'Meh languiz iz ig lish' : Response to "English and Creole: The Dialectics of Choice in a College Writing Program."

 “Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?”

                                                                                                       -Ray Gwyn Smith   

Before I came to the United States, "English" was the language I spoke. This was my native language; the language I had studied in school; the language that I spoke at home, it was the Queen's language, the language of my country's conqueror, the only language I knew! However it was only when I came to the United States, that I realized that my native English became foreign. When I entered into high school my English became known as, Creole—broken English--- and I was placed in ESL classes.  I was no longer understood and every time I spoke I was followed by the constant ‘huh?’ which was always followed by a restatement of my original sentence. The process of constantly correcting my English to 'proper understandable-American English' annoyed me. I was forced to assimilate to the ‘correctness’ that was standardized American English as a way to succeed. My English in turn, became something I spoke only at in private with my family or with friends, who were from similar countries, which spoke 'improper' English. Throughout my academic career I constantly felt as if I spoke two languages. The article English and Creole: The Dialectics of Choice in a College Writing Program." by Elsasser, Nan, and Patricia Irvine was an interesting article, because it reminded me of my own process of using ‘learning English within my academic setting. I

The authors documented an experimental writing program for honors and remedial students at the College of the Virgin Islands. This program analyzed the use of 'improper' English, Creole versus proper English in an academic classroom settings. The research looked at the stigma behind Creole as a worthy language to be acknowledge with in academia. The overall conclusion of the article reveal the trial to include Creole and English in the academic setting, but as two different languages. They believed that by doing this it would enable the students of the Virgin Island to better preform within both languages as well as expand the overall function of Creole as not just being a private language.

The idea of fighting against the predominant language and finding a way to preserve a native language is similar to the short story "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, which focuses on the idea of losing an accent or native language to conform to the current environment. The story looks at the preservation of the native Chicano Spanish language. She goes against the Formal Spanish and Standard English to create and maintain her own language. The idea of using both Creole and English within the academic setting is a great and the idea for accepting and valuing the private language, Creole, in the same way as the prestigious language, English. However this program can only work in an academic setting where the predominant society speaks in that dialogue. Personally growing up in my country I never realized the difference of speaking in the classroom versus speaking out of the classroom. I knew the properness of the language would change, however the language itself would still remain the same. My change only happened when I was forced into an academic setting that classified my ‘English’ as other. I agree that although the idea of allowing students to recognize their ‘private’ language, Creole, in a written format would be valuable, it is unrealistic because it would not be the same when read aloud. There is not a standard structure of writing creole and the process of trying to write it down will be based off of main stream English guidelines hence altering the pronunciation of the original spoken message.

This article sheds light on the fact that ‘creole’ will never be looked upon as an academic language. 
 

"How to Tame a Wild Tongue" by Gloria Anzaldua, http://dsapresents.org/staff/michael-thornton/files/2011/08/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf