The Way We Talk and the Way I Write

 

It is a gloriously sunny morning, but cold. February at its best. We had a fine snowfall yesterday, which, of course, I had to drive through, and there is now a layer on the barbeque that, if I want hamburgers for supper, I should go out and clear off. But perhaps I should clear up the compound-complex sentence I just put up. Also, the which/that conundrum. Gee, I am glad I am not teaching this stuff any longer and can break all the rules with impunity should I so desire. Those who hold to their grammar should simply shudder and read on.

 Teaching your little one language. ‘She was badder than me’ says the toddler. ‘No, sweetie, you say worse, not badder’. The next day you will probably hear ‘worser’. Kids are programmed to learn language logically and English isn’t.

 Reading about this stuff, I have been enjoying a book titled How You Say It Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk – And the Costs of This Hidden Bias. By Katherine D. Kinzler. A lot of her work has been with children and she is eloquent on the benefits of bilingualism and of starting children very young on two or more languages. The basic ‘takeaway’ is that she believes children who are exposed to a second language at a very young age (even if they do not learn it) will be more flexible and accommodating as adults. Thinking about the obverse, look at the difference in ‘national character’ between Canada and the US of A. I suspect that many American children are not exposed to differences in language and culture at all. Yes, America is full of migrants from south of them, Spanish speakers, but unless there is a helper in the house who is one of these, a lot of households are unilingual. Whereas in Canada all children are deliberately taught French and it is presented usually in a fun way through song and poetry and games. It seems to me that we are more flexible and accommodating than Americans. Sorry? Eh?

 At any rate, it is an excellent book, spoiled for me only by the lack of information that the author has about Canadian children and language learning. She cites European examples of routine dual language provision and misses the Canadian one entirely. She also perpetrates the ‘oot and aboot’ myth. What she does get right is that the central Canadian accent is, in fact, the preferred and most widely accepted accent in North America, as witness the news anchors on major American television who were born and raised in Canada.

 Amusingly, I recall getting jumped on when I started university in eastern Ontario. Why? For my ‘American’ accent and speech. I was brought up in the border town of Windsor, Ontario, a smallish city that sits across a one-mile-wide river from Detroit, Michigan. One mile south of Detroit, in fact, if you want to be confused. We routinely listened to Detroit radio for the music, ‘Motown’ and wonderful, and those with TV’s got American stations. There was a small CBC presence but it was not widely followed. We all picked up American slang and cadence. I worked very hard to lose my ‘Americanisms’ but some of them are still there, even sixty years on.

 After I read this book, though, it came to me that I have speech mannerisms that are somewhat unusual. One is my active vocabulary. I routinely use words like ‘impunity’ that are not common. As well, I watch my enunciation carefully, the result of teaching English as a Second Language to adults. Someone who met me lately asked me if I had been a teacher and when I said yes, laughed and said it was obvious. I also remember from my school days being asked in annoyed tones if I had swallowed a dictionary when I used a ‘big’ word instead of the usual one. At the local community hall where I volunteer, there are two women who obviously dislike me and after I read this book, I wondered if my speech mannerisms explain this. Maybe I sound to them like a show-off? If so, too bad, as it is now too late for the leopard to change her spots. Or even go back and fix up that sentence in the first paragraph? Nope. Leaving it. Authentic voice rules.

 Put down the red pencil, already.

 

Note: Grammarly wants me to substitute ‘perpetuate’ for ‘perpetrate’ in the 4^th paragraph. I think the substitution is better. Comments, ex teacher readers?