There are so many cultures and diversity, we know America for its cultural diversity. People from all over the world come to the U. S because it’s seen as this magical place where dreams come true, and where people can come to live a better life, they would have not had in their home country.  All these cultures result in multiple languages that are being spoken. Once you come here, adapt to the American culture so you can fit in. However, not everyone is welcoming to immigrants or anyone that they don’t share the same culture who doesn’t and doesn’t fit the standard English principles.  This may be because of the language they speak even if they do speak English for their accent or broken English, we see them as unintelligent and non-American. They are not seen as Americans, because of this they get taunted and not taken seriously. Society puts every one of these parts on sexual orientations and what is typical and what they can or can’t do. This is also why individuals are so centered on fitting that they overlook their way of life. I’ll prove that culture and society can have a huge effect on your language and your life. Culture can influence us and our language and how we carry on with our day by day life. Society can sway our language and individuals. I felt going through this issue and so many of my friends and family. This is something that is not spoken about but happens to so many of us. 

America has a lot of cultures, many people speak English or one form of English whether that be slang or broken because it’s the first language of the U.S. But about the people that just immigrated to the U.S and don’t know English. This affects children and students that come to America as well and have to adjust to the new American style of learning. Even though they will eventually adjust to the system, in the process they will get made fun of by their classmates and are unintelligent. They will be treated differently, for example, they put some students into classes for extra help, just because they are immigrants though they might not need it. They put a lot of them into an ESL class which is a class for second language speakers when they know how to speak good English. Others that are placed into this program usually have the pressure of learning how to speak English. The culture and society make them alter their way of life, the way they speak how they learn so they can fit into the typically American society. In the article written by Ani Derderian-Aghajanian and Wang Cong Cong both professors at Washington State University, How Culture Affects on English Language Learners’ (ELLs) Outcomes, with Chinese and Middle Eastern Immigrants states, “Literacy is grounded in specific cultural values (Li, 2003). Li shows that immigrant Chinese students’ literacy and lifeways, embedded in heritage cultural values, are not congruent with the school culture which confirms that cultural discontinuity explains, in part, widespread minority school failure. As Packard (2001) indicates, children from immigrant Chinese families experience an intergenerational, intercultural gap with parents in terms of language and traditions.” (2) This is an account of someone that went through this. Many immigrant families Chinese and Middle Eastern immigrants face unique challenges because of language barriers and the stereotypes of society, their culture shapes them and their education. This language barrier affects their education. People from one culture go through so many struggles because they have to adjust the way they learn and the lifestyle of your life. Adding on to the adopt an authoritative, and informative tone that makes their claims stronger. Another article that was written by Ming-Mu Kuo and Cheng-Chieh Lai who are Assistant professors, and students at A&M University was Linguistics across Cultures: The Impact of Culture on Second Language Learning, explains that “ language is also a social institution, both shaping and being shaped by society (Armour-Thomas & Gopaul-McNicol, 1998). This means that language is not an independent construct but social practice both creating and being created by the structures and forces of social institutions within which we live and function. Certainly, language cannot exist in a vacuum and there is an inevitable kind of “transfusion” at work between language and culture.”(2) Demonstrating how education affects people who speak a different second language. Which represents culture and language and the usage of instructional systems for training the second language through culture to improve understudies’ etymological cognizance. Language isn’t just the result of culture, yet additionally is the image of culture. With their formal and profoundly diagnostic tone. Education can affect the way you live your life, the way society portrays you. All prove that language affects the way we live and learn. 

Education is not the only thing that gets affected by language that affects our daily life. People get mocked by society just because they don’t fit in. People from different backgrounds come to America to live a better life where they can follow their culture but still live within society. But society influences people to change their culture, the language they speak to join the “standard” way. People who don’t speak proper English get seen as unamerican, they are seen as an outcast. Because of the language they speak, their broken language is seen as unamerican. In an article by Stanford News called The Power of Language: How words shape people, culture? Stanford news states that “Language can play a big role in how we and others perceive the world, and linguists work to discover what words and phrases can influence us, unknowingly. Linguistics scholars seek to determine what is unique and universal about the language we use, how it is acquired, and the ways it changes. They consider language as a cultural, social, and psychological phenomenon.” (1) Explaining how language is not an independent construct but social practice both creating and being created by the structures and forces of social institutions within which we live and function. People encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted. The Relationship between Language and Culture Defined by Daily Translation tells us, “Linguistic relativity, it states that the way people think of the world is influenced directly by the language that the people used to discuss it. Anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir of the United States said that the language habits of specific groups of people built the actual world. He further added that no two languages are similar in such a way that they would represent one society.” (1) As it describes here, it tells us how cultures are different. How the language you speak can affect the way you think the way you live. Society and other environmental factors affect and change you, even though the language will never change your personality. This going on and proving how culture takes a toll on us, and our language. 

