DW1a

            Language, to me, is much more than the words we speak or how we speak them.  When I think about language I consider the tone in which it is said, the message it conveys, posture, facial expressions, and even more factors that influence the response of the receiver of the message.  When thinking of language in this way, it is very easy for me to see a difference in how I use language at school and at home.  To put these differences on display I will talk about a few instances in which language changes with environment.

            Home is a place of comfort for me and that is shown with my language.  When at home I feel no pressure to speak in a certain way and I think that this is a good thing.  I have very different speaking habits than those of my parents but still I feel that I can speak in whatever way I feel most comfortable.  School is different for me, and I think for most students, because it is an environment of judging.  No matter what people say school is all about judgments; grades, clothing, and even speech.

            My speech at home evolved over time because as I said before I speak in different ways than those of my parents.  When I was young I spoke like them but as I got older and was on my own more my speech evolved.  Playing basketball had a large impact on my speech, as odd as that sounds.  During the summer months, when I have the ability to be outside, I like to go to the park in my city and play basketball.  The park was always busy and there were always tons of different people, who spoke in different ways.  This is when I noticed the biggest change in my language because with all of the diversity at the park I was exposed to many people who would use AAE.  I picked up certain habits of AAE, and I can communicate with people better having that exposure because hearing it and speaking it is nothing new.

            Another happening in my life that has affected the way that I speak and my understanding of AAE was when a new family moved next door to me.  They were an African American family and had two boys, one the same age as I was and one of them two years younger.  Soon after they moved in Kenney (the older of the two) and I became best friends.  Similar to the event I spoke of above, this gave me exposure to not only speech habits but also to people who were different than me on the outside but some of the best people I’ve ever met.

            So, with these experiences my language changed, but my school language was not affected.  When speaking in school or writing a piece for school, it is embedded in my brain that I must pay attention to every detail of what is being written/spoken.  My school language has been uniform for my whole life, while my home language has changed with my environment and experiences.  When texting to one of my friends I would never use such “proper” words (depending on what is consider proper I guess) but in school it has become second nature.