These tints in English develop different accents all over the world. Not only all over the world but also in America. There are different accents such as the people from Southern states have different accent than people from the Northern. Not matter the accent English is still communicable and can avoid language conflicts. Language conflicts occur when there is no common language of communication or in other words when there are people speaking different languages and not everyone is aware of each others language. My friend’s family is very secular it consists of Hindus, Muslims and Portuguese. There are about three different spoken languages. To avoid any language conflicts they use a common language such as English so that everyone can understand each other.
There are some people who get affected by difference in English; they are usually students from other countries studying in American Schools. These students often struggle with grades in English in American Schools, which is due to different Englishes. Amy Tan talks about how she struggled with grades in English and got by easily in Math and Science. This is true in the case of Asians as they have natural inclination towards technical subjects. The worlds leading Electronic and IT companies are loaded with Asians due to their natural ability. Asians in American Schools are usually steered away from writing towards Math and Science, which is why there aren’t many Asians Americans representing American literature. Amy Tan was a victim of such steering towards math and science. Amy Tan was told by her former boss that English writing was not her best skill and she should hone her talents towards account management. But she took all of the disproving assumptions that people made of her in a rebellious way and she over came it and succeeded.
It’s very annoying when people judge you by your background. As in the case of Amy Tan having Chinese background she was steered towards math and science in spite of her liking towards English writing. My following story is similar in a sense that I was also judged by my background rather than my capabilities. I had just moved from India to Canada and was hit with some irrelevant judgments that people made of me due to my background. The first impression that I got from Canadians was that they weren’t aware that Indians were able to converse in fluent English as they can. I saw that people were trying to talk to me in a way that I would understand them as if I didn’t know English. I immediately informed them I can very well converse in the same English that they speak. I was shocked due to people’s lack of knowledge about third world countries. It’s just said that English is our second language, but as a matter of fact English was taught to us before than our own language. Although we learned our own language since birth, but we really started reading and writing our own language from grade 3. Whereas we started reading and writing English from Kindergarten level.
My classmates in Canada used to ask me whether we do Computer Programming in our own language since English is not our first language to which I replied; “Absolutely not, we use the same English as you do, it might be a little different the way we use it but it’s the same language.” I was truly amazed by the lack of awareness that people have about countries where the first language is not English. I had to prove a point that people can be well acquainted with English even if their first language is not English.
Like Amy Tan I didn’t exactly have any kind of shame in my story, as she feels a sense of shame and pride in her story. She feels shame because of her mother’s broken English and pride as it’s because of her she is a renowned writer; it’s because of her she became rebellious in her life, wanting to accomplish something, prove something! And she succeeded in her life she achieved what she wanted to achieve. Although, I did have some pride in my story as I managed to change lot of people’s opinion and made good friends for life and had one of the greatest time of my life in Canada.
I would conclude by saying that although English is diversified around the world due to language attitudes, difference in accent, background, “Englishes” or even unawareness to some extent, It’s still the most communicable or reachable language in the world. I feel English is more or less like cooking; the taste of the same food differs from region to region and every region adds its own flavor to it.
