Code-Switching

Now that I'm back in the US of A, I realize that I've developed my own weird Jane-speech these past couple years, a version of Lebanese English. I throw in words all the time, like Khalas "Stop," Shway "A little", A3njad "Really", or Wallow, if I'm being sarcastic, Yala, Habiby. I make a tisk noise and lift my chin when I want to say NO, and I press down my eyelids and my chin down to indicate yes. I bring my fingers together of my right hand in an upward-cup shape to say "Wait."

I have to filter out these little Arabisms, and explain this non-verbal communication. Well, actually, just get rid of it for now.

This is more complicated for me now returning from this trip than from my other trips. Because Lebanon was the longest I've lived outside the U.S--1 year, 10 months. And most of the time I was speaking English (because almost all my friends speak English).

But Lebanese English is different. They say stuff, like "This house is for my uncle." But in standard American, we would say, "That's my uncle's house."

As the English teacher, I point out that these things in Lebanese English are not how they are expressed in standard American English. (Because they don't realize that.)

But having studied the Ebonics debate (I have a masters in education), I don't say they speak wrong. I say they speak different. I treat Lebanese English like Spanglish or Standard African-American English (Ebonics.) Different cultures have different languages, and certain languages are appropriate for different contexts. Successful people know which language to employ in different situations.

As teachers, we have to teach Standard American English and make sure our students are competent in that and employ it in the appropriate situaitons. It's not our jobs to say the way they speak at home with their families is wrong. Becauase it's not.

And by the way, I can't even speak Portuguese anymore. My best friend and her family are Brazilian-Lebanese and they speak Portuguese and Arabic mixed and I do the same thing when I'm with them. My Portuguese is good; my Arabic is crappy. But because it's on the top of my head and I use it more than Portuguese, the words for lots of things come easier adn faster in Arabic. So if I don't want to think too hard, I just say it in whatever word comes first--Portuguese or Arabic. This is not a problem with my neighbors. They understand me, and I understand them.

But I don't think code-switching is necessarily bad. It's a stage in language aquisition for me. At least it allows me to talk to people who don't know English (like my friend's parents and Brazilian relatives.)