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.