11/11/20
Abstract
In Phase three I discuss how language has affected three different aspects of human life in society. Those three are education, status and mentality where I breakdown text and prove the reader on its positive and negative traits. This allowed me to further understand how language is perceived in the perspective of others and how they are treated.
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The Perception of Language
Language has been used by homo sapiens for centuries and from language we as people developed several different of communication over the years. Over those years we have changed, rewritten, and perfected how language has been used or purposed in the daily lives of humans. However, the question that I want to answer is how language has affected the way people are perceived based on status in society, mentality, and education. To further understand this, we need to understand the structure and the purpose of how language is used in humans and how other perceive others when using a different language. When others speak to people that are close to each other language fills the gap of information that others do not have. For example, if we listen to a conversation about the education system between one English teacher and one science professor, we gather information that they both received proper education, have proper jobs, are physically and mentally healthy. If we compare this conversation to a conversation between two people do a drug exchange, we gather a different set of information base on how they speak. You see in every single conversation there is always a way for someone to judge others based on how they speak which represent many different categories they fall in. We may see others in a different light based on how they speak whether it is a positive or harmful perspective that they have, so language may either have beneficial or damaging outcomes that target humans.
When we hear people speak in English, Spanish, Chinese or some different language, what views do we generate just by listening to them. We may generate thoughts that have a negative or positive influence based on their status in society. A short memoir called “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan can represent this type of perception and this memoir is about how Amy and her mother experience the different sides of society through the different uses of how fluent their English is. An example that represents this is “…my mothers “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly, her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and in restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her” (Tan 603). From this the author wants the reader to envision the perspective of herself and her mother to feel the emotion of rejection from society. The purpose is for the reader to have a connect that allows them to understand the rejection of not having perfect English or fluency in a language when used in society. This type of situation of one’s lack of fluency in a language has a major effect to how they are seen in society where if one’s English is very articulate they are considered human and receive the benefits that society give. However, on the flipside, if we have someone that lacks fluency like Amy’s mother, they are given the lowest status that society provides.
Furthermore, when we listen to how other speak it affects the way we also perceive their education. We can view this impact in “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future of Willie Jordan” by June Jordan where she teaches her students on black English to receive unexpected reactions. An example can be “Nonetheless, White standards of English persist, supreme and unquestioned, in these United States. Despite our multi-lingual population, and despite the deepening Black and White cleavage within that conglomerate, White standards control our official and popular judgments of verbal proficiency and correct, or incorrect, language skills, including speech.” (Jordan, 161) What Jordan implies is that white English dominates the education system of language and if others aren’t able to follow the standard that is placed, they can be seen as an outcast of the English language. June further goes on to ask the reaction of her students and they said that black English was wrong, incorrect, or strange. This clarifies the impact that language has on the education system where only one type of English dominates while other “English’s” and other languages are deemed strange or incorrect. This can be further extended to “Chapter 5 A Critical Exploration of How Language-of-Instruction Choices Affect Educational Equity” where they explain how language and other factors have either impacted the education system in a positive or negative manner through research and other resources. They state “those citizens proficient in two (or more) languages are more integrated than those proficient in a single language, even if that language happens to be the dominant or official language. Indeed, recent research shows that jobs increasingly call for multiple language skills (Duchêne and Heller, 2012). It has been claimed that multilingualism is the true lingua franca of a globalised world (Prah & Brock-Utne, 2009; see also Benson & Elorza, 2015)” (Milligan). This statement informs and further implies that when people are proficient in a more than one language, they are a more educated and intelligent versus someone that only knows one language. Compare this to a real-life scenario where two people are looking for a job where one person knows English while the other knows English and Chinese. Out of the two the one that is bilingual has a better advantage at getting a job since have two languages allows the person to assist, defuse and communicate better with others due to that additional language. This extends what June Jordan said since if people can learn be fluent in both the English language and some other language, they are perceived to be well educated which is most likely to be true.
The last factor is how has language affected the people’s mentality in society? In a research called “Health, Psychosocial, and Social issues emanating from COVID19 pandemic based on Social Media Comments using Natural Language Processing” we are able to see how covid19 has affected the people’s mentality through the use of language. They state “The only good thing about Coronavirus is that it will cull the stupid people from amongst us – those that do not take it seriously and continue to gather in public, those that go overseas to attend weddings and other events when they know the risk…”(Oyebode, 31). From this statement we can see how their mentality has affected their use of language resulting in a different viewpoint of society. The author who recorded this statement is informing the people of how an erratic mentality can shift one’s language towards a negative tone which has a connection to one’s education and their place in society. You see language has allowed people to create negative and positive outcomes towards one’s education, mentality, and place in society. When one reads this statement, we will most likely conclude that this person is mentally unstable based on how his language is. Another piece that further extends this type idea is from the Nation’s Health, Kim Krisberg informs the reader on how certain words will affect the public’s health either in a positive or negative manner. She states that “Language, messaging and the right person to relay them have long been a focus of public health study…public health research finds that words and language make a difference for just about every priority in the field, from promoting healthy foods to vaccine education to smoking cessation. The public health implications of words even led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to announce in 1997 it would no longer use “accident” for a car crash, as it implies the event is not preventable. Health and medical groups have enacted word policies as well — for example, both APHA and the American College of Legal Medicine have policies against using “suicide” in reference to physician-assisted death.”(Krisberg). This highlights that key words that people use whether it would be in public health or in your typical conversation can have major impacts. This has a similar connection to how language affects one’s education and their place in society since if one is bilingual, fluent in English and uses the correct words to find a job or to create a speech. That person can increase to rise their status through the usage of language. Krisberg explains how key words can negatively affect one’s mentality like using the word suicide when one is mentally suicidal or using the word accident in a car crash when in reality it is not something that is accidental. From personal experience, language can negatively affect one’s mentality and status in society since it can cause depression or other emotions that can affect how one performs in society.
Overall, language has a very impactful usage in how one is seen in society base on their status in education, society, and mentality. If language is used correctly it can improve or downgrade their status in either education, society, or mentally. Depending on one’s mindset and how they communicate with others can decide whether they are able to thrive in society. If we view the language of a businessman during a conference meeting, we can gather information that he is well educated, has a stable mind and has a high status based on how he speaks. Compared to someone that is illiterate and has trouble speaking they are most likely rejected or ignored by other since his or her language does not meet the standards of society, education and mentality that people are looking for. Finally, it depends on the person’s mindset on how to improve one’s language and if they do not search for solutions then they will most likely be rejected or be seen as an outcast to society.
Reference
Milligan, Lizzi O., Zubeida Desai, and Carol Benson. “Chapter 5 A Critical Exploration of How Language-of-Instruction Choices Affect Educational Equity”. Grading Goal Four. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Sense, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004430365_005 Web.
Oyebode, Oladapo, et al. “Health, Psychosocial, and Social Issues Emanating from COVID-19 Pandemic Based on Social Media Comments Using Natural Language Processing.” ArXiv.org, 23 July 2020, arxiv.org/abs/2007.12144.
Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue”. 1990. Blackboard, https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-51065394-dt-content-rid-398267210_1/xid-398267210_1 .PDF download.
Jordan, June. “Nobody Mean More to Me than You and the Future of Willie Jordan”. 1985. Blackboard, https://bbhosted.cuny.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-51354628-dt-content-rid-403130171_1/xid-403130171_1. PDF download
Krisberg, Kim. “What’s in a Word? How Language Affects Public Health: Research Shows Word Choices Can Influence Well-Being, Treatment.” The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association, 1 Apr. 2018, www.thenationshealth.org/content/48/2/1.1.
