Cover Letter My experience in the class Freshmen composition so far has been great. I was able to learn new things and gain more experience with the use of the English language. This assignment has allowed me to put all of which I have learned so far in this class to use and find out by myself how far I’ve come after the start of college. One of the most meaningful insights I had obtained from this phase is the societal norm of having a “standard English” and how society has set a standard for language and people are expected to follow that norm no matter their background. After learning this new concept I wanted to do something to use “my English” in this assignment therefore I decided to consider my audience for this assignment and came up with the idea of having to split my audience into two groups. Group one is my professor and group two being my classmates. Using this strategy I was also able to do my assignment in two different ways the first one for my professor where I wrote the essay in the “ Standard English” and the second where I did my spoken language literacy narrative for my classmates as a presentation in a casual for english (my english) in the form of a presentation. Which I based off of the idea of code switching. There were two concepts that impacted me the most during the writing of my Language literacy narrative were author and audience. These two I felt like were the most important out of all I’ve learned in this class so far. The idea of “author” allowed me to come to the conclusion of using my English as a part of my assignment. I learned literature is important no matter who wrote it or how it was written. I always had this deep seated belief that only “proper/standard” English was the only way you could write something that was presentable to people and this idea enabled me to be myself while doing this project. The second concept which is “audience” enabled me to use the strategy of code switching even though not entirely as I did both of these as 2 different works where one is entirely the “standard english” and the other is entirely “my” English. Using this concept I was able to tailor my assignment towards the people who are consuming it. Finally I was able to recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations. I was able to include rhetorical strategies such as personal experiences as well as a moderate amount of humor in order to keep my audience engaged throughout my presentation and written narrative this was only possible due to the worksheet homeworks that enabled me to identify different rhetorical strategies and use them myself in my final language and literacy narrative assignment.

Is it that bad?

Language is one of the most powerful tools that has been made by mankind. It not only serves as a means of communication but also as a web that connects and intertwines people. It not only dictates the values and norms of a community but also shapes a person’s identity. In my case Malayalam was the language that I used to use the most in my everyday life, shaping my earliest memories and experiences.I was born and raised in India in the state of Kerala. Malayalam is the native language spoken in Kerala. Growing up in Kerala, my daily life was immersed in Malayalam. It was the language of my family, friends and my community. It was a relationship shared by the love for one’s culture, identity and language. As I read the prompt for this essay and reflected back on my memories, one particular memory from my kindergarten days stands out, marking an important moment in my relationship with language. As a child I had a deep seated belief that swearing was one of the greatest sins a person could commit.This belief was instilled in me by my parents who were strict and made sure the rules in my household always stayed as something that shall not be broken. It was a moral value passed on to them by their parents. This belief was further reinforced by societal norms and how swearing had always been frowned upon by other people in society.I still remember it as clear as day. A vivid memory from my childhood was a day much like any other. As usual I just arrived home from school with my brother  around 4pm. Unlike in the US the schools in India are not really differentiated by elementary,middle and high school level instead a single school building would have students of all ages till high school level differentiated by their grade level. So my brother and I would always come home together after school. We never had mobile phones when we were children so the TV was the only form of entertainment we had at home. We had decided that 4pm to 5pm was the time that I get to watch tv as the new episode for pokemon usually re aired around this time, it was a time every single kid in every single country in the world was obsessed with pokemon. That day my brother wanted to watch a documentary on national geographic about what I believe was a blue whale. He has always been obsessed with aquatic lifeforms to the point where he has always had 2 or more aquariums in his entire life at all times. So like any other person would assume we had one of the most fierce battles in the history of mankind over a remote that controlled the TV. At some point of our fight he started pulling my hair. Being the man I was and my lessons I learned from Ash Ketchum I was not going to give up in the face of adversity. With all my might I used my and many other children’s most trusted partner, with my mouth I bit into his arm without letting go no matter how hard he pulled on my hair. It was then, my brother, with a mischievous glint in his eye, uttered a rather unfamiliar phrase in Malayalam, “Poda Patti” he said to me. I had encountered the word before  but never truly grasped its meaning. Due to the nature ofmalayalam I was able to solve this cryptic message of words my brother had thrown at my face. As I analyzed the deepest of its meaning the phrase decided to reveal itself to me. Poda meaning “go away” and Patti meaning “Dog” I was able to put them together and understand that my brother had said to me “go away dog”. It was a word passed down from one generation to the next of malayalam speaking kids, nobody knowing its true origin. That day I had inherited the word from my brother. Till that point in my life, I had held the belief that swearing was one of the greatest sins a man could commit. I began to doubt myself and what my mother had taught me till then. Tears rolling down my face the size of a pebble along with overwhelming emotions I decided to rush to my mother with a mixture of confusion and distress.  The 5 year old me tried to explain what happened to me as much as my limited proficiency in language allowed me to.  Confirming my doubts my mother did not react with the seriousness I had expected her to react with. She instead brushed it off as a minor matter. I had at least expected my brother to never get to watch TV again in his life but all of my beliefs had been shattered when my mother uttered the words “it’s alright”.In conclusion, my encounter with the word “poda patti” was more than just a moment of personal revelation. It helped me understand the power of language, how it reflects and shapes cultural norms and how words could change its intended meaning based on how they were used.It also made me a better person as I had understood the power behind words. I learned how much damage I could cause with one mishap using this powerful tool. But it also taught me to adapt with the use of language as the power it holds changes depending on how a person uses it and the context behind when and how it was used.