My Use of English

My first language is English, and I do not know how to speak any other languages fluently. My mom's side of the family is Polish, but my great grandpa was the last one that could speak polish in my family before he passed. He did not pass down any part of that language, and everyone else in my family is strictly American. Growing up in the north, we speak "normal American" English, no southern or British accents. When growing up, your vocabulary starts to grow and broaden, which a younger generation of kids may not understand. Since I am the oldest cousin in my immediate family, I tend to speak more simple and easier to comprehend English to the younger kids. I have to censor my language sometimes to keep the "innocence" of my younger cousins and other relatives. Keywords such as "die", "kill", "suicide", "shut up", and "idiot" are FORBIDDEN when kids are nearby. For instance, my cousin was curious about 9/11.  He was talking about it to his mom (my aunt) when I joined in on the discussion. He asked "what happened to the terrorist piolets?", my aunt responded in a smart and innocent way, and I responded with something that involved the word "suicide", my aunt scolded me for that. I quickly retracted my statement and didn't stay for too much longer because I knew I was most likely going to say another "no-no" word.

Cousins (oldest on left, youngest on right)

When talking to my friends, I loosen my language barriers. It seems like I have a good filter switch when talking to family vs. friends (but now since I have said that I will slip up the next time I talk). We talk with more "inside jokes", which others may not understand the meaning of. There's your standard texting language (lol, hmu, ect.) that I sometimes use, but for the most part, I don't heavily rely on these to shorten my texts. With friends, keywords like "bruh moment" have a meaning that is very hard to place, so it is understood by a few people, those few being adults and maybe some kids. Language that would be considered harsh and mean to adults might be taken lightly by us. Some of these words we use ironically, for comedy, or they can have satirical meaning to them, which justifies why those harsh words are used among a group and not publicly.

These English switches, as I will call them, are used for specific people and in specific situations. They establish a type of credibility among the people you are talking to. If you were to use texting language with adults that are not familiar with the technology, you don't seem credible in their eyes because it looks as if you don't fully know the English language, just messy abbreviations that can lose meaning. If using complex and regular English among friends and peers, it gives off the feeling that you are not "in touch" with technology. These English switches establish credibility to different groups of people, being your peers or family. It helps establish your knowledge and helps better communicate and relate to your peers and family.