Diversity In America

Anna Navarrete
English 828
Hein
March 29, 2013
Essay #2

Dialect in America

What is diversity to you? From the streets of San Francisco you are transported into many different countries. You smell different foods, see different looks, and hear different languages. These diverse cultures make San Francisco special. If the city of San Francisco introduced a law to adopt a standard language it would end the diversity that San Francisco stands for. In Northern California we speak our own dialect which consists of slang words such as “hina” and “trippin”.We use code switching when it comes to talking to our friends and family. When I speak to my friends it’s more of a relax and formal language that I speak to them in opposed to when I
We wouldn’t be able to enjoy multi-cultural communities such as The Mission, Chinatown and Japantown, which are communities full of diversity and cultural background. This would eliminate cultural influences in arts and music. According to Dwight Bollinger in “Dialect” he states “The fact in both fields are the same; the size of the bite is what distinguishes them”. Language can be spoken the same but it’s our way of speaking that determines the language. The different approaches to language are being prescriptivism and being descriptivist. A Prescriptivism is language that is spoken by following a set of rules. A Descriptivist is a person that speaks without following the rules of the language and speaking how they want to
One Standard English will allow for everyone to to understand each other seeing as everyone will be speaking the same language. It will also ease communication and eliminate any language confusion. Having a Standard English will help develop a proficiency in a single English. America will reduce undocumented immigrants by adopting a standard form of English. In the reading by Amy Tan “Mother Tongue” the author talks about how by having a limited English people don’t take you seriously and don’t understand the words your speaking. Having a Standard English would limit confusion and frustration by others who wouldn’t be able to understand or comprehend a broken and limited English spoken by others but it will cause language elimination and leave us with one language for everyone to speak which will be hard for non-English speakers. A negative aspect that would come from having one Standard English is that we will not have a sense of diversity or be unique in our languages. There will be arrogance and prejudice to the non-native speakers. We wouldn’t have a colorful culture in which we and our children could enjoy. Diversity is what engages us to get to know each other and about one’s background. San Francisco is known for its colorful background with food and language. Language will not change causing it to remain the same and boring. Language will remain stagnant and