Pidgin

the bottom of the social hierarchy and served a role as cheap labor. As a result of a mixed and diverse community, pidgin English developed. However, although despite seeming as a creative solution as a means of communication, it became a social marker back then for those that are poor and lack culture. As a result, children born on plantations who had no other choice but to learn pidgin English became victims of racism. Since they could not speak “normal” English, they were not allowed to…

The movie, Go for Broke, centers around the Japanese American men who served in the 442nd regimental combat unit during World War II. Though unjustly imprisoned in internment camps, these men proved their loyalty to America and bravely fought against the Italian, German, and Japanese enemies, to become the most decorated unit in United States history. Released in 1951, six years after the end of the war, this movie aimed to change the prejudices against Japanese Americans in the United States.…

A creole language is a natural language that has developed from a pidgin. In his art piece Decreolization: An arrangement from dark to light, the style is installation art which he uses the Bahraini pottery to showcase a continuum. As well as how different a single language has different shades or ways to be used nowadays…

Sonia Sanchez wrote in her collections of poems It’s A New Day, “We gon be some beautiful/ black/ women gon move like the queens we gon be full”(Sanchez,17). Like this example, Sanchez often writes in African American English. African American English (AAE) is commonly referred to as Ebonics, as well as black speech, black vernacular, and several other phrases. According to William Labov, “This African American Vernacular English shares most of its grammar and vocabulary with other dialects of…

ENL: English as a Native Language is traditionally assumed to be a language that is acquired from birth without formal instruction (versus a language that was learned as a second or later language). ENL is also referred to as L1 (first language), mother tongue, or inner circle variety. An issue with the term “native language” or L1 lies in the fact that it is based on the premise of a monolingual society, whereas many societies are multilingual. In multilingual societies, a child may grow up…

East of Eden, often quoted, discussed, and written about, serves as a cultural icon, and a landmark for American literature. The world Steinbeck builds is most often the center of discussion, with it’s realistic, depthful, characters that tell stories applicable to people from all walks of life from any generation. Often, however, Steinbeck’s underlying narrative seems to go unnoticed. What, at first glance, seems to be a novel full of characters that represent expectations of people in those…

I was raised in a household in which intelligence and education were greatly valued. I was homeschooled until 6th grade and my mother, who served as my teacher, was never lenient on my brother or me. She worked us harder than a normal teacher likely would have. My mother often stressed how important knowledge was. Since I can remember, I have loved learning new things. Once I learned to read, I read everything in sight, with a dictionary at my side to look up words I did not yet know. Unlike…

an All-American Girl details her experiences learning Chinese at an alternate school to where she receives her general education. Wong talks about her brother’s habit to be “especially hard on [her] mother, criticizing her, often cruelly, for her pidgin speech-smatterings” (Wong 1) because English is not her natural language. The brother’s degradation of the mother allows him a certain power over her. She is forced to feel inadequate because of her poor English communication skills. The brother…

Introduction English is regarded as the most influential language globally, with more non-native speakers around the world than native speakers (Park and Wee, 2012). There are over 400 million speakers of English, and although there are a few languages with more speakers in the world, those languages owe their numbers to mother-tongue speakers. Whereas, English owes its prominence to how widely adopted it is in other countries, and the special status it enjoys in global affairs. Since the…

Although not many people understand how the Australian language was developed, it can be easily noticed through looking back into Australia’s history. Three main historical events that shaped the language are; the indigenous Australians and how the Australians adapted the indigenous language in their own. The settlement of the convicts in Australia, they brought along their British language and slang which also adapted into the Australian language. Lastly the internet has impacted the English…