DW1b

“Many of us feel free to make judgments about others because of the ways that they use language. We make assumptions based on the way that people speak and write, presuming to know about their intelligence, their competence, their motives, and their morality.”

This passage was from the reading in Myth Education: Rational And Strategies for Teaching Against Linguistic Prejudice by Leah A. Zuidema and is stating that many people judge others quickly depending on their way of speech or their accent. If people speak slowly we tend to think that they are not very intelligent or if people speak quickly and abruptly we may think that they are rude. The words that people use can mean very different things depending on how they are said. Depending on how people use language we think we can predict how they think, feel, and act, as if we knew them. Granted, usually, the better your language skills the better we understand what is trying to be said, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more intelligent than others.

I think that I can relate this to my relationship with my previous roommate. Just because Paula and I didn’t understand each other didn’t mean that I was smarter than her and that she was smarter than me. I misunderstood many things that Paula was trying say and I also misunderstood how she felt just because we have very different dialogues. Some things she said sounded inappropriate and rude, which I’m sure were unintentional. I remember a time, a few weeks after school had started or maybe even a month, when Paula turned to me and asked me if I thought differently of other races. At first I didn’t understand what she meant by the question, was she asking if I didn’t like her? If I didn’t like people of other orientation? Or if I was flat out prejudice against non-Caucasian people? I was questioning why she had asked me that question simply because I didn’t understand her. I assumed that she was thinking that I was prejudice, which was confusing in the sense that I had been living with her. I felt that her motive was hurtful, I took it in a very negative way, which I’m sure she wasn’t purposely trying to hurt my feelings. Today, I still don’t quite understand what was being asked or even if I had answered her properly. Based on that statement I made a judgment on how Paula felt about me when I didn’t even fully understand what was being said. Unfortunately we all make assumptions about what people say not knowing what is behind their thought.

From my experience I realize and understand that you cannot make judgments or assumptions about how people speak or write. You cannot presume to know what their motives are or how intelligent they may be. When we engage in conversation with another person we need to try to think about what they are saying and not how they are saying it.