So, the sheets from the last few weeks have taught me some new stuff. A good example of this is written vs. spoken language. I did know beforehand that the two did have some differences, but I never really analyzed situations in which I would do one or the other. Some of the questions on the worksheet seemed silly. I remember thinking to myself, "Oh yeah, as a boss I would have such a tough time deciding whether to tell my employee that I'm letting them go or deciding to text them". But then I realized that for some people this is hard. This past summer, I got fired in an entirely different way - the leader lady at the place where I worked told my parents that I was done. That seemed weird. But maybe, although it's easy for some people, others have a really hard time determining whether to incorporate written or spoken language into a piece of writing. I've had arguments with my parents before that have gone like this:
Dad: "Ben, did you make a card for (Person X)?"
Me: "Why can't I just thank them in person?"
Dad: "It's nicer if you write a card."
Me: "But it's easier if I just tell them."
And this arguing would go on and on because I didn't understand my dad's perspective of view and he didn't understand mine. But, like everything, there are pros and cons to both sides. Sure, thanking someone verbally would be easier, but it doesn't pack the same emotional punch as the written word.
Additionally, I don't think I realized the full scope of social groups. As I wrote down all of my social groups and looked at the examples of social groups, I realized that, if you were to have a finger in every theoretical pie, you could be in more than 10 diverse, completely unrelated social groups. A sports team, a religious group, an improv troupe, an online gaming group - there's such a variety in formality and subject matter of the language between these groups, but they all fit under the same umbrella. And that's pretty cool. But that's not the main thing I want to talk about in this article.
This past week, since I've had so many relatives in town for Thanksgiving and stuff, I've been exposed to some completely new mindsets. I had my grandma and my cousins come in from New Joisey (yes, that misspelling is purposeful), I had other cousins come in from places like Virginia and Eastern Texas and Indiana, and then I had my own Arizonan family, too. And although there was some regional stuff, I would honestly say that most of the verbal differences between the families of my cousins (who I rarely see or communicate with) and my own family are related to closeness with one another. My two main sets of cousins both live on the east coast and are pretty close with one another because of it - they were cracking off inside jokes almost the entire time. My sister and I had to cope with these jokes and pretend to understand them, and I realized what an outsider like Christopher must feel like when he sees 'normal' people walking by and doing stuff that he doesn't comprehend. My dumb family stuff is much more minor than that, but it definitely created a parallel for me. I'm not mad at my cousins for this - I love inside jokes as much as anyone, at least when I get them. But when people make inside jokes you don't get, you feel bad. That's how people like Christopher, people who are isolated from most social groups, feel. So it's been more social than linguistic for me over the past week, which makes sense considering the subject matter. I've always known what it's like to be an insider - someone who always knows what's going on. However, this exposure really helped me realize what it's like to be someone who doesn't get all the jokes and the expressions, like what Christopher has to deal with on a regular basis.
So corny. But it works.
No comments:
Post a Comment