Narrative Language Essay

Speech is a gigantic portion of life. Having different types of speech within the same language is very common. We don’t consciously notice these types of speech but it happens in everyday life. Naturally I talk differently to my friends than I do my teachers. I’m not saying that is a bad thing, you treat people differently based upon the relationships you have with them. Having a relationship with my teachers always demands a level a respect and understanding. Having a relationship with my friends never demands anything; they appreciate me for who I am.

Whenever I initiate conversation with a teacher I try to be really polite and use correct grammar; presenting myself in the best manner I can because I know my future lies in their hands. The lack of a genuine relationship with my teachers has always been there; putting on a fake face that said, “You don’t care what I truly have to say, so please just give me the A so I can get out of your life.” That being said, only within the past two years have I had relationships develop with my teachers because I felt that they actually cared about what I had to say. Teachers no longer assume that I’m skipping school because I don’t value my education; they know I’m pursuing a dream, and that I have a future. Relating to speech with teachers: at Wasatch High School I could never speak how I truly felt about what was going on because I would be sent to detention for the way I voiced my opinion; so I just had to sit there while another class spiraled into nothingness in my mind. At the Winter Sports School I’ve finally been given the ability to express myself without having to face consequences because my teachers understand that I am not just trying to blurt out profanity in class but that I actually care about what is being covered in class.

Conversing with likeminded friends is always a unique experience; it really is what makes having friends who share your ideals one of the most amazing things in the world. You can choose your friends; but not your teachers. If someone doesn’t like the way I act or the way I speak, they really aren’t going to be in my tight group of comrades. Imitation is the highest form of flattery; if someone picks up on a phrase coined by me I know that they like me or at the very least the way I speak. The zero expectations vocabulary your friends know is something that should be valued. One of the most valuable aspects of friendship is the unexpected creation of new words or the discovery of new meanings for old words. The conversations that only I can understand are the ones I value the most.

The evolution of language is like the changing of everything else in life; nobody can remain unaffected by society and what they have experienced in society. The only possible situation where I think someone can remain unaffected would be in a monastery, if they were never exposed to language beyond the silence and few critical words of the monks. Although many fundamental religions claim to keep the same standards over hundreds of years they change their standards just as language evolves, sometimes rapidly, other times slowly. For example the Amish use electricity on a daily basis; something that the original Amish people would never do yet they claim to keep the same standards.

Everything changes, including the development of language. If we expect to keep the same standards for everyone obtaining relationships would be nearly impossible past the level of acquaintances. If I treated everybody else the same as my teachers throughout time in means of bettering myself, society along with my relationships would suffer. The only place where I could see this being something that we wanted would be in a communist country where we are attempting to dull down our population through means of distancing ourselves in relationships so the masses don’t combine and rise up against this hypothetical unjust communist government.

I first learned to make friends, outside of my sister, in kindergarten. It’s the small things I noticed that weeded out my friends from my foes during that critical year of my development. If they chose the red crayon over the blue crayon, if they ran to the monkey bars instead of the swing set; these events lead me to the few lifelong friendships I treasure most dearly today and these friends molded the way I speak, which molded me into the person I am today.

The progression of language is what evolves us as a species at this point in time. Survival of the fittest isn’t applicable to the human genome anymore. The development of how we treat others, how we treat ourselves, both physically and psychologically through speech is how the human race is going to adapt from now on until the ends of earth. The few things we choose sculpt the relationships we have with people, and the choices we make decide the people we interact with over time.