I wrote a little speech of my own regarding language gender and culture, but it wasn't specific enough to be used for the group essay so I decided to make use of it as a blog post. let me know what you think.
Language, Gender and Culture, all three are defining aspects in who we are as people. Yet all three are also devices used by people to judge each other. All three are both gifts and curses, and all three are what we as a national, even global, community make them. Language and culture both affect each other, for a man from Georgia would not need to speak fluent Chinese in his hometown of Atlanta, however it would be a huge asset to someone who lived in Chinatown of San Francisco. Gender and Language are linked through the way men and women speak, both directly and indirectly. And lastly even gender and culture are connected in many societies where women are seen as lesser than men, and sometimes, though maybe subconsciously, they feel as though they “don’t have the right” (Tannen 3) to speak. All three factors are not only limiting to people, but ridiculous and unreasonable.
We are all judgmental in some aspects. We may not even know we are doing it but we do. We do this simply based off of stupid, irrelevant details such as clothing, speech, and the overall “look” of a person. At Mayfair there is a hugely diverse culture. Teachers and students of all races, religions, sexual preference, and from different backgrounds, Mayfair has it all. Yet there is still judgment. Students make fun each other for their clothing choice or hairstyle even if they are just following their religion. We tear each other apart based on each other’s home life, how we talk, how we walk, or anything, any minuscule detail, which we can hurt each other with. I even hear students speak badly about the teacher who is hard to understand because of his strong accent, or the teacher who is a Jew, or who is gay. People secretly assume the special-ed students are dumber than they are. People write someone off based on what words they use, thinking that that boy over there couldn’t possibly have a bright future because he says “nigga” and he took Algebra 1 his junior year; yet they don’t know that same boy is a writer, a reader, a secret scholar. Trapped by the belief of others that he is destined to fail because he lives in a certain area. We constantly keep on the look out for things we can use against each other, while trying to minimize the amount of things we can be judged by.
The fact of the matter is that we can’t help where we come from. Some habits such as speech patterns are too hard to break, and shouldn’t make a difference in how we view each other. I meet people every year and become friends with people who I would never have thought I’d be friends with before. People who I thought were annoying, people who I thought were too different from me and I who I couldn't possibly get along with. I’ve come to realize that its not just culture, language, gender, sexual preference, or anything else that makes up a person, though those do add to who they are. We are made up by who we are as people, how we care for our fellow man, how we see the world. The differences between us are minuscule when you take away the insignificant facts. We all have hearts, minds, and bodies; we all love and hate, fear and laugh. We are not our race, or sexual preference. We are not where we come from, not just the sum of our parts. We are not put here to tear each other down, not to mock and hate, not to jeer or discriminate. We are here to help one another. Fellow human beings, here to exercise our humanity. We are people put on this earth to help each other thrive. If the world could see this there would be no hate. There would be no injustice. There would be no such thing as racism, sexism, or discrimination. We would finally see the truth. We are the same, equal. We are human.
