Multiple Englishes.

We all do it. Without even realizing it, we change the context of our language according to whom we are conversing with. The English I use with my family is different from what I use with my friends. The way I speak at an interview is different from how I speak during class. When I am with my family, I find myself saying "wooder" instead of "water" because that is how my parents (being from Jersey and Philly) have said it all of my life. As soon as I am around friends however, I switch to drinking "water". When I am with close friends, we often speak in a way that could confuse an outsider. We often bring up inside jokes and refer back to them frequently. If someone else hears our conversation, they have no idea what we are talking about. In exercise science classes, we speak with a lot of jargon pertaining to our field of study. This English may also seem foreign to an outsider. Another "English" I often use is text messaging and instant messaging. Not only are there universal abbreviations that are commonly used in texting, but my family, friends and I also come up with our own abbreviations. When my mom first learned how to text, she sent me one that said "LUB!" at the end to represent how we always end our phone calls--"Love you, bye!" Another important part of my text messaging lingo just involves using symbols to create all sorts of expression faces--smiley faces, angry faces, sad faces, confused faces, etc. Creating our own text messaging language is a really fun and unique way of communicating. The use of multiple Englishes isn't something I typically think about, so I like that it was brought to my attention. It is interesting to think about all of the ways we communicate with different people.