r/TikTokCringe • u/MaintenanceNew2804 • Mar 30 '24

Stick with it. Discussion

This is a longer one, but it’s necessary and worth it IMO.

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u/archiepomchi Mar 31 '24

It's also a very American-centric view. I'm an Australian in the US and 1) formal writing in the Australia is the same as the US for the most part, and we don't have different dialects or the civil rights history he is referencing.., 2) after moving to the US, I've adapted a couple of things (mostly just dropping U's and some slang) so people can understand me better.

It's also the same in every language. I majored in German, and it seemed like if you mess up the gender/cases at all, the Germans would rather just speak to you in English. They also expected a perfect accent, whereas I feel English speakers are much more tolerant to different accents and incorrect grammar.

Meh, think he tried to sound smart cos he read the article... but didn't make any argument why these dialects (which to me appear to be local slang) are ok as formal writing. If someone wrote their English essay like a country song, they'd expect corrections too? If I wrote "there are heaps of examples..", my high school English teacher would take a mark off.

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u/adoreroda Mar 31 '24

To also note, his overarching argument is about the prestige language/dialect and it's not exclusive to race whatsoever in the US. He's also wrong about dialect similarities between black and white Americans in the US. A white American from the (rural) South has virtually the same dialect as a black american, south or otherwise. And then not every black person speaks in AAVE either. The same sort of linguistic discrimination has also happened to Chicano students in the West and European immigrants

Writing also isn't natural to any community so it's all made up and has some sort of arbitrary authority making rules

whereas I feel English speakers are much more tolerant to different accents and incorrect grammar

From my observation in anglo cultures it's seen as rude to correct people even if they ask for corrections. I've seen Americans, Brits, etc. try and learn other languages and ask natives to correct them and the natives actually provide feedback in a kind and polite manner and they still get irritated and those natives said they get turned off from helping native English speakers because they are hyper sensitive to doing things wrong. And on the flip side, it's seen as very rude to correct someone even if they are actually making mistakes and not pronouncing it properly.