Language makes the world go 'round; I know it's cliche, but its absolutely true. It allows humans to communicate via words, stories, news, books, television, orally, and through self expression. Language is officially defined as, “A system of arbitrary vocal symbols that human beings use to encode their experience of the world and to communicate with one another” (Schultz, 34).
Dialects (or accents pertaining to certain regions) can give hints as to where a person is living, or where they grew up. Just this semester I transferred from a school up in New England to here at Towson University. When I would talk to people, I wouldn't tell them right away where I was from. But from my accent, they could pick up I was from Massachusetts, and more specifically the Boston area. To me, it didn't seem like I even had an accent, I thought the people I was talking to had a Southern accent if anything. With just a few sentences, or the way I said a word, people whom I had never met before could tell where I was from. Dialects can reveal to a person know what region someone is from, where they might have traveled to, where their family might have originated; they can give an anthropologist or just a normal-everyday-person a look into the lifestyles of people. They have the possibility of showing a persons educational level, and economic status among other qualities.
A way that a person could hide or deter their educational level and economic status is by code-switch. Schultz defines code-switch as, “Speakers generally using each code in mutually exclusive settings, switching back and forth between codes as the situation demands” (43). So basically a person who is capable of using two or more languages or dialects being able to switch their “code” to fit the situation that they are put into. For example, a person who is well educated might use correct grammar and a large vocabulary around other students to make them sound equally as smart, but while hanging out with friends made outside of school, the same person might use a lot of slang and a smaller vocabulary to fit in with his or her not as educated peers.
Just this week I have filled out twenty something job applications in hopes that some business around here will employ a broke college student. Almost half the applications were done online, but for the paper ones, when I would turn them in to the store, I would speak to the managers in a more eloquent fashion. I was speaking more professionally to come off as more intelligent and leave a better impression. I know that how I speak with the managers of the stores is different than the way I speak on the phone with my mom, or while I am out with friends. This code-switching can be done to sway the way a person see's you.
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