the english language
When my mom is in the midst of yelling me, somehow she ends up adding the word "bloody", in there. I never noticed, but one day my friend pointed it out, and suddenly I became aware of the various differences between my mother's english and my own. I often find it odd when people point out her accent because sometime over the last sixteen years I have become so accustomed to it, that her language is just as easy to understand as the purest American accent.
After coming home from a summer camp three years ago, hearing my parent's Indian accents after two weeks shocked me. My thirteen year old self could not believe that my immigrant parents had such strong accents. Looking back, this situation amuses me, but my younger self was shocked that others heard them that way. Over the years I have become more aware of the differences in language around me, but somehow every time my friend who moved here from Korea mentions the fact that she has an accent, a look of confusion covers my face.
To Ifemula, moving to America, opened a whole new way of speaking English. Though she had spoken English her whole life in Nigeria, she "sat stiff-tongued in class" confused by the odd words Americans used to express themselves. The interchangeability between "Sorry" and "Are you okay?", "I don't know" and "I'm not sure", and "Ask somebody upstairs" and "You might want to ask somebody upstairs" baffled her. Living in America my whole life, I never noticed the insanity of the English language, but to an outsider, these oddities show the characteristics of Americans: a lack of directness, inability to be unknowing, and need for constant reassurance.
After coming home from a summer camp three years ago, hearing my parent's Indian accents after two weeks shocked me. My thirteen year old self could not believe that my immigrant parents had such strong accents. Looking back, this situation amuses me, but my younger self was shocked that others heard them that way. Over the years I have become more aware of the differences in language around me, but somehow every time my friend who moved here from Korea mentions the fact that she has an accent, a look of confusion covers my face.
To Ifemula, moving to America, opened a whole new way of speaking English. Though she had spoken English her whole life in Nigeria, she "sat stiff-tongued in class" confused by the odd words Americans used to express themselves. The interchangeability between "Sorry" and "Are you okay?", "I don't know" and "I'm not sure", and "Ask somebody upstairs" and "You might want to ask somebody upstairs" baffled her. Living in America my whole life, I never noticed the insanity of the English language, but to an outsider, these oddities show the characteristics of Americans: a lack of directness, inability to be unknowing, and need for constant reassurance.
Oh gosh, I have so much to say about the English language. Sometimes, English just baffles me (especially the pronunciation of some words versus other words (lead vs lead... read vs read... though vs thought vs through). And sometimes, I just feel bad for the people who have to learn English as their second language (and when they actually achieve learning the language, honestly mad respect to them; even if they have an accent... it's pretty impressive). To this day, I am still confused about the English language (even though it's my first/native language).
ReplyDeleteI love your anecdotes and examples because they're so relatable to life as an immigrant's child. As Americans, we tend to believe we're always right about English, because we've become accustomed to our flaws.
ReplyDeleteIt is definetly true that growing up surrounded by so many different variations of the english language, we less aware of the differences because to us its the content that matters, and once we understand what someone is saying, we don't pinpoint the different quirks in the way we speak. I think that language is a huge part of Ifemelu's assimilation process, and I love that you related that to different immigrant's perspectives because it is not something that is specific to this book.
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