“Okay guys, count with me. One, two, tree…”
"Um, Ms. Telemaque, it’s three. The tree is outside."
This was a regular occurrence for me. I tried so hard to convince everyone around me to speak ‘proper’ English; one, because I thought I was teaching them something imperative the living a "better" life, and two, so that I could feel less deprived. Deprived of being like everyone here, so that I can be like everyone everywhere else. Well, what I thought was everywhere. I was always taught never to develop an accent because in the real world, I wouldn’t be taken seriously. I needed this tool to get into a good college, to get a job where I am not treated as an inferior because of how I say a number.
Growing up, I was always taught the right way to speak; always enunciate my words and to make sure that the 'th' in words never sounded like either letter was missing or replaced by a 'd'. I read a lot of books and always knew from popular TV shows that what my mother was teaching me was correct, I needed to learn how to speak normally, not like everyone else around me. I did feel a little disadvantaged, though; talking in my accent just felt so natural for me because that was what I heard every day. But I worked through that desire, quite seamlessly completely suppressing every hint of where I might be from away from my mouth.
I was a master at it, and at age six or seven I had completely learned how to communicate well enough that when I got older people were definitely going to take me seriously. As I got older, it got harder for me and I figured since I had already formed my sense of speech, there would be no harm in immersing myself a little into my own little "language," even though it’s still English. So I would talk to my cousins and some of my friends in a way that now seems foreign to me, and at first, to see their faces of confusion it’s as if it were. But the more I did it the more natural it felt, it was then I learned to operate effortlessly between two worlds, one where I would be accepted anywhere.
Not only was I able to grasp this part of myself, but through it, I was able to learn many valuable lessons and phrases that until now I didn’t even realize were that important to me.
