The idea of code switching, came up in class today, in our discussions of Donald Duk by Frank Chin. This topic is not something I have talked about in length in class before but I have herd it used elsewhere. I thought I knew what it meant before class, but I think I have been working with an incomplete definition. In the past this term had been used to describe how people would change their language use and behaviors on behalf of the comfort of others and this term had always been used with a negative connotation towards the person who was doing the switching as some how seeing the people they were switching for as being lesser persons. So admittedly this is not a good definition, or understanding that I have been working with because it did not account for the comfort and efforts to be included by the person doing the switching. That was always left out in the past.
Additionally, up until it was mentioned in class, I did not realize that code switching included accents. This caused me to really stop and do a double take in class, as I realized I finally have a name for what I do with accents. So I have what my mom always called a military accent; I adapt my accent to which ever one is around me. I once was in a room with ten different people from ten different regions of the US and we noticed that my speech had become very weird as I was attempting to replicate both the language use patterns and the accents of everyone in the room at once. This did not work at all, and I could not speak coherently to anyone for a while. Admittedly, I was also on pain medication at then time, so my mental capacities were not the greatest, but the reality remains that I have since done the same thing while sober; just with fewer accents at once. I have always felt ambivalent about the way I do this, and in someways it has been handy, but in others, I feel like a freak.
In doing a little research about this topic, I ran into an article by Matt Thompson titled “Five Reasons People Code-Switch” that was published by NPR on their blog about ethnicity and race. Both in reading the article, and in thinking about the discussions in class today my own habits come to mind, and I have to ask my self- why do I do that? I can’t help it, it is so hard for me to maintain my own accent, if another is presented that I even pick up accents from things I read that are written in such a way as to convey accent. I have to admit that I have worried about being seen as some how disrespecting others around me, or mocking them when I do this, but like I said I have little control over it, and I sometimes do not even know that it will happen. I do usual (these days) at least realize when I am doing it. When I was younger I did not. I do not intend it as an insult, and I do not think I do it to be demeaning to others. This is something that I think I will have to spend a lot more time thinking about.
Thompson, Matt. “Five Reasons People Code-Switch.” Code-Switch, NPR, http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/04/13/177126294/five-reasons-why-people-code-switch. 10/13/2017.