Traditions

"Edward Armstrong. The Story of English Episode 5. YouTube.com. 27 Aug. 2009.

"White American language and culture owe much to the blacks." This starting phrase of Episode 5 reminded me of a musical I once went to in Alaska called Hairspray. When I was younger Hairspray was my favourite movie just because people would sing and dance, but I never truly understood the  importance of it. Not only is seeing John Travolta dressed up as a lady hilarious, but Hairspray is also a clear example of how Blacks have influenced the White American culture.

Hairspray is a movie about this popular television show, which is known as being the typical white people show. There is one exception. On Wednesdays this show has something called Negro Days in which only African Americans participate. After several weeks of trying to unite these two cultures the main character accomplishes it. Due to blacks inferiority at the time we would have thought that these Blacks had to adapt to the White American culture and way of singing, but on the contrary. The majority of the show ended up representing African American culture.

So how has African American culture influenced us? There is one simple example that we see everywhere: Jazz. This style of music actually originated in the South where most African Americans were and is now a huge part of American popular music. We hear it everywhere.

As the video says, there are also many words that have been incorporated into White American language that have come from African American culture. I did some further research on this out of curiosity to see what words we use today that have come from this culture. Unfortunately I found absolutely nothing useful. The only "Black" words that I found after my research were: gansta, bling, grills, hang, hood, benjamins, threads, aight, holla. crib, playa, and straight. How pathetic.

Sure, I found it funny at first, but then I realized how actually disrespectful this is. Black culture has become something that today is represented by people such as Lil Wayne or rappers similar to him, but we don't realize that this culture actually has a history and a history that has affected our white culture significantly.

Mixed Up Languages

"Edward Armstrong. The Story of English Episode 2. YouTube.com. 27 Aug. 2009."

 Throughout the years people have unquestionably been moving around the world. This explains exactly why English is such a common language. Yet again, it is strange for someone to hear English as a pure language for it is no longer this. People have adapted English to their cultures and have mixed it with their own language creating a new accent or in some cases a mixture of both their native language and english as can be seen with the Welsh. "The characteristics of the English spoken by the Welsh are the rolled r, the clear vowels, the hesitant consonants and the lilting inflections." 

"Only 20% of the population now claim Welsh as a first language." Once a language has been adapted to a culture the native language is sometimes forgotten. This reminds me of how many natives isolate themselves from civilization because they want to keep their language and their traditions. After all, language is a huge part of culture and losing it is like losing a huge chunk of who you are and what your ancestors stood for. The best solution is to not isolate yourself from society, but rather keep your traditions while you still introduce new ones, but then again, is this even possible? 

"Every single word you hear is descendent from Old English." This explains exactly why there are so many languages that have similar words. Most of them derive from latin and adapt Old English. The languages don't have identical words, but some of these sound so much alike that we can tell what their meaning is. 

Something that we sometimes can't help but notice is how many people do not understand word order or grammer and therefore say something that they actually don't mean. Many joke about this and find it  hilarious how a person can actually say something offensive or completely blunt by doing this, but they don't realize how far these errors can get to actually ruining opportunities for those who make them. For example, grammer errors in a week report for your boss can actually make your work completely useless and foul for your position. 

Most of us don't understand the importance of language and it's history, but mastering it can actually be life changing and also allows us to comprehend the history of many cultures. 

The Universality of English

"Edward Armstrong. The Story of English Episode 1." YouTube.com. 27 Aug. 2009."  

English is all around the world. That is unquestionable. When we buy a new object that requires instructions we will almost always find instructions in English. Why is this? It has become a universal language. It's just everywhere. A huge cause for this is colonialism. For example, in The Story of English Episode 1 we learn that in India knowing English is basically a necessity. Men desire women that know English and people each day are becoming more and more dependent on the language. India was a British colony and the presence of them definitely had an impact when it came to shaping the country. If the British would've never settled in India would the language still be the main one spoken? It could be, but colonialism unquestionably impacted India. 

English is spoken differently in almost every country you visit. When I was younger, I lived in London and basically grew up speaking and hearing British English. In fact, it became my first language as I forgot how to speak Spanish and would pretty much ignore anyone who asked me to practice my spanish. I remember that in school, the teachers would criticize anyone who would come speaking English in a different accent because there are marked differences between each accent. Many use these differences as a tool for discrimination, but in my opinion aren't these what make every culture unique? 

In fact, English is not just spoken differently in each country, but there are different accents within countries, especially in the United States. A clear example of this is the difference between a Texan accent and a Jersey one. 

English is also used as a tool for distinguishing class. As I watched the documentary I realized how Clueless, a movie by Amy Heckerling, portrays a scene of how English is spoken amongst different social classes. In the documentary, a Hindu girl begins to speak about how English represented education and class, which relates to what Alicia Silverstone represents in the movie. "English represents class whether it really is class or no." 


Another topic covered in this episode of the documentary is the importance of English for a child's future. All around the world, parents are striving to provide the opportunity so that their child may learn a second language. Being bilingual nowadays is a huge advantage and especially if one of those languages spoken is one of the main ones as is English. Think about it, if you are hiring someone you will probably want to hire someone who speaks more than one language and properly for higher positions.