LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION 1

Language and Communication

I believe that culture influences language greatly. For example, I’m an African American woman that

was raised around college-educated people. Speaking correctly was extremely important in my family.

As a person of color, at times, we are judged based on dialect. As unfortunate as it seems people will

judge you on the way that you speak. My family went of their way to make sure that we spoke correct

English. I remember a time when I was younger and attempted to use slang or Ebonics in front of my

family, and as one could imagine it did not go over well. My belief that language influences culture

comes from the popularity of hip hop and the culture that it has become. According to Wikipedia hip

hop is defined as “a broad conglomerate of artistic forms that originated within a marginalized

subculture in the South Bronx and Harlem in New York City among black and Latino youth during the

1970s it is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of

the culture: rap music (oral), turntables or "DJ-ing" (aural), breaking (physical) and graffiti art (visual).”
LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION