Different Englishes

There are a lot of ways people change their Englishes. There are common ways people change their English, like the way they speak to adults compared to the way they speak to children. Another way of speaking a different English is when someone is bilingual. I have experienced both growing up. When I was younger, the first language I learned was Tagalog, a language from the Philippines.

I attended a small pre-school in Carson, California. The common race of the town is Filipino. I went to a school were a lot of Filipino children attended. I was one of the few who spoke Tagalog, but I was the one who spoke it most fluently. I got confused about when to speak Tagalog. When was I supposed to speak in Tagalog? When was I supposed to speak in English? At school, I would speak both English and Tagalog since I didn't know which one I was supposed to speak in. I started adapting what some people call "Tagalong" which is the jumbling of words between English and Tagalog. For example I would say something like "Puede ako mag use ng banyo please?" The word I say is "use" and "please" in English instead of saying it in Tagalog, which is now "Tagalong." That was one of the first times I caught myself speaking different Englishes. When I was at home, I would speak strictly Tagalog. At school, I would speak Tagalog and English since I didn't understand English very well.

I also noticed that when I speak Tagalog, I speak it differently to Filipino Americans than to Filipinos who came from the Philippines. When I speak to Filipino Americans, I speak to them like normal, with an American accent and proper English. When I am talking to someone who is from the Philippines, I try to speak in a Filipino Accent. For some reason, if I speak in an accent, I feel like the people from the Philippines will understand me better if I sound more like them, and less American. An example of when I speak in an accent is like when I am speaking about a boy named John. I have to pronounce John as "Jan" because some Filipino's accents are so heavy, that they are unable to pronounce John. So I speak in an accent so that when I am speaking to them, we will sound the same.

But a more common way of changing my English is when I talk to my parents, friends, children, and teachers. I talk to none of them the exact same way. When I speak to my parents, I speak more calmly. When talking to my friends, I talk more loudly and explicitly. When I talk to a child, I have to dumb myself down and remember that some kids might not understand some of the bigger words that I am saying. If I am speaking to a teacher, I try to speak as properly and correctly as I can.

Other than getting confused with English and Tagalog as a child, I am proud that I can speak Tagalog. Not many Filipino Americans my age can speak it. A lot of adults are shocked that I was able to learn and some of my friends ask me to teach them. But now I'm having difficulty speaking Tagalog since I don't speak it as often. Now I can only speak "Tagalong." I don't think I can say a full sentence in Tagalog without using one English word. But the different Englishes I have spoken throughout my eighteen years of life has helped me in many ways.

Although it gets confusing, I learned that not everyone speaks the same way. Not only in different languages, but for someone who is deaf, someone who is blind, and someone who is mute. I love living in a world that is so diverse because we can learn so much from it. As I get older, I plan on learning two or three more languages so that I can travel the world.

"No Escape" from The Mee Street Chronicles

When I was reading “No Escape” from The Mee Street Chronicles, the impression I got from the narrator as she told her story was that she was young, afraid, and creative. I got these impressions because as the narrator tells the story, I can tell she is both young and creative since she imagines monsters and fairy godmothers, and I can tell she is afraid because she is afraid of the shadow monsters and her parents not responding to her calls.

Two character traits I saw in the narrator of “No Escape” were innocent and lonely. The story causes me to see these traits in her because when she was alone in her room, you could see the innocence through the words in the book. She was afraid of the shadow monsters and believed in a fairy godmother. These two characters of imagination show the narrator’s innocence and youth. The narrator was also lonely. In “No Escape” the narrator is frantically calling her parent’s name waiting for a response. She doesn’t get a response for a while, but as she waits, she is afraid and alone.

The story “No Escape” is something that I am able to relate to. When I was younger I was afraid of the dark and believed in ghosts and monsters. I remember when I was around four years old, I would be afraid of the dark. Late at night, my imagination would run wild, and I would scare myself. The first thing I would want to do is run into the safety of my parent’s arms. But in order for me to get to my parent’s room I have to pass by the bathroom. When I was younger, I believed that Ursula, from The Little Mermaid, would hide out in the bathroom and that she wanted to kidnap me so she could steal my voice like how she stole Ariel's. So I would run as fast as I could to my parent’s room. Half of the time I never made it because I was so afraid. If I didn’t make it, I would just run back to my room and cry. Eventually I would call my parent’s names out loud and they would have to come and carry me to their room. Finally, I was safe between the arms of my mom and dad.