Growing up, I spoke mainly two languages, Hindi and English. I wouldn\u2019t use English as much at home as I would when outside but I did tend to mix it in with my Hindi. In fact, I would, or rather do, tend to mix in Punjabi as well. As an Indian who lives in the U.S.A, the way I talk always seems weird to relatives who would meet me after a long time.It was weird to them because I would mix these 3 languages up without even realizing it. They expected me to be like them or even my parents, to be able to realize how I\u2019m talking, especially in the context of situation and\/or environment. To me, in my everyday speech, both sound really similar but they\u2019re not. For example, something in Hindi would be pronounced with a more emphasis and more of an accent in Punjabi. If a stranger who spoke either of the two languages heard me, they\u2019d probably be able to guess the type of environment I grew up in, my education and socioeconomic class.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now that I\u2019ve given a brief explanation as to my speech in languages other than English, this arises the question of how would the general public describe my language? Would it be the prestige form or the stigmatized form? To be honest, I don\u2019t think it would be either. I think this because my Hindi\/Punjabi isn\u2019t like those of the higher status but it\u2019s not like those of the lower status either. Although, if I really had to pick one, I think it would lean more towards the prestige form. Sure, there are few moments where I may talk like those in the stigmatized form but for the most part, I think my Hindi\/Punjabi is decent enough to kind of be considered as the prestige form. However, this is just what I think. How would someone who didn\u2019t know me think? Maybe they\u2019d say it\u2019s in the middle but leaning towards the stigmatized form. Why? Well, probably because they would start comparing the way I talk to the way they talk and think, \u201cOh, I talk way better than her, she\u2019s probably from a lower class,\u201d which may not be true. Here\u2019s an example, the way I pronounce something is different from the way my cousin may pronounce it and sure, he\u2019ll make fun of me for it but, in all honesty? There wasn\u2019t a much of a difference. It\u2019s all about the way you were brought up and how you grew up speaking a certain way. <\/span><\/p>\n

By doing this assignment, I\u2019ve thought more deeply about how people tend to perceive us on the basis of the way we talk. For example, someone in India, may think English could be good enough for them to get by in a setting where they would have to use English. Then, I come along and that person doesn\u2019t know that I\u2019m from the U.S., may think that either I received an expensive education or that I studied abroad. This example shows how a person would perceive me, on the basis of how our English was and how mine sounded much different from theirs. Along with that perceiving people on their speech, I\u2019ve thought a lot more about how these very attitudes are another way in which varying forms of discrimination occur. A person who didn\u2019t receive much of an education or grew up in a neighborhood that wasn\u2019t that great, is going to talk in mostly slang as compared to someone who received a good education and grew up in a good neighborhood. That person that received a good education may start to think less of the other person which is basically discrimination. The way I see, the \u201cbetter\u201d your speech is, the more likely you are to discriminate or criticize someone who with a \u201clesser\u201d speech, whether it be implicit or explicit discrimination\/criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Questions: <\/b><\/p>\n

\n
1. After rereading my work, I think my introduction could use some work, I\u2019m just not sure what I can do to improve it.<\/span><\/li>\n
2. I think the essay I answered the given questions about language but the body is only one paragraph. Are there parts that I can take out of the either introduction or conclusion so that I can create another body paragraph or is it fine the way it is? <\/span><\/li>\n
3. Does this essay seem to make sense because after rereading it, it feels like it doesn\u2019t and that I\u2019m just rambling. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   Growing up, I spoke mainly two languages, Hindi and English. I wouldn\u2019t use English as much at home as I would when outside but I did tend to mix it in with my Hindi. In fact, I would, or rather do, tend to mix in Punjabi as well. As an Indian who lives in the U.S.A, the way I talk<\/p>\n

   Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":681,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org\/ell101fall18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}