Ted Talks: Jamila Lyiscott " 3 ways to speak English" (summary)

3 Ways to Speak English

By Jamila Lyiscott

Lyiscott stated herself as a baffled lady and announced that she is “articulate”. She uses to speak ungrammatically cause she is “articulate” which means that when it comes to enunciation and diction.  When her professor asks a question, and her answer is tainted with a connotation of urbanized suggestion. There’s no misdirected intention, cause she is “articulate”.

She has decided to treat all three of her languages as equals, but who controls articulation? Because the English language is a multifaceted oration, subject to indefinite transformation. Now people may think that it is ignorant to speak broken English.

She told us that even “articulate” Americans sound foolish to the British. Even American language has rules. For instance, her mother mocks her and says “ya’ll be madd going to the store”, she says, “Mommy, no, that sentence is not following the law, never does the word “madd” go before a present participle, that’s simply the principle of this English.”

She may not always come before people with excellency of speech, but don’t judge her by her language and assume. She is too ignorant to teach, because she speaks three tongues, one for each; home, school, and friends.  She is a tri-lingual orator, sometimes she is consistent with her language.

Sometimes she fights back two tongues, while she uses the other one in the classroom and when she mistakenly mixes them up, she feels crazy like “ i’m cooking in the bathroom.” She knows that she had to borrow American language because hers was stolen, but people can’t expect her to speak American history wholly while hers is broken. The reason she speaks a composite version of American language is because hers was raped away along with her history. She speaks broken English so the profusing gashes can remind people that they current is not a mystery. She is tired of the negative images that are driving her people mad. She is so sick of that nonsensical racial disparity.

How can people expect her to treat their imprint on their language. As anything less than equal, let there be no confusion, let there be no hesitation. That is not a promotion of ignorance, that is a linguistic celebration.