Growing up my parents raised me to speak English because they didn’t want me to go through their difficulty they experience when trying to communicate in English. My mom is a native speaker of Tagalog while my father speaks in Pidgin/Hawaiian slang and little Japanese but either way their English is considered poor. As years past my parents realized they made a mistake of just teaching me English and found out it was better to be accustomed to other languages. They began speaking to and teaching me in their native tongue but they were a bit late. I’m able to understand Tagalog but have difficulty responding back and I just rejected Pidgin all together because it’s not useful unless you live in Hawaii. Understanding Tagalog has it’s up and downs. It helps me know what my mother wants when she can’t communicate properly in English and let’s me know when people are talking bad about me. I work in retail and knowing Tagalog makes Filipino customers engage with you more but also wanting discounts and such.

Besides picking up Tagalog, I decided to learn Japanese because it’s a lost language within my father’s side of the family. Overall Japanese is a difficult language to learn but learning the culture and customs have been worthwhile. Being a native of San Diego, it just makes sense to be familiar with “our slang.” Talking in slang is favorable in some cases because it makes more easier to communicate with your peers and appear more approachable but obviously talking in slang usually doesn’t work in your favor when talking to adults unless they’re okay with it.

Through my other experiences I learned the language can just be a burden. I experienced this within my own family because I don’t speak Pidgin or how my Hawaiian relatives do so our communication tends to be broken or just listening to them tends to be annoying.  In school I’ve had groups where some members rather speak in their native tongue leaving either me and/or multiple members left out of the group work. At work, language also tends to be an issue if they don’t speak English. I’ve had customers communicate extremely slowly or fail entirely altogether and get both frustrated and mad at me and belittle me. So my language experiences are changing each day.

Cory Stapleton
Paige Bowden
Carl
Michelle Kuerz
Katrina Chavez
Blog 1
Language is a complex subject. Although it is inherently learned, our actually understanding of language itself is rather limited. This may seem like an overstatement, knowing that we speak and use language in nearly all aspects of our everyday lives, but when given the task of explaining language, one often finds their self struggling. This is especially true when one is attempting to dissect and understand the way in which the sounds and mouth movements we use create the language. Not only is the comprehension of the characteristics of language difficult to grasp initially, spoken language varies from place to place and is also continually evolving. Language is dynamic and therefore when we encounter language, our experiences vary in a wide array of ways.
Learning another language separate from our native tongue can prove to be a challenging task as we grow older with age. It is much easier to teach a child a different language versus an adult for children are able to absorb and gasp concepts much more easily because their minds are still fresh and not indoctrinated like their adult counterparts. Many young adults are required to learn a second language in high school, but the ability to speak the language fluently is either never achieved or disappears once the student is no longer required to use it on a regular basis. Language acquisition is a task that requires rigorous work and is full of trial and error. But with consistent exposure to the language within the context of the environment it is used or in a classroom, one may be able to grasp an understanding for their new mode of speech.
One member of our group, Paige Bowden, is bilingual and grew up learning both English and Spanish in her household. Her father made an effort to use Spanish around her and her sister in order for them to feel connected to that part of their ethnicity and in hopes that they would learn both Spanish and English concurrently. Their father knew that, as residents of Southern California, these two languages are predominantly used and could potentially give them that advantage when applying for jobs. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association suggests that being bilingual can contribute to good listening skills and the ability to learn new words easily. Children have the highest capacity for learning an additional language, so she is thankful to have learned Spanish at an early age rather than attempting to master it now. Being bilingual and growing up around two languages has only aided her and is a beneficial skill that she hopes to pass on to her children as well.
Another member of our group, Carl, grew up with a speech impediment. This speech impediment was similar to stuttering. His speech hinderance proposed many difficulties in his early childhood. His early acquisition of language was greatly hindered and even stunted. For awhile, he was unable to even say articles like “the” and “a” without adding 5 or 10 syllables. This was a serious struggle for him. Sometimes, he would become frustrated and would just give up, forgetting what he intended to say. Due to a lack of identification towards his speech impediment, his ability to speech during his childhood resulted in an unwillingness to communicate. Thus developing a refusal to talk or fear of talking, which greatly interfered with his language development.
Overall, language has proven to be a crucial part of the human experience, but not everyone interacts with it the same way. Nor does everyone acquire it the same way. Sometimes we are unable to grasp the fundamentals of a language due to speech hindrances or a lack of practice and exposure. Other individuals not only comprehend it with exceptional ease, but also learn more languages than just their native tongue. For these reasons, language can be difficult to define. Not only is it difficult subject to explain, the way an individual views and uses their language may be a radically different approach compared to another speaker.