I found both these activities very interesting, particularly the first article. This is mostly because I have pondered many of the same thing that Amy Tan mentions in her writing. I absolutely believe that everyone has many different Englishes, not just a general one and a version spoken at home. Whether it be a subconscious decision or not, I feel like most people have a different way of speaking to almost everyone they know. You may tend to have a more respectful and “articulate” type of English around your coworkers or boss, and a more carefree type of English around people you’re more comfortable with, such as your friends. I mentioned this on our quote homework but I found it very interesting when Amy states that she has a completely different language revolved around intimacy with her husband. ( And then I realized why. It’s because the 20 years we’ve been together I’ve often used the same kind of English with him, and sometimes he even uses it with me. It’s become our language of intimacy”. pg 1 paragraph 3 )It really made me realize the different Englishes I have with all the different people I know, which is dependent on how I feel about them. It’s very interesting and cool to think that when people know a language well enough they can speak it differently around certain people, and most of the time it is a subconscious decision to speak a specific way.

However as useful as these different languages can be, it is very unfortunate the many people that suffer because of people’s ignorance. I come from family that are all immigrants, many traveled here in their 30’s and developed a sense of “broken” English. It would catch my eye as a kid when I saw a different attitude from people (particular customer service) when speaking to someone with a broken sense of English. It would seem so wrong when people were rude to my family because they haven’t mastered a language that they started learning so late in life. Most of us struggle to learn a second language in school, and the truth is most students never come out of language classes with an actual understanding of them, even if they take college classes. So it baffles me how people can be so rude to adults that maybe didn’t even receive school education for the language, and had to learn it by themselves.