In Phase 4, we were asked to reflect on the main idea that was seen throughout all reflection/responses: language of politics and the class in general. I choose to write about other languages besides English dying out and there being a linguistic hierarchy.

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Language has shaped everyone in a different manner; people’s culture and place of origin play a part in the language they will speak or inherit. It is up to the inheritor to continue speaking the language or to give in like the rest of the crowd. Most people end up giving in by attempting to speak fluent English at the expense of their inherited language. They start to stray away from their native tongue, ultimately isolating themselves from their culture. This idea of forgetting their native language has been spoken about by Lucy Tan, Joy Harjo, and Jamil Kochai. The realization of what has occurred and wanting to re-embrace their lost identity takes time and reconciliation with past culture. Not only is the language itself important, but the way it is spoken, the accent, are unique. However, this isn’t seen frequently in millennials, millennials tend to have “perfect” English that doesn’t contain an accent. The millennials are the ones shifting away from their native language making it difficult for future generations to speak different languages besides English. The native languages are dying out and there aren’t many people who continue to speak the languages. Authors such as Toni Morrison and Cathy Park Hong express their concern with English being portrayed as superior and the presence of a linguistic hierarchy. 

Languages dying out is a great concern as of recently, especially when other non-English speaking countries start to speak English as their primary language. Joy Harjo, writer, and activist, has spoken about dying languages, she is Native American, and her language and culture are on the verge of extinction. The elders are the ones who contain the Native American culture and with not enough custodians the native American languages will die out. Toni Morrison wrote a speech about language and the effects language is taking up now. Morrison spoke of an analogy in her speech of a bird being either living or dead, the bird being language. She spoke of the “custodian” being in charge of whether the bird is living or dead and its future. We, the upcoming generation, are the custodians. We are in charge of whether our native language dies out in the next generations, whether our culture dies out.  

The “custodians” is a reference to the upcoming generation, being us, Morrison doesn’t only believe that we are fully in charge rather that there are people who need to influence us in the right direction. Morrison said, “She is convinced that when language dies, out of carelessness, disuse, indifference and absence of esteem, or killed by fiat, not only by herself, but all users and makers are accountable for its demise” (Morrison 2). It’s the older generation’s responsibility to extend the language to the young generation and to encourage them to do the same. The language will eventually die out and it won’t be the fault of the way it is used but rather the people who stopped using it in the first place. An example would be Jamil Kochai, when he was young, he learned English and after spending two months in his native country he forgot all about English. When learning more English he began to use his native language less, ultimately forgetting it. This exact scenario happens to a lot of children like Lucy Tan, they forget their native language and culture and shift to the American culture. Then once they get older, they remember their roots and attempt to embrace their native language and culture again.  

Accents play a pivotal role in language because they help identify one’s origin. Although viewed negatively by English speakers, accents create a sense of identity and are unique. Denice Frohman is a poet who emphasizes the importance of accents in her speeches. Accents create a sense of connectivity between strangers, one can often tell someone is from somewhere else just by the way they speak. For example, the New Jersey accent is different from a New Yorker accent. But these are “American English” accents; Frohman speaks about Spanish accents and when Hispanic people begin to learn English, they keep a thick accent once they speak. To them, they sound fine and their words are pronounced correctly but to Americans, we hear the inconsistencies and the “wrongs.” Why must people get rid of their accents in order to fit in? When someone speaks with an accent in English you often see weird looks, I’ve seen this first hand with my family members who try to speak English. It creates hesitation and discomfort when people who are attempting to learn English get shut down by looks. Why must they be the people to change? There is no wrong or right way to pronounce words as well and people should be able to keep their accents without being treated differently. 

There is a language hierarchy and what has considered the most important language is English. English is being seen in many places across the world and some consider it to be a worldwide language. Cathy Park Hong speaks about her becoming distant from her native language and hearing the “bad English” her parents spoke and feeling embarrassed. She continued to talk about her home country and how she had gone there and saw young children wearing t-shirts of English words. The words were written improperly, and she didn’t believe that they knew what the shirts said, they were “bad English” shirts. Seeing English being placed in other countries where people don’t speak that language primarily proves the hierarchy. Hong also wrote about having a cousin who was learning to speak English and was officially beginning to speak fluently and without an accent. Her family saw her as intellectual because of her ability to learn English but also because of the fact she chose to learn it in the first place. Her family believed English was an important language to know because of the opportunities given. 

As seen, there is a theme in the reflection/response articles, they all speak about language and the idea of a language, other than English, being replaced by English. The language hierarchy having English at the top shows that the other languages are not being used enough and can lead to being potentially extinct. Non-English shifting from their primary language to English also proves the language hierarchy. The writers Morrison, Tan, Hong, Harjo, and Kochai all express their individual experiences with shifting primary languages and the difficulty of getting back their native language. Language has to do with culture and one’s identity and it’s up to those who know it well to teach the upcoming generation so that they do so on to the next generation.