English accents and dialects
A Cultural Digression
Speaking of Ebonics, I have a story of my own. Many of my friends would agree that I’m the whitest black guy they know.- Into sports and basketball in particular. I don’t watch sports of any kind except the Olympics then they come around
- Lovers. I was very shy with girls as a teenager. Later on, I found that Caucasian women, which I’ve generally preferred, perhaps because of my early years in Germany, either preferred white guys or preferred the more stereotypical black men. A girlfriend once related a comment made by one of her friends, “WHAT!? You’ve been dating a black guy all this time and didn’t tell me!?”. My personality doesn’t match the stereotype. Women seeking such a man should look elsewhere.
- Church. The stereotypes you’ve seen about black churches ALL match the image or aspire to. The jokes comedians like Arsenio Hall make about black pastors are based on universal truth. I have never been to a black church that didn’t looking like something on TV.
Although my dad and I didn’t attend church, the rest of my family is fairly religious. Sunday activities went from 8:30 to 2:30. Although I did attend church regularly for 8 months while living in Israel, I’ve always resisted organized religion. Church could and should be so strengthening, but most of the time, I’ve just seen it be oppressive, un-supportive, and hypocritical. So the culture of religion is something I’ve resisted. - The black church has its cultural influences. Folks go to church dressed to the nines. To take it further, if you don’t dress nice, that’s taken as an indicator that you’re not successful. I’ve always felt more comfortable in shorts and a tshirt.
- Success as an image thing. I once went to visit a friend shortly after graduating college and starting at Intel. I flew down to LA and rented a car. Her mom said something to the effect of, “look at you, rentin cars and shit…”
- “Acting white” was mocked though I usually took it as being teased for being smart and enjoying school.
Language as a source of comfort
Coming back to dialects. While I’ve never spoken black, it’s always been something that’s comforting to hear, especially now that I’m not in it. When I went to the conferences, as left out as I felt, it still felt like I was among my people. When I go to church, even though there’s so much I find distasteful, it’s familiar/soothing.German Dialects
Dying Language
Speech like this is dying in Germany. Parents make an effort to speak only Hoch Deutsch with their kids. I asked my friend’s mom about this and doesn’t she think Germany is losing something. Here’s how she described it (paraphrasing from memory and translated):Think of it like this. A smart kid grows up in “da hood”, where everyone speaks the local accent/dialect. That kid then is bussed to a school in a different neighborhood. To one of the “good” schools. He or she are accepted so the school can talk about diversity but many of the teachers then discourage them by assuming they’re stupid.In the early years of school, teachers ask students to write using their normal voice. It’s only later that they are taught grammar and standard German. In those early years, kids that speak dialect at home are at a disadvantage and some critical decisions are made in those times. Kids who are not yet able to speak standard German are labelled by their teachers as not suitable for Gymnasium
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That makes me really sad. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Follow upThen Hessisch goes away
Well, in the case of Indians, this is incorrect thinking. People in Britain sound different when speaking English but few would say they are speaking incorrectly
After his time in the Navy, he ended up in Germany working for the Dept. of Defense
even if I’m the only black guy they know. This is something that often surprises me. How is it possible that so many people know no black people?
mostly because there’s such a variety that we don’t normally have
a notable exception is D league, the lowest league, intramural sports in college. That was really fun
I’ll note that this woman was very intelligent. One of my regrets in life is that I didn’t take the time to travel to LA for her funeral.
to be fair, all cultures (except maybe Asian and Jewish ones) don’t encourage intelligence. Asian and Jewish cultures are oppressive in their own ways. What a wonderful world we live in.
that’s a small number given that Intel employed probably 50k people in the US. I once sat next to a higher manager in my dept on the Intel shuttle. He was trying to get a raise for everyone via a “market adjustment” and was working on a presentation for that. One of the foils I saw indicated that about a third of the dept were 8+ at the time. I spent about half of my career as a 9. I could tell that some of the managers around me didn’t think I deserved that. Conversely, I want to believe that many/most of my peers thought I did and perhaps should have been a 10/PE. Personally, I believe that I was worth every penny Intel paid me. It may not have been true in one or two of those years, but in those cases, my main deficiency was that I should have transferred somewhere else with less dysfunctional leadership.
My church time in Israel was at a church that, while not black, could be described as charismatic. It’s the kind with lively, non-organ, music. Hallelujahs, many hands in the air… The stuff I grew up with. I tried the other Christian church in Haifa with my friend Teresa once and we both noted that it felt dead. . It’s the kind with lively, non-organ, music. Hallelujahs, many hands in the air… The stuff I grew up with. I tried the other Christian church in Haifa with my friend Teresa once and we both noted that it felt dead.