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.

"Learning to Read" by Malcolm X

I thought that "Learning to Read" by Malcolm X, was very interesting. I liked how Malcolm explained the history of Africans and his opinions about it. Malcolm’s story was very moving as he explains the struggles he goes through as he learns how to read and write. His story was very important on emphasizing how important it is to read, write, and have a broad vocabulary when learning something new. I now recommend myself and others to always carry a dictionary to strengthen one’s knowledge and vocabulary. By also having a strong knowledge of words, it can give many opportunities to us in the future.

When Stores Don't Have My Size

I'll admit it, yes, I am a mallrat. I go at least once a weekend, but usually I’m there twice. So you must’ve guessed it, I love shopping. I’m a big time sucker for sale signs. I honestly believe about 98% of the things I own, I have bought on sale. So when I see the big sale sign in front of a store, I’m lured to walk in. But a lot of the time, while I'm shopping, I can never find my size.

I pass through all of the clothes in the front and walk quickly to the back, because everyone knows that’s where the sale is, right? While I’m browsing through clothes, I find a dress I like at a reasonable price. But of course, they don’t have it in my size anymore. I ask the sales associate if they have anymore in the back, and she responds, “Whatever we have out here is all that we have.” Usually, the only sizes left are between a size six and a size fourteen. Sometimes they’ll have a size four, but when I try it on, it’s too big where my boobs are supposed to fill in the dress. So I continue to walk around the store for a little longer hoping that I would find the dress in my size somewhere. When I realize that it’s hopeless to mope around looking for the dress, I start to get irritated.

I usually blame the skinny people for coming to the store ahead of me and buying my size. Sometimes I even blame the fat people who think that they fit into a dress that’s between a size zero and two and buy it because they think that they look good. Other times, I just blame myself for my timing as I think to myself, “If I was at the mall an hour earlier, that dress could’ve been here”.

When I arrive home empty handed, the search still continues. I go to the online store check if it is still in stock. About 80% of the time they don’t have it anymore, and if they do, it’s usually more expensive. I hate walking out of a store empty handed because they don't have my size.

Holiday Disappointments

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been spending winter holidays with my family, our neighbors, and their children. Three of my neighbors’ children happen to be my best friends. Angeline, Lorraine, Kathryn and I have been best friends since 1993 when we all moved into the same neighborhood of Carson, California. In this year of 2008, it should have been my fifteenth New Year’s celebration with them, but it was not. The biggest disappointments during the winter holidays were that I did not spend time with my best friends and that we were unable to do our yearly traditions.

This year, the tradition of spending New Year’s Eve with my family and neighbors were broken. The day before we were supposed to leave for our New Year’s party in Las Vegas, my mother received an important phone call from the Philippines; her brother had just passed away. My mom immediately cancelled our trip to Las Vegas because she wanted to attend the funeral in the Philippines. However, on New Year’s Eve, my mom decided not to go to the Philippines anymore because of the high expenses. My parents debated for a little while whether or not we should still go to Las Vegas and try to spend time with our neighbors. By then, it was already too late to leave for Las Vegas since it was already New Year’s Eve. Traffic would have been a problem and my family and I would have spent New Years in the car. Instead, I spent New Year’s Eve at a family friend’s house in Ontario. It was not the same as the past fifteen years. I was disappointed when I realized that my best friends were not there. They are one of the main reasons why I enjoy the holidays. Holiday parties were one of the ways that we were able to catch up since Angeline, Kathryn, and I are currently attending college while Lorraine remains a senior in high school. New Year’s Eve represented our way as best friends to end and start the year together.

In addition to not attending the New Year’s Eve festivities, my best friends and I were unable to make our yearly “Neighbor List” since Kathryn and I did not attend the New Year’s Eve celebration. This list contains predictions of what we think will or will not happen in the year to come. For example we would write down, “Rita Nicole and her boyfriend will stay together throughout the whole year” or “Kathryn will quit her job by April”. We also read the previous neighbor lists from the year before, and see which of them actually came true. As best friends, the neighbor list was not just a simple list that one of us accidentally washed away in the back pocket of our jeans in the laundry machine. The neighbor list was very important to us. The neighbor list was one of the ways that we bond to start the year. It was also a way to look back on past memories and to laugh or cry. At this coming New Year’s celebration, it will be the first time we have no previous neighbor list to see what came true in 2008.

Although the winter holidays are something people are always excited about, many people set their expectations too high. In doing that, it causes a lot of dissatisfaction for many people. This year, I was upset when I discovered that I could not attend the New Year’s Eve celebration in Las Vegas and when my best friends and I could not make our traditional neighbor list.