I am completely agree that the way you talk will influenced by the people who around you .9 months ago,i was still staying in china ,speaking Chinese with people which i grew up with all the time,i was not used to speak English that much in my daily life, all we talked was in "Chinese way".But now,i am in America ,i speak English every day with other people besides my family and my friends in china in these 9 months,fortunately i am feeling more comfortable while speaking English with people here now,and surly i am impacting by the language culture of this country,i influenced by both bad and good way of talking. for something good, i get used to saying "have a good day/night/time"before you say goodbye to other , "god bless you" when people need it,etc. i think that's really a good influence for me because i feel that i integrate to America culture.But on the other way,i also affected by the inappropriate ways of talking .In the most time when i m texting to friends or posting something online ,i used to typing with "incomplete word",means a word without whole letters.For example, when i am want to type " i am",i usually will type " i m ";sometime i want to type "are you" ,it usually will be typed "r u ",and "because" will be "cuz"etc.so when i am writing some formal letter right now ,i always can not switch the way i type.
like what i said at first,i speak two languages right now every day,Chinese with my family and English with people i met in the city, when i talking with my family or other Chinese, i can speak whatever i like and express whatever i have in my mind,fluently! But usually i can't switch Chinese to English comfortably while i am talking with English speaker,one reason is i am not a native English speaking,i still have to spent more time in learning English ,another reason is i affected a lot by the Chinese way of talking that i had my early 20 years in china,i can't understand a lot of slang languages used by people grew up in here!
Hi Bella! your blog stood out to me because I completely agree. The way you talked is influenced by the people around you. You said that you are influenced by good and bad speaking by your friends and family in America. I know if I wasto move to another country whatever "lingo" or phrases used by the people surrounding me would definetly start become a part of my vocabulary. Also when I text I also use Incomplete words such as "Cuz" for becasue or "2" for to, or too. You said you cant understand a lot of slang for used by the people in that grew up here which I find very interesting because every country has their own slang like Australia,the word for bathroom is "lav" or "loo". I think you will soon adapt to the language used here, including the slang the longer you stay in America. :)
ReplyDeleteBella,
ReplyDeleteI think that the way you express yourself (in English or Chinese)is very important. Coming from the other side of the world into a country where the predominant language is English can be tough. But like you said, "code switching" is very very important because it is a mirror of who you are when you to talk to someone. Keep it up! You are doing a very good job!
Sincerely,
M A R I O