The Way I Talk

I think my culture and where I grew up influenced me in the way I talk today. Being around my peers influenced me also because I am around them twenty-four seven. For example, from the time we are in our mother’s womb we hear her conversations. So, when we are born we recognize her language, and then we start to speak it a couple years later as she raises us and continues that language. In the same way, every day we learn different languages just by being around different people.

            Where I grew up influenced my language today. I spent most of my life living in Jamaica and in that country we speak in broken English form called Patois. Just the way I grew up speaking in my native tongue made me speak the way I do in English. I sometimes put words that I use in my country in some of the everyday language that I speak. If I were born in America then maybe I would speak perfect English, because it would have been my native language.

              I am a young person and today our social language is not as formal as the words that may be spoken by older adults. When we greet each other we usually say words like, “What’s up?” or “ What’s good?” or “What the hek.” These expressions are mostly used by young people and me being a part of this group makes me naturally talk that way.