Linguistic Autobiography II

When I was born, the language spoken in my family was Standard American English. Since this was the only language in our household, it stands to reason that it was also my first and primary language. Even with SAE being my basis for speaking, there was always a slight Hispanic influence in the communications of our household, linguistically, if not culturally. As far back as I can remember, Dad has always used bits and snippets of Spanish. The most constant phrase I heard was, “Andale! Vamanos!” (Hurry up! Let’s go!). My dad is not Hispanic. By far, no. The reason for this influence can be traced to his work with inmate crews, the majority of whom were of Spanish-speaking individuals. It was necessary for him to learn enough Spanish to be able to communicate, and I suppose it simply carried over into home life. Even so, I think generally Spanish was considered, in our household, to be a “lower” language. I think Mantsios’ idea of “phrases like working class, upper class, and ruling class” (57) rarely being uttered by Americans is true. Though hardly ever verbalized, I believe that Spanish was thought to be a “lower class” language where I used to live, while American English (maybe mixed with some Spanish) was associated more with the “working class,” and SAE (and possibly another foreign language) was connected with the “upper class.”

Since we lived in such a small, culturally varied town, there were many opportunities to overhear conversations in another language. It was mostly Spanish, but our town (Forks) was situated directly on Highway 101, so many tourists came through the area speaking their own languages, such as Japanese. The surrounding area was also the residence of many Native American tribes, for example, the Makah. From a very early age I visited or passed through these reservations, as well as touring Natural History Museums and watching videos about their culture. All of this was also part of the curriculum of the school I attended. We discussed in depth the Native Americans of the Olympic Peninsula, so I grew accustomed to hearing their language spoken, as well as knowing a lot about their culture. For all of these reasons, I don’t believe there was ever a time when I didn’t know of the existence of multiple languages. It has always been a part of my life.

When I was in elementary school, I remember in particular one new student who only spoke Spanish. It was a real challenge to try to communicate, resorting to a pictionary/charades type of communication. Our school didn’t even have what Johnson refers to as an Immersion Program for LEP students, which is “to place the children with teachers who are bilingual but in a classroom context where English is the medium of instruction”(310). It was more of a sink or swim. It’s surprising, looking back, that with so many Spanish-speaking individuals in the area, that we didn’t have more of the language in our schools. Maybe, even there, we were feeling some of the English-only movement, which, according to Zentella “is primarily an anti-Spanish movement” (44). I think people may have been afraid of allowing their children to learn Spanish because of all the negative associations to it in the area. But he, the Spanish-speaking student, stayed with us (our grade), and within a couple years could speak English fairly well. However, if we had had some sort of program with a teacher who spoke his language, I think this transition would have been a lot easier for him. For a while, we had a person come in once a week and try to teach us bits of Spanish. It didn’t even last a year. This is really the closest that the school ever came to having a bilingual education program, and I feel that it would have helped me greatly if I had began to learn a second language then, instead of waiting until high school.

Even as these circumstances were, I really didn’t pick up much of any of these languages. In high school I had planned on learning French, but when we moved, that was no longer one of my language choices. Instead, it was either German of Spanish. I am only bringing this up because it was a difficult choice for me. I had never really cared to learn Spanish. I think it was because I held an unspoken prejudice against the language, because most of the people I had known that used Spanish were inmates. I believe I felt that it was a lowly language. But, since Spanish is the second most common language in the U.S., I chose to take it in school to help me in the future. It was here that I learned that Spanish is a fairly simple language to learn, and I have come to appreciate it more. Now that I have had exposure to people other than inmates that speak the language, I feel I have made great advancements in overcoming my prejudice toward it and the people who speak it. This is especially true since my Spanish teacher was Puerto Rican, and an officer on the Roseburg PD’s native language was also Spanish, and I really like both of these people. I’ve had a few debates with individuals about the way I learned to speak this language. I thought it was funny that this person was trying to criticize the way I pronounced things, when he himself had learned Spanish as a second language. The controversy was that I was pronouncing the double l’s wrong. Since my teacher was Puerto Rican, she told us straight out that we’d be learning Spanish with a Puerto Rican accent, and that included pronouncing “ll” as “j” instead of “y”. I still don’t think I convinced the guy that it was simply another way to pronounce something.

Home is probably where I picked up many of my feelings for inequality due to language. Growing up, my father never had much of anything good to say about Asians, African Americans, or Hispanics. (I don’t know if that’s how he really feels, or simply what happened to be expressed about certain people. Regardless, many of his voiced opinions came through.) I believe much of the ill-feelings I might have towards these people came from association of race with language, thinking that everyone should know English and how to communicate properly.

Partly due to these ideas, and partly because of the encouragement I’ve received in my own writing endeavors, I do not believe I’ve ever felt truly self-conscious about my speech. And I just wish to point out that I have come to appreciate all forms of language, at least a great deal more than when I was younger. I enjoy learning new words, and bits of other languages, and incorporating them into my own speech. I’ve never really had friends that make fun of the way I talk, and if I have ever introduced a new word, either one I’ve made up or have learned, into a conversation, they either don’t care or they begin to use it themselves. In other words, they never look down upon it. But I shouldn’t say that is completely true. I can recall at least two exceptions. The first being when I was in 4-H, my friends thinking I said “button” funny, because I pronounced the “tt” as “dd”. I think I unconsciously changed the way I spoke, and now I don’t say them at all. It’s “bu’on”. And the other time was when my high school English teacher criticized me about using the word “happy” in my speech. I was using it in the context of describing something I really enjoyed, or that was good. Such as, “Rain is happy.” I had never really thought of it as being odd before, but I guess it could be construed as such.

As for being called names because of the way I speak, I don’t experience this much. Probably because I speak what would be considered “accentless” SAE. However, I have been insulted in *through* language. But this was only due to the fact that I was a police explorer, and people generally really don’t like the police. And since I was an explorer I had been taught how to brush things like that off and not let it bother you. When you’re working in law enforcement you can’t let a few insults or names get to you. You just either ignore it, or say, “Yup, you’re right. I sure am,” and you keep working. Maybe later you talk about it, exchange insults with other officers and see who was called worse, laugh about it and move on. So words don’t bother me much.

As you can see, I’ve been exposed to a variety of languages and situations, people and places (though I did not mention many places). I may still have some feelings of the inequality of races due to speech, but I hope that by furthering my knowledge of other languages, cultures, and people, I can overcome many of the prejudices that I have learned from parents, friends, or associations. I hope that one day I’ll be able to interact with people of all different races and not have that nagging little voice saying, “They’re different, and that’s bad,” even if I know that it’s okay. I really believe that this class has brought me one step further towards attaining my goal.

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