Parish 1 Whitney Parish Proffesor Linda Hoffmann English 1101 September 23, 2013 Who am I?

When this assignment was assigned to me I contemplated on what to write, and honestly I still am. You all want to hear how my language represents or shapes who I am, but honestly I dont even know who I am. I am a girl lost in a very confusing world. Everyone says you will find out who you really are in college; well I have only been here for a month, and personally I do not think that is enough time for me to find myself let alone write about it in a paper. I do not speak another language or do I feel that I speak in a certain dialect. I also do not speak another language at home. The way I see it is I talk like a normal everyday American. I feel it is hard to detect the differences in the way others speak by my upbringing. I have always heard a mixture of every type of English dialect I feel possible every day and it just all blurs together in my eyes and ears.
Comment [LH2]: I love your voice, simplicity, and honesty in this opening section. Comment [LH1]: Using headings/sections in your paper is fine. But follow the MLA format guidelines: you need a heading and a title and page numbers.

Family As you may all know I am Native American. Yet my family has no native language that we speak at home, besides English. I grew up in a household that it was very uncommon to express the way you are. I was always forced to keep my opinion to myself. I grew up in the very boring town of Southport, North Carolina. The mix of different types of

Comment [LH3]: Of what tribe? Were you connected with grandparents or greatgrandparents who shared the culture with you? How about storytelling? Was that valued in your family, or were any American Indian songs or legends ever told? Comment [LH4]: Good. And how do you think this affected you? Do you have siblings? Did they have the same experience?

Parish 2 people is nowhere close to what it is here in Charlotte. Yes, of course you had your whites, blacks, rednecks, and city folks, but nothing to extreme that one could really tell the minorities apart. My parents came from very different upbringings. My mother grew up in New York, with more of proper values I would say. She was very concerned with her education, graduated high school, and continued with college until she got sick, and could not continues with her education. My father grew up in Pender county North Carolina. My father never finished high school, so his proper English was never establish and learned. Most the time he slurs his words and no one can understand a damn thing he is saying. You could say he has an extreme country accent. My mother on the other hand uses proper English in her New Yorker slang. I can honestly say that the major difference between the way they speaks makes me question on the value of the language spoke and taught in my house. From the slurred country language to the harsh words used my New Yorker mother I am lost in confusion. In what really is proper English? On the other hand my father did not raise me. He was a power line worker and always had to go out on outages, so he was never around for the most important times in my life, like when I was learning how to talk. If he taught me how you speak it would have been bad, because I would of sounded like a hillbilly hick that had no proper schooling.
Comment [LH7]: I love this paragraph. Comment [LH5]: Tell us more about Southport. Where is it? How would you describe the difference between these groups? How would you define rednecks and city folks and what differences were noticeable in the speech? Comment [LH6]: Where?

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Who can I relate myself too? After looking over the reading I see myself relating to Cremona the most, I feel as if we have the same upbringing with parents with such different ways of life. I feel my mothers ways of language and presenting ones self comes out when is needed, and my fathers ways come out when around a specific group of people. I am completely versatile with my language and the way I use it. I can weave a lot of my life experiences with Cremona`s. When I am in a group of people that I know may not understand somethings I say if I speak them in my mothers way, in a since I will dull myself down for their understanding. In not a sense that I want to make me or the others sound stupid, but in the sense that their understanding and expression of certain subjects vary threw ones upbringings, and education. Also when there is a time to present myself as a proper young adult I know how to uproot my mothers teaching and ways of life to conduct myself in such a manor. In the writing My Pen Writes in Blue and White by Cremona. Cremona says, In the matter which I now write, and communicate for that matter, has been directly affected by the two major influences in my life, my parents. Even though my parents communicate in two completely different ways, I have borrowed from both of them.I, myself have taken the plain, frank, honest words of my father and joined them with the proper and formal words of my mother to form the dialect that I now speak. This combination has given me the ability to communicate in many different ways.

Comment [LH8]: The first time you introduce an author, state his full name and the title of his work. Later when you refer to him you can just say Cremona.

Comment [LH9]: Can you give examples? Comment [LH10]: How do you think you became so versatile?

Comment [LH11]: Try, Not in the sense

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Parish 4 Interview
Comment [LH12]: Can you interview your mother? That would be great.

I could possible interview my mother about my background, because she was the one who technically raised me. She knows more about my background of speech and everything else then anyone else, even more then me. She also could give me another perspective on everything, just because she grew up and was raised in a different environment then myself, but she used her experience in life to raise me.

I could use her knowledge of my background to really show how my home language is compared to the standard English.

How it all compares

I feel that Creamona`s relaits to me in many different way except for the fact that Creamon is a boy and am a girl. When I am put in different citations were I need to be proper people dont take me serious, because I am a girl. In todays society not many people take women seriously I important situations. I cannot take my mothers teaching and use it to the extreme if no one will take me seriously.
Comment [LH13]: This part feels a little out of place. Do you have a lot to say on this topic? If so, it might be worth developing. If not, you may wish to cut it.

Whtiney: I really like your style in this narrative. You have a good start here. I encourage you to keep going. I hope my comments and questions will help you develop this further. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the Writing Resources Center as well. I think the one-on-one support would be excellent for you.

Comment [LH14]: You can? Or you cant? It seems your mother is an important influence in your language, identity, and literacy. Can you tell us more about her? What does she do for a living? How does she use language and communication at her job? What have you learned from her? Formatted: Font: Italic

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