"Do you talk, like, like nice, all the time?"

University College Dorm
Originally uploaded by AdiaMichelle

My coworker asked me if I "talk nice all the time." I said, "What do you mean? Not 'black'?" He laughed a little, then said, "No, like, I mean, yeah, you talk nice here at work because you wanna be professional and stuff, but when you're with your friends, do you talk all hard and stuff, like 'Yeah...', you know?" I answered, "Yes, I 'talk nice' all the time. This is just the way I speak."

I'm proud of him for asking, because most (non-black) people (who haven't known me for a while) just think that question, and never ask. It's potentially embarrassing, because non-black people sometimes have a hard time acknowledging racial differences. But yes, I do "talk nice" all the time.

I don't code switch. I know what it is, but I don't do it. I suppose it's because I've never heard my parents speak anything but grammatically correct, clear English, and because I was raised in an environment that was 90% white. I'm also an avid reader, and always have been; I ended up a highly verbal person (much to the detriment of my grades in math after 6th grade). I'm proud of the way I speak, and I'm also a little snobbish about it.

It grates on my ears when I have to continually listen to bad grammar. (Maybe that's why my hair is 50% whiter than when I left: riding the subway can be a harrowing auditory experience.) These days, I have to listen to it all day, and I often bite back screams and nasty comments. Is it so difficult to properly conjugate "to be"? I am, she is, he is, you are, we are, they are. I was, she was, he was, you were, we were, they were. I know English is screwy, but these are very basic rules, and we hear them used correctly every day. So why doesn't it sink in for some people?

I know certain dialects are a source of pride for others, just as I take pride in the way I speak the English language. I'm not always right, especially when conversing with my friends, but in a business setting, please use standard English. Language evolved to help us understand one another better. If you're speaking a different language, I'm going to get frustrated because I can't understand you. If there is an agreed upon standard - and in this case, it's "business english" - then let's use it.

So, yeah. I do "talk nice all the time."