I have mixed feelings about the article “Ovuh Dyuh”. On the one hand I see the relevance of being able to speak in a formal register. For example, if I were about to be operated on I would not want my surgeon to explain the procedure to me in a grammatically incorrect swirl of jargon and slang. This would make me feel very nervous and doubtful of his skills. Therefore, I think this is more about formal and conversational registers and doesn’t really have a lot to do with culture. I know this is a loaded statement, but I’m willing to put it out there. I understand that Dowdy was coming from a very unique situation. She was faced with accepting and practicing a language of a group of people that had enslaved her own. This would be very difficult for any of us to accept. For most people, our acceptance of “the Queen’s English” is not so drastic. It’s more about accepting the idea that people judge us based on how we present ourselves and our ideas. When I used to teach at the community college, I had a young woman share a story with the class concerning this very topic. She was an African-American woman who was from New York and she spoke with a heavy New York accent and used lots of street slang in her speech. She told the class that, although she was proud of her background, she realized that her dialect was a hindrance when looking for a job. She had interviewed for several positions as a bank teller but kept getting rejected. Her mother finally suggested she “speak more professionally” at the next interview. The changed worked, and she was hired. She stated that she realized there was a time and place for her formal and her conversational register. When I was in college, all teaching academy students had to pass an oral language assessment. If the assessors thought your accents were to “thick”, you were enrolled in a speech class to try and alleviate the problem. Again, I understand the purpose of this. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s about giving up your culture or who you are; it’s more about finding your place in society. Communication is a very important part of how we interact with each other and the world and it’s crucial that we understand how to adjust and do this appropriately; no matter what the situation. - Sally Elliott
Comments (2)
You made some very good points Sally. The language of the educated is Standard English. If we want our kids to be perceived as educated they must speak Standard English. Not to mention, if they can’t speak Standard English it is highly unlikely they can write it. I also think we are dealing with several different issues. Language is compromised of a lot of different components, dialect, syntax, vocabulary, and register to name a few. All of these features impact how a person is perceived. An accent may be more acceptable as long as the person speaking is articulate. Slang may be acceptable depending on the rapport you have with the person to whom you are speaking. A person in a position of authority may be judged more critically because of their position. I am reminded of the incident at McDonalds where they ran out of chicken nuggets and the customer asked to speak to the manager. The woman working replied, “I are the manager.” My local radio station joked about that for weeks, even having t-shirts made up with the words on them to give out to listeners. The premise of the joke was that the manager was just as ignorant as the other workers, a judgment based solely on her speech.
Posted by Rebecca Ashby | June 7, 2010 8:11 PM
Posted on June 7, 2010 20:11
You made some very good points Sally. The language of the educated is Standard English. If we want our kids to be perceived as educated they must speak Standard English. Not to mention, if they can’t speak Standard English it is highly unlikely they can write it. I also think we are dealing with several different issues. Language is compromised of a lot of different components, dialect, syntax, vocabulary, and register to name a few. All of these features impact how a person is perceived. An accent may be more acceptable as long as the person speaking is articulate. Slang may be acceptable depending on the rapport you have with the person to whom you are speaking. A person in a position of authority may be judged more critically because of their position. I am reminded of the incident at McDonalds where they ran out of chicken nuggets and the customer asked to speak to the manager. The woman working replied, “I are the manager.” My local radio station joked about that for weeks, even having t-shirts made up with the words on them to give out to listeners. The premise of the joke was that the manager was just as ignorant as the other workers, a judgment based solely on her speech.
-Rebecca Ashby
Posted by Rebecca Ashby | June 7, 2010 8:12 PM
Posted on June 7, 2010 20:12