COMM0014 Blog Post 2 – Know your audience — the reality of code-switching

Code-switching in its broadest definition is the practice of shifting the language you use or the way you express yourself depending on your audience or environment. This shift may be conscious (e.g., how we speak during a formal business presentation) or unconscious (e.g., the language we lapse into around our old childhood friends).

Code-switching happens all the time and is practised by virtually everyone, but what is particularly interesting to me is the way that race, ethnicity and culture influence how we speak in different situations. A wonderful example of almost seamless and adept use of the practice is the well-documented (and well-parodied by comic team Key and Peele) code-switching of US President Barack Obama. In the case of President Obama and many other African Americans, the ability to code-switch is a matter of necessity, the reason for which is best articulated by Dr. Oscar J. Harp III

Ebonics (a blend of ebony and phonics), a term coined by black psychologist, Dr. Robert Williams, was theoretically developed out of a need for African captives during the transatlantic slave trade to communicate among themselves. Although it’s successfully used in American advertisement, it is repeatedly disdained by educators who admonish black students for its use in the school setting.

There is a misconception throughout the United States and Canada that there is one acceptable form of the English language, and any deviation away from this accepted standard is viewed with disdain, if not outright distrust. Even though we all engage in code-switching to varying degrees, a fairly homogenous majority has taken it upon themselves to decide that their code wins in arenas such as politics, business and education. Perhaps it can be argued that a standardized language assists effective communication between groups. However, similar to the apocryphal Anglophone tourist abroad who insists everyone speak English, little effort is made for the winning code to more faithfully reflect all of the parties using it.

Thus, I would argue that story-telling alone is not what defines the human experience.
A willingness to listen to the stories of others shows a willingness to learn from lived experiences outside of our own, and insisting on a shift to a standard language leaves so very much lost in translation.