James Baldwin Essay
Raul Garrido
Period 5
Ms. Rowles
February 12, 2013
James Baldwin Essay The first time I spoke was the first time I actually felt how close language could be. I grew up with Spanish and English in my mouth, tasting every word before I spit it out. Now that I am older, there are new languages and different types of it. It can vary from slang to the most professional type of verbal communication. By having these types of dialects, it can either benefit your lifestyle or make it worse. I agree with Baldwin’s theory that language is key to a person’s identity and it unravels the making of the person. Slang. Also known as Street language, this tongue found in the lower classes of a ghetto, is mostly affiliated with gangs or people who did not have a chance at education. When someone speaks like this, the back of my head produces an image of a young skater that goes to high school caught between the chains of peer pressure. Their dialect consists of words from “Foo,” to “We outs.” They themselves begin to let everyone else see who they are. Unlike the others who choose to speak slang, the average person speaks a normal type of language and he or she has that drive that others lack to learn a polysyllabic language. These benefit in three ways: economically, socially, and intellectually. In speaking with an advanced use of literacy, many employers would want these types of characteristics in an individual and would willing to pay more for their work, and it would result in the industry making more cash. It would benefit the speaker socially because he would have more friends and more connections. It would benefit him intellectually because it would open more doors and it would lead to him/her in knowing more. It would cause any person to think that who ever is speaking is a professor with a PhD teaching at MIT in his advanced Calculus class. The key to anyone’s identity is located with his or her use of language and how many interpret him or her. These key
Period 5
Ms. Rowles
February 12, 2013
James Baldwin Essay The first time I spoke was the first time I actually felt how close language could be. I grew up with Spanish and English in my mouth, tasting every word before I spit it out. Now that I am older, there are new languages and different types of it. It can vary from slang to the most professional type of verbal communication. By having these types of dialects, it can either benefit your lifestyle or make it worse. I agree with Baldwin’s theory that language is key to a person’s identity and it unravels the making of the person. Slang. Also known as Street language, this tongue found in the lower classes of a ghetto, is mostly affiliated with gangs or people who did not have a chance at education. When someone speaks like this, the back of my head produces an image of a young skater that goes to high school caught between the chains of peer pressure. Their dialect consists of words from “Foo,” to “We outs.” They themselves begin to let everyone else see who they are. Unlike the others who choose to speak slang, the average person speaks a normal type of language and he or she has that drive that others lack to learn a polysyllabic language. These benefit in three ways: economically, socially, and intellectually. In speaking with an advanced use of literacy, many employers would want these types of characteristics in an individual and would willing to pay more for their work, and it would result in the industry making more cash. It would benefit the speaker socially because he would have more friends and more connections. It would benefit him intellectually because it would open more doors and it would lead to him/her in knowing more. It would cause any person to think that who ever is speaking is a professor with a PhD teaching at MIT in his advanced Calculus class. The key to anyone’s identity is located with his or her use of language and how many interpret him or her. These key