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Diversity
Posted: 26 September 2006
Word Count: 57
Summary: I thought that I had better make a contribution to 'European Day of Languages'! Not sure about the title.
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You sound odd;
you say things differently.
How can you be
normal when you don't
even
speak
my language?
I laugh at
your mistakes, make fun of
your correctness.
And why would I want
to be
you?
I smirk
when I hear you say
'My mother and I' when
I know that it's
'Me and me mam'.
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Comments by other Members
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 Elsie at 09:30 on 27 September 2006
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Hi Joanie, the last lines made smile. Smirk, in fact. Insightful.
My chap is from Cyprus, and though his English is pretty much perfect he does come out with oddities - but I only correct the ones he has picked up from English people who speak badly - I don't want him to lose all his strange expressions!
I've always wondered why some people insist on saying "We was..." is it because they truly believe it's right, cos the rest of their family say it - or is it a way of stating they don't care about correctnes,, a way of setting themselves apart as a particular group? (I guess you'd know, through work?)
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 NinaLara at 09:47 on 27 September 2006
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Ah Elsie - the dialect versus slang debate! My husband, being from rural Surrey says 'we was' all the time. However, he is perfectly aware that this is not how standard English is written. I love to hear the diversity in language, while maintaining a written standard. Where would poets be without it?
I like the twist in the is poem Joanie - the surprise of the ending. I think it is always important to remind people of the cultural and linguistic differences within countries which make a nonsense of the idea that there is an 'us' (the English) and a 'them' (who aren't).
Nina
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 joanie at 12:03 on 27 September 2006
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Thanks Elsie and Nina. I have no problem with what people say if it's part of their local speech or dialect, be it deliberate or not. What irritates me is people who are trying to be very correct and say things like "He sent them to John and I."
I remember a few years ago on the BBC news, they used to say "Good night from John and me." I'm sure people complained that it was incorrect because they then started to say "Good night from John and from me."
As far as speaking English as a foreign language is concerned, I have only the utmost respect for anybody who can do it!
Thanks again.
joanie
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Tina at 18:12 on 27 September 2006
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Hi
Thanks for this Joanie which made me smile too - now coming from Dudlay - (that's how they say it) I think I am justly qualified to join the language debate - especailly as folk with west midland / black country accents are still depicted as thick even in these days of cultural tolerance. On the were/ was debate I had a friend - a real Londoner who used to say was not were but and thought that the film, 'The Way we Were' should be renamed the Way we Was!
Really enjoyed your poem Joanie
Thanks
Tina
x
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Souchong at 23:39 on 28 September 2006
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really enjoyed this joanie
i like the way u have split the lines. the poem has a nice shape on the page.
it made me smile but also think, 'sad int it'.
best wishes
souchong
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Account Closed at 22:08 on 29 September 2006
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I fell nicely into the trap of just starting to be annoyed that the poet was going to tell me it should be "... and me". Clever work - caught me in that nanomoment!
And, yes, I've also been "corrected", and told it's "... and I", when using "... and me" when we/us are the object of the sentence, rather than the subject. I presume nottalottapeopleknowthat.
:)
Steve
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