Broken English Dialect

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May 17, 2011 Broken English Dialect Most people from different countries have an alternate way of speaking, and the dialect differs depending on the situation and the people to whom you are speaking. For example, in Jamaica, where I am from, other than Standard English, we speak a dialect known as Patois. Learning the dialect or version of a language has to do with culture and various forms of the dialect that we are exposed to at a young age. Although we adapt to this way of speaking, when we enter school, there is a standard version of the English language that is taught. For English speaking countries and so forth, the school and education influence how we speak as individuals. In the earlier part of my life, I never thought of Jamaican patois (patwa) as a language, and I never really liked speaking patois as it sounded so crude. Like many Jamaicans, I thought speaking the patios dialect was simply speaking badly. By the time I got to my teens I had stopped using the dialect altogether. This approach made sense to me because many Jamaicans look at you differently when you speak Standard English. I honestly thought I was a little bit better than those who were not fluent in Standard English because they were not as educated as I was. This was when I realized, at a very young age, that proficiency in English was a mark of social class. Being born and raised in the lower class of the economy, I was very interested in gaining traction on the slippery ladder of social mobility. -Anderson 2- In an informal situation, such as among friends, people tend to speak as they did as children. As an adult, I now have no qualms about speaking Jamaican Patios in an informal setting. As Jamaicans when meeting with our peers, we would say "yow...wah gwaan," which is the informal way of saying “Hello, how are you?” and a form of acknowledgement among friends. In
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