I’ve gone through an identity crisis if you may say. You can say that society had a lot to do with that. Coming from South Asian descent, there was pressure from my parents to follow the culture that my parents grew up in, and in time I would pass the same culture to the future generations. But when I’d go to school things would change, I would try to fit in with the rest of the kids so I don’t get fun, but there were times even though my best efforts I would get made fun of because I have worn or done something that is not seen or done in American culture. Not just that, but because of this I learned how to speak English fluently and not my home language but people still made fun of me. Because of the language barrier at home, I struggled a lot in my elementary school years with English, because I wouldn’t quite understand or just couldn’t connect the ideas. I’ve also seen my parents go out to society with the little and broken English they know and not getting taken seriously, or completely ignored. Since they have a heavy accent they were seen as outcasts. But they too had to change that, allowing society and that culture infiltrate and change them. Someone else that also went through a similar thing is Amy Tan. In her piece of Mother’s Tongue, she tells us the experiences she went through, and what her mom had to go through because of her mom’s broken English, and that affected her. “I think my mother’s English almost affected limiting my possibilities in life. Sociologists and linguists probably will tell you that a person’s developing language skills are more influenced by peers. But I think the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child. And I believe that it affected my results on achievement tests, I.Q. tests, and the SAT. While my English skills were never judged as poor, compared to math, English could not be considered my strong suit.” (3) Coming back to education, the difference between cultures can and can affect their education. Especially in reading or writing because of the two cultures that you are used to, and two types of English. Society also targeted her mother because of her broken English. Even though her mom understood and could speak, just because she spoke with an accent she was not taken seriously. “You should know that my mother’s expressive command of English belies how much she understands. She reads the Forbes report, listens to Wall Street Week, converses daily with her stockbroker, reads all of Shirley MacLaine’s books with ease–all kinds of things I can’t understand. Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says. Some say they understand 80 to 90 percent. Some say they understand none of it as if she were speaking pure Chinese. But to me, my mother’s English is clear, perfectly natural” (2) From this, we can understand that her mom struggled with her English not because she didn’t know it but because of the way she spoke it. Her Chinese language and culture affected her and that language barrier. She learned to adapt to American culture. To add one, in another personal memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, called Tongue Tied she explains her hardships adjusting to the American culture, and speaking up. “I became silent. Dumbness—a shame—still cracks my voice in two, even when I want to say “hello” casually, or ask a simple question in front of the check-out counter, or ask directions of a bus driver. I stand frozen, or I hold up the line with the complete, grammatical sentence that comes squeaking out at impossible length.” (4) As seen here speaking was just so hard for her, she struggled to speak. It didn’t matter, it could have been the smallest thing but she could have asked because she was afraid and it scared her, because of the American culture she was in. The future more showing us how much society and culture affect our life.

In conclusion, as much as we don’t want to accept it, society takes a huge toll on our lives and it shows us how much the culture can affect your day-to-day life such as your language. I mean when you think about diversity; you think about the different cultures and languages that you will see. And it’s true but the people who are here know they had to alter something in their life to fit in, to adjust to society to survive. From the language, you speak whether you don’t speak at all or it’s broken it’s seen as unacceptable and not American. What they don’t realize is the effects they have on children and students with their education. Amy Tan, Maxine Kinston, Daily Translation, Stanford News, Ani Derderian-Aghajanian and Wang Cong Cong, and Ming-Mu Kuo and Cheng-Chieh Lai who are all credible people and sources have their studies and accounts that prove that culture plus society can affect your language the way your daily life. I guess many people don’t realize this, or just move past it, but it’s something that should not be seen past on. We should not let society let us change us, we should stay true to our culture, and be able to speak any way of English or any language and still be able to fit in and get along with everyone. 

Work Cited Page 

1. 1. Aghajanian, Cong, Ani, Wang Derderian, Cong. How Culture Affects on English Language Learners’ (ELLs) Outcomes, with Chinese and Middle Eastern Immigrant Students, Mar. 2012, ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_5_March_2012/20.pdf. 
   2. Tan, Amy et al. Home Is Where The Heart Dwells, 6 Feb. 2008, blogs.harvard.edu/guorui/2008/02/06/mother-tongue-by-amy-tan/. 
   3. Day Translations. “The Relationship between Language and Culture Defined.” Day Translations Blog, Day Translations, 2 Aug. 2019, www.daytranslations.com/blog/language-and-culture/. 
   4. Kingston, Maxine Hong. “Tongue-Tied.” Tongue-Tied by Maxine Hong Kingston, 1976, www.humbleisd.net/cms/lib2/tx01001414/centricity/domain/2925/english_ap/tongue.doc.
   5. Kuo, Lai, Ming, Cheng Mu, Chieh. Linguistics across Cultures: The Impact of Culture on Second Language Learning, 2007, files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED496079.pdf. 
   6. University, Stanford. “The Power of Language: How Words Shape People, Culture.” Stanford News, 27 Aug. 2019, news.stanford.edu/2019/08/22/the-power-of-language-how-words-shape-people-culture/.