DW1b (frustration)

"You may have dark skin, but you must not sound Black. You can wear a yarmulke if it is important to you as a Jew, but lose the accent. Maybe you come from Ukraine, but can't you speak real English? If you didn't sound so corn-pone, people would take you seriously. You're the best salesperson we've got but must you sound so gay on the phone?" - Leah A. Zuidema



In this quote from "Myth Education" people that come from a certain background or show certain traits from their heritage are all expected to speak or present themselves a totally different way from what they are accustomed to. They are expected to be able to fit in so perfectly. This is similar to my to my literacy narritive because in it I talk about the different ways people are expected to speak and how the y are judged and what might be said if the don't do what's expected of them.

I feel that I don't speak too bad but at the same time my dialect could be better. I present myself as the person I am expected to be when needed. In the text above, people are automatically supposed to be accustomed to this way of life, they are expected to be able to fit in and speak "Standard English" like most Americans are taught in school, but where does these expectations come from? Are they generated from our peers or greater authority? Who's to say that "Standard English" is the only way to be perceived as an intelligent individual? No one in particular can say that "Black English" is the "wrong" way to speak but because one person or even a group of people said that people have to use a certain dialect or use proper grammar when in pressing situations like a classroom of a job interview, then we just "go with the flow." Why don't we challenge these things? Is it because we're scared or is it because we feel it's right.

As I stated before I feel my verbal dialect isn't too bed but yet when I'm in a class room or a situation where I feel the need to impress someone I try to sharpen it up a little. I can remember as a child, having to be around seven or eight up until about the age of sixteen,my uncle would correct me. Every single time, it never failed. As soon as words like "pushin" or "happenin" or anything that was supposed to have an "ing" on the end would leave my lips, he would quickly repeat the word the way others intend it to be. This got to the point that I started correcting myself eve if I wasn't in his presence, it just became a good habit. My writing is where I lack these skills, and because I went to a school that didn't press the issue of learning proper grammar skills and actually knowing what the difference between an adverb an a verb is, I'm ignorant in that area. I know different things like when to use "do not" instead of "don't and when to add an "ing" to the ending of my words, but because I've become so accustomed to writing on Facebook or using text messages I tend to wring professional papers or applications using the same format. As I begin to catch these mistakes I soon realize that these bad habits need to change. The problem isn't lying so much with my verbal communication but with my written.