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[Music]
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when you hear the word speakers of
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English what type of physical appearance
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do you
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imagine English is used by diverse
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people around the world but there are
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stereotypes attached to the image of
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English
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speakers I don't think as very Standard
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English because
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um uh Standard English means um White
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English or white people's English to me
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when I speaking all the courses like
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when I read all the papers most of them
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are from you know the white professors
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most of them I mean yeah so I think like
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the white cultural or the stand Standard
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English still like they are dominant in
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this field so I think
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if um a student or if I can acquire
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Standard
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English so I will be more successful as
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a student or um teacher or scholar or
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researcher what's tght in school I found
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find is
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very uh it's very middle upper class
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white language and I find they use that
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Al also to tell people that oh you have
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English or you're uneducated when really
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it's just their common English or the
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way they talk English is different
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because they grew up in a different
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community and the way people talk is
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different um so I definitely think
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there's some a bit of racism and
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classism embedded in this idea of common
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English I'm about the top of the
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privilege pyramid uh I'm I'm I'm a white
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man from England who speaks English
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natively um and
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who is relatively well educated
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and in fact I'm not even the top of the
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privileg per I think I'm I'm the CEO of
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the of the of the the hedge fund who's
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bought the privilege pyramid I think
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that's how far up at there is zero doubt
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in my mind that because of the way that
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I look and the way that I sound there is
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100% a a perception that I
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have more Authority for example in a
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room or I have more knowledge about
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something in in a room and
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uh that just I I dislike that
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greatly what was interesting when I
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first moved here was I hadn't and it's
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still apparent when people hear my
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accent and we all have accents uh people
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would say oh you're from the states and
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then there would be certain associations
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with um expectations of how I would
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sound so if I said I was from Boston
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they would say oh you don't sound like
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you're from
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Boston and which is something I never
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hear from people that I grew up with you
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know they they don't say oh you don't
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sound like you're from here cuz I'm from
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there and uh and so it it was
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interesting to sort of hear the
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stereotypes that would be framed around
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how people would experience me a white
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person I know who's from Jamaica had to
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do accent reduction because
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a Jamaican accent is associated with
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black people it's sort of a standard if
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you will Jamaican accent uh Creole pwa
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however one want to characterize it and
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so when people would hear him speak on
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on the
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phone they don't know that he's white
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and so his whiteness didn't wasn't able
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to come
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through even we speak of English badly
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it also makes sense we can explain we
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can try to like
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fix that but we can't fix we right yeah
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I think so too like
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even like
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people are born here and from Asian
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parents can't be like set those things
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right because of their appearance like
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they speak English fluently like because
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they are naked but since they
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from asan
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paring I think because I'm like I look
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fully Chinese that people say that my
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English is like very perfect but that's
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also because like it was my first
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language so I guess that's like a a
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compliment I guess it's like a
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compliment but then it's also it's kind
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of like for me it's a no-brainer that I
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should be able to speak fully English so
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it's like an assumption that because of
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the way that I look my English might be
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different feelings I guess
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surprised I feel like people expect my
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English not to be as good because I look
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foreign I think for the most part it's
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more of a surprise that it's more fluent
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I guess I don't look uh the way that
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most western people look here and they
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would assume that because I'm my
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background is Chinese that maybe my
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English isn't as fluent do not perceive
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a cany family as a white man a male a
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white female and two beautiful children
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and their do I see that advertised
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online and I'm just like oh you know and
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then I pick them at the airport and also
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they're shocked because they think that
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I'm you know 30 years
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old sometimes people's physical
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appearance alone can trigger assumptions
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about where they are from or what
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language they speak or how well they
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speak English
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somebody comes to my lab and suddenly
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says oh you must be from India right I
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thought what makes you think that I'm
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from
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India I haven't even spoken a word with
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you why do you know that I'm from
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India so then the person is lost okay
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what okay just because your color they
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can't say that I haven't said anything
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you just based on something you assumed
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but that base in your mind it's a
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racism but I sometimes have this uh
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unfair because you know sometimes I work
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with uh some how how to say uh Caucasian
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people you know I mean white people and
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you know they some strangers are
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just greeting with him but not me not
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for me because you know they also F and
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you know they it's just I think unfair
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but I think you know just the same
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things is happening in Japan because you
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know if you're the clock in Japan and
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you know there's some Japanese people
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and you know white people come to the
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store and you know which people do you
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want to uh say h of course it's and
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you know yeah yeah yeah that thing is
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happening I I think it's a little bit
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unfair but it makes sense because you
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know if the situation must change I do
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same thing it's hard for like I know
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working at Starbucks I had some managers
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that would look at resumés that had
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someone with a a a non-english name um
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first so they would look at that go oh
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well do they know English and then
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they'll look at the resume and see that
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maybe they just left a school and say in
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South Korea they just left a school they
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just finished and now they're in Canada
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is I did have managers that would go
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this is going to take a lot of time to
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train them because they're not going to
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know English um and I would always
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gently remind them that you don't know
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that they don't know English
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the things you're talking about in terms
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of how people um look at uh black
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English or black English spacular um or
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you know there's a lot of different ways
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in which it's talked about I know within
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the context of um people who study
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language but it has an origin it's not
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bad English it's English which is
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evolved over time because of context and
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interactions with other uh other groups
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and other languages and so
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um as we know language reflects how
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people see the world and it's um you
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know some of the some of the limitations
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that I find that are placed on uh or
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perceptions of uh black English are from
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people who do not speak the
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language and so those are judgments
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often times racist judgments that are
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framed through the lens of white
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supremacy and colonialism and capitalism
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and so and those are mechanisms of
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control and
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subjugation uh not mechanisms for
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Liberation and
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[Music]
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humanization
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[Music]
