But, if we think about “instant messaging language”, we would probably immediately think of “lol” and emojis. Essentially, this language is able to be used due to the informality of text messaging. We would never really text message our school principal.

In Do You Speak American?, at 16:40, Robert Macneil narrates, “Written English has always been the preserver of Standard English, but written standards are always under assault. The latest threat comes from instant messaging.” Then, Kate shows how people do not use proper punctuation and use abbreviations when texting, such as the use of “g2g” in place of “got to go”. Just as I wrote earlier, text messaging has a large negative influence on the English language, and Kate portrays this as well. Additionally, Jesse Sheidlower mentions that written English has become very informal and even news articles are written with “slangy language” at times. I do agree that written English has become less formal, especially with instant messaging as Kate says. However, today, news articles still seem to be in a formal language and people still write well formally when they need to.

ITV News broadcasted titled “Are emojis behind deteriorating ability to speak English?” A lot of my friends use emojis in almost every text they send. We use emojis to converse almost excessively. The video report states that the “reliance on emojis could be to the detriment of a broad vocabulary.” Communicating–speaking or writing–is the most effective way to get better at a language. As people use their languages less, they are being less exposed to the language, which will, in the end, lead to a decline in the ability of the language. It is not just our vocabulary that is negatively affected, however. I have found myself, and many of my friends, making the smallest grammar mistakes that even an elementary school student could see. We always laugh it off, but not too long ago, I realized how these “funny” mistakes were being made more and more often. A student who was interviewed by ITV News mentioned how this “emoji language” is universal and anyone, old or young, can use it. So, of course, there are pros to emojis, but with the goods, always comes the bads. Losing the ability to speak your language is, you would think, is pretty bad. 😉

On the other hand, I do not believe e-mail presents much of a threat to the language. E-mail is usually used for more formal purposes, such as work or school. Today, to contact someone of more authority than us, the most basic method would be communicating through e-mail. Then would be letters, but letters seem to be used less today. When writing emails, people use traditional English and standard grammar, unless the email is to a close friend. We usually do not use email to get in touch with a friend, however.

Personally, I feel that it is difficult to compare emails to informal letters due to the fact that emails have been used for more formal purposes in today’s day. If it were seven years ago, emails would be much more similar to informal personal letters as emails were more efficient than text messaging.

It seems to me that the range of formality and informality is similar in both written and spoken language. If I bring back the school principle example, we have to write in the same formal way as how we would speak to them. Informality is similar but may differ in a way such that it is harder to get as informal as text message language when speaking. Earlier, I stated that people usually use slang and abbreviations when texting. It is difficult to use this text message language when actually speaking because it is strange to be saying “o-m-g” instead of “oh my god”, though instances like this do occur unintentionally. Overall, however, the spoken and written languages do not have a large difference in the range of formality and informality.

Our standard English language has, unquestionably, changed and lost a lot of its traditionality over the years.

MacNeil says, “Americans are terribly concerned with correctness.” Do you agree? From which groups of people do we tend to expect correctness? From which people do we typically not demand correctness? Are there any people that we prefer be non-correct in their speech?

MacNeil’s statement, “Americans are terribly concerned with correctness,” does not, in my opinion, apply to all Americans. However, I have come across many Americans who are obsessed over correctness, to the point where others have to calm them down. People can be extremely sensitive about how certain words are used and pronounced. I remember an elementary school teacher that I had that probably spent more time making us pronounce words until they sounded perfect–or at least what she perceived as perfect–than actually learning grammar and practicing the language effectively, like practicing to use conversational English. Because I had a teacher like this in elementary school, and a couple others throughout middle school, I grew up expecting teachers to always be correct. Now that, obviously, is not true at all. Elementary school students always used to make it a huge deal when a teacher made a mistake. That has made me delude myself a lot: that teachers should always be correct, even though I know in the back of my mind that it is not true.

In general, however, people would most likely expect linguists to be correct. Linguists study every aspect of a language: sound, grammar, vocabulary, and evolution of words. They are essentially “language experts,” so people, or at least I, would find it strange if a linguist were to make mistakes on the language. But again, they are human too.

I, personally, try not to demand correctness from anyone. Outside of English, everyone kind of just speaks how they want, and they usually aren’t judged. Especially if someone is young. It is a bit hard to demand correctness from, for example, an elementary schooler. Furthermore, demanding correctness is hard for someone like me to do. I am a shy and sensitive person, so trying to correct someone would make me feel bad Unless they are a close friend, demanding correctness from a person I barely know would make me feel quite awkward. It is different for everyone, but I feel that demanding correctness from anyone can come out as slightly disrespectful.

I do not think I have ever known anyone that I prefer to be non-correct in their speech. Preferring someone to be non-correct seems a bit strange. While we talk to our close friends, it may be strange to talk with perfect, standard, traditional English. However, it is not that we prefer to talk in non-correct English; I believe it just has to do with how the English language has evolved so much over time.

Kellam Barta, Lecturer in the NDSU English Department and founder of the NDSU Language Diversity Ambassadors, a fledgling group cast in the mold of NC State’s program, hopes to spread the message that there is a privilege that comes with speaking varieties of English and that people should respect the differences in English pronunciation, grammar, and word choice. He starts of his Ted Talk with an example. The North Dakota State University mascot is the Bison. The locals pronounce it “bi-zon”, yet almost the entire rest of the country pronounces the word with an “s”, not a “z”. Barta mentions at 1:17 into his Ted Talk–and I mentioned in question two as well–how one’s accent “serves as a local or social identifier.” And he adds to that, saying that not saying “it” correctly will lead to social consequences. So, it does seem like a lot of the American population is obsessed with correctness, if “wrongness”, which is actually a mere difference and not a deficit, has to lead to social consequences.

At 25:55 of Do You Speak American? linguist Dennis Preston goes around a train and has people draw on a blank map of the United States the areas where they believe people speak differently. Besides dialect areas, people drew circles on the map around where they believe wrong and correct English is spoken. Preston states that nine out of ten people drew on the south of the United States or New York. The locals of these places are known to use “bad English”. I do not see what the “bad English” is, what the correct and non-correct English is. Wherever a person lives, they are exposed to that area and environment, intrinsically from birth, so they grow up learning the language the way it is spoken by the rest of the people in the area. This is how the language grows in the area. No one can help it. Accents may seem harsher and the word choices may seem less smart. Regardless, to locals it is normal. We should all be accepting any English as just English. No correct, no non-correct, no bad, no good.