The Rhetorical Analysis Essay.

How many languages do you speak? What if I tell you for sure you speak at least one more than you think you do? In Jamila Lyiscott’s “3 Ways to Speak English,” she proclaims herself to be a “trilingual orator,” despite speaking only English throughout the whole video. How can she claim to be a “trilingual orator” when she only speaks English? How is her statement any sort of credible? When we open our perspectives to the idea that the different languages and/or styles of speech we use are each correlated to a certain identity specific to who we are, we start to realize trilingual orators are all around us, and we may even identify as one, too!

Jamila Lyiscott grew up in Brooklyn, New York City, to Trinidadian immigrant parents. She is the author of Black Appetite. White Food: Issues of Race, Voice, and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom which focuses on how white privilege exists within and beyond classroom settings. Currently, she is also the cofounder and co-director of UMass Amherst’s Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research, offering professional development, scholarships, programs, and models for systemic change in education. She is most famously known for her TED talk “3 Ways to Speak English” on the separate styles of English she uses in different social settings. Towards the end, she brings out a more provocative, underlying idea: any English she speaks that is not Standard Written English (SWE)—namely  her use of AAVE—is a direct reminder of her ancestors’ history and what was done to them, and because of that history, any English considered “broken” by SWE standards is not any less than SWE. Her TED talk makes a point to celebrate all languages, not pit them against each other.

English is a language spoken around the world, not only limited to America, so there’s no way it can be contained to be spoken one certain way. Later on, Lyiscott gives us the question, “But who controls articulation?” (1:21). She essentially asks us if language can be controlled—if it can only be spoken one way. And the answer is it can’t be controlled—nobody controls it because language is like a soup—the language itself provides the base of the soup, the main, defining components you need so you may be able to identify that soup as that specific soup. Lyiscott says, “the English language is a multifaceted oration subject to indefinite transformation,” (1:24) meaning it is always changing and evolving, depending on the people who use it. Just as every family makes their own version of chicken noodle soup, the English language is spoken differently across multiple cultures. This is how we come to have dialects and fusions of English and other languages around the world like Spanglish (Spanish-English), Tobagonian English, etc.

We can further trace this mixing soup pot of English and others’ languages as the people’s effort to preserve their history and culture while residing in America. Lyiscott divulges, “And the reason I speak a composite version of your language is because mines was raped away along with my history. I speak broken English so the profusing gashes can remind us that our current state is not a mystery” (3:09). Her broken English, the one that is looked down upon by the general American public, is a result from that complicated and stolen history—a testament to surviving the atrocities committed by Europeans and Americans alike against her people. While her use of AAVE may seem like a random combination of English words seemingly put together, it is actually a reflection of her ancestors’ history and her consistent and deliberate use of it is her way of reminding others is her effort to not let anyone forget what was done to them. Because there is history specific to our cultural and racial identities behind dialects of the English language, one way of speaking English cannot be seen as superior as another; to do that becomes the same thing as saying one race is superior to the other.

English can be spoken many ways, and each way has its own rules on how to correctly speak it that don’t follow Standard Written English’s conventions. In response to her mother’s mocking use of AAVE, “y’all-be-mad-going-to-the-store” (1:57), Lyiscott claims “that sentence is not following the law” (2:01). Even English that isn’t deemed “proper” has its own rules and conjunctions that need to be followed, or you sound as silly as American English sounds to a British person. Just because someone may be using a casual tone or way of speaking doesn’t mean they are speaking a lousy form of English, nor is the dissimilarity of their dialect of English compared to SWE a measure of their intelligence. Lyiscott concedes that while she “may not always come before you with excellency of speech” to “not judge me by my language and assume that I’m too ignorant to teach” (2:21). There is negative assumption associated with people who use AAVE (or any dialect of English not SWE) that they cannot speak English “properly” and thus are not smart. But while you may be under the impression AAVE is an unruly way of speaking English, it is actually a sign of intelligence to be aware of the context of one’s social setting and know the appropriate English dialect to switch to. It is not the act of identifying what dialect to switch to that is intelligent, but, rather, how to effectively switch to a certain dialect—one has to know the grammar rules belonging to that dialect and how to carry them out.

In America, variations of English pop up from the multitudes of people belonging to different nationalities migrating there with their dialect of English usually being a mix of their native language and English. However, in America, there also exists a preconception that one’s language is directly related to their intelligence. Specifically, if a person speaks any other dialect of English that isn’t Standard Written English, then they are of lesser intelligence and thus looked down upon. However, if our dialects are associated with all of our individual identities, it is the same as looking down upon a certain group of people. Lyiscott’s identities as an American, a Trinidadian-American, and as a black person in America has allowed her to speak three different dialects of English and switch between them depending on the social context: Standard Written English, Tobagonian English, and African American Vernacular English, respectively. To be able to understand how to use each dialect’s grammar conventions is not a mark of stupidity, so someone’s intelligence cannot be assumed simply by something like their language, and, as an extension, their cultural or racial identity. Instead of putting people down for a dialect of English they happen to speak, we should celebrate all the English’s we speak; we should celebrate each identity true to us.