Heather Holland
I found myself relating to Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, not as a Trinidadian, but as a daughter who was continuously corrected by her mother. Growing up, my mother always taught me that people judge you by the way you speak. She instilled correct grammar in my sister and me until we wanted to gag. She even corrected my father, a well-educated man. Now that I am an adult, I reflect back and see her purpose, just as Joanne Dowdy did, “What good mother would not marshal all the available supports to help her children access the power structure…?” While her mother was well-intentioned, I find it sad that Ms. Dowdy felt separated from her soul and segregated from her peers. It is true that society does make us feel inferior if we do not speak or write “Standard English”. Why is this so? My only explanation is that people in society are judgmental and jump to assumptions before being fully aware of a person’s education, viewpoint, or integrity. I have often heard others say that first impressions are crucial. Is this because within the first thirty seconds of speaking, the other person forms an opinion of the speaker? I believe that Joanne found this to be true. However, she was very fortunate because she found a way to express her native dialect, as well as her Standard English, when needed. She found a way to capitalize on both and I believe in our society, to be successful, one must be able to achieve both.
Language diversity is apparent everywhere. It is rare that one advances through life without encountering a person of another language background. From my own experience, I had many challenges moving to North Carolina to teach. I had to prove to others that I was not “a damn Yankee,” as people jokingly called me. My speech, according to my colleagues, was extremely proper. I later found out that my accent was somewhat intimidating and annoying to others. On the other hand, I had a difficult time understanding the southern vernacular. The phrase “stomping ground” was totally unknown to me, as well as countless other phrases. Although I was in my own country, I felt like a foreigner, at times, and was even called a foreigner, but I did not hear it as this. I heard, “farner”. I found penetrating another language dialect is challenging, but achievable. I was moving from Standard English to Southern English. In The Skin That We Speak, Ernie Smith had to penetrate Standard English. I am sure that his transition was more difficult than mine because his acquired language had many negative attachments. People viewed his language disapprovingly. He overcame barriers surrounding him to progress to his current status in society. I am inspired by Ernie Smith’s commitment to reach both black and white students in the educational system and inform them of the problems faced by black people in this country. I hope that from his experience and studies that others may understand the boundaries that language differences create. It is important, as educators, that we look past language differences and boundaries to see the whole child, without prejudice.
Comments (3)
Heather,
I very much appreciate your brilliant critique of the ways in which POWER works in the structuring of language and identity. I think your comments about achieving both SE and retaining dialect/identity can be applied to those who struggle with such issues. Of course it is important to remember that you moved from a privileged position to one which has been bastardized in media (the southern dialect). You analyze this beautifully.
Your concluding comment about the barriers that language hierarchies can create is important.
Prof. Alecia Jackson
Posted by Prof. Alecia Jackson | May 24, 2007 9:04 PM
Posted on May 24, 2007 21:04
Heather,
I enjoyed reading your comments about the two chapters. I too moved to NC from the North (but not too North----Northern VA). I did however experience difficulties in understanding the southern dialect and was picked on continuosly from peers about my accent. To this day I'm still confused when people say "won't" instead of "want."
To answer your question about society making us feel inferior if we do not speak correct SE..... I believe society pushes us down hard if we cannot speak SE in the correct situations (job interviews, important meetings or gatherings, etc). I'm sure there have been many people that have not gotten jobs because of their speak. I try to help my kids understand this as well.
As a teacher, i also think it's important to allow kids to speak how they want to with their friends and in informal situations. That's how they relate to one another. I try to remember this daily and i bite my tongue quite a bit while listening at the lunch table. Good luck finishing the school year!
Posted by Andrea Lehman | May 25, 2007 1:56 PM
Posted on May 25, 2007 13:56
Heather,
I enjoyed your posting and chuckled at your description of having to adjust to the South, in particular to the sound/drawl of the southern vernacular. I'm sure I had a strong southern accent as a child in NC and as a college student in GA. My first teaching job was in Wyoming. I'll never forget how my 5th graders would correct my pronunciation of "sentence" which I'm sure came out sounding like "sents"! Because I was married to an Air Force officer, I moved around the states for some time and lost some of my southern "twang." The interesting thing was that I also began to be more aware of regional language differences so that when I first returned to NC, the extreme cases of southern drawl really sounded odd to me! I imagine that my SE must sound odd to some of my black students who clearly speak BE at home and are not aware that their language may sound "strange" to me. Many of my students are totally unaware of mixing verb tenses when they speak. My goal is to model SE as a strategy that will be helpful to them as they write papers, fill out school/job applications and interview for job/school opportunities. My goal this year has been to also allow them time to employ familiar/home language in some of their writing, especially poetry and encourage them to read examples of writing which employs both SE and slang or dialect. I think that is what the two authors of the chapters we read were hoping, that there is room and time to allow many different forms of expression.Hopefully inclusion rather than exclusion can be practiced in the classroom as a model for tolerance that will carry over into adult behaviors.
And, yes, my "ears" have relaxed and I once again do not hear the southern drawl quite so clearly!
Posted by Betsy Baldwin | May 25, 2007 5:07 PM
Posted on May 25, 2007 17:07