Language Controversies

Blog Post One

Matthew Peeler

Over the entire course of my life I have been exposed to the language that most of us grew up speaking, the language that goes by the name of English. English is typically a very elegantly and fluently spoken language that many people in our nation speak. In my family however, it is not necessarily the most elegant or fluent of languages. It all starts for me with my parents who naturally learned "our language" from their parents. With this being the case, I would say it is logical to call this language a family tradition. With my mother growing up in a rural farm town in southeast Georgia and my father growing up in the rural area of Henry County, it makes sense to assume I get my southern slur from my beloved family. From my family I get words and phrases that would be considered by most English teachers horrendous and completely unacceptable in the English language such as "ya'll", "whatcha need", "be there in a sec", and many others that are truly part of the "Southern English" language. Though these phrases are not always the most logical sounding words to say, they are and always will be a part of the language I am proud to speak.

Having a southern draw has its advantages along with its disadvantages with both circumstances being a part of my schooling experience. I have been sitting in many English classes when some of my "Southern English" has been spoken and needless to say, there were many times where I was too scared to repeat what I said. There has also been a number of situations where I would be in the middle of an English assignment and catch myself writing down one of these "Southern English" phrases. As any good student would do, I quickly erased this very illogical sounding mistake with the fears of what my English teacher may have to say about this particular choice of words. Even though it sounds like there is nothing good about speaking "Southern English", there are some advantages to speaking this unique language. One being the fact that you get noticed because of your slur when you visit a new place. This first week at Young Harris has been one of those types of experiences. With the "language" I speak, I have been given the nickname of "Big Country" by many of my fellow classmates. This has been quite a funny experience as many people do not even know my birth name but know me simply as "Big Country".

This week has been a very interesting experience from the aspect of learning other "languages" as well. Just in this first week I have had the pleasure of speaking with people from Germany, England, Portugal, and the African Coast. This college, not to even mention this world, is a truly diverse place where everyone is different. Though many of us share the common language of English, we all speak our "own language" and that is what makes this world the great place that it is.