Different Dialects

Samuel Clemens once said(paraphrased):When you keep your mouth closed everyone thinks you are dumb it is when open your mouth that you remove all doubt.

It is said that most communication is done non-verbally however the things we say are usually what we are judged by. In the United States of America there are several different dialects in a country that is supposed to be an English speaking nation. In different regions of the country a man or woman can find people who speak differently and he or she may think they are either dumb or weird.

I was raised on the West Coast, so when I moved to the South you could imagine my surprise when someone came up to me and asked, "What y'all fixin' to do?" When I heard this I had to think about it for a few moments and then came to the realization that they were asking me what I planned to do. This made me think that the person who asked me was a little on the slow side, but then I realized that is just the way they talk. It turned out that the person I was talking to was very intelligent however where he had grown up they talked differently than I. In Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue" she says, "You should know that my mother's expressive command of English bellies how much she actually understands." This was definitely the case when speaking to this person; he knew English just as well as I did, he just spoke it differently.

Also growing up on the West Coast I encountered many people who spoke English as a second language. Most of them were immigrants from Mexico and had a hard time grasping the language much like Tan's mother. I used to talk to them slowly like they were stupid, but when I went to Mexico they did the same to me and it was some what aggravating. However, at the same time it was helpful, because I didn't speak their language so I needed their help. If I were trying to learn the language better though I think I might