Ok, so what I am
thinking about doing is something to do with dialect. My original idea was to
see how accents determine our interactions with each other. Coming up with this
idea was rather simple because I have lived in two very different parts of the
country. Each place I lived in, I had a foreign accent and was noted of that by
my friends. So naturally I wanted to see if I could find more about this subject
and see if I could make an argument out of it.
However,
in doing some general research I found that almost no one had an interest in
this field. The only things I could find were comical interpretations of comedians
slurring words together to create something funny. For example, one of my
favorite clips was from the newest pink panther where Steve Marten tries to say
in an American accent “I would like to buy a hamburger.” Unfortunately his
character’s thick French accent makes this simple sentence into one of the
iconic scenes of the movie.
So
after finding nothing but funny clips (not complaining about that part) I decided
to expand my topic to accents in general. Using Academic Search Complete, through
the library, I typed in the word accent. The results I got back all had
something to do with accents of immigrants and the troubles it causes them. I
found everything from health care to employment opportunities, all linked to
the way they talked. That is when I chose to use language barriers as a topic
of my choice.
Finally
finding a topic that had good amounts of creatable research I started thinking
if this was a good topic to go with, or if it was simply something a lot of
people talk about. From elementary history class, everyone knows or can theorize
that not knowing the language of the country would make it harder to live in
and adapt to that country. That is basically where my knowledge stopped; I knew
that the language barrier existed and that it could make employment hard for immigrants.
However, in just the simple research that has been done so far, many things
start to pop up that I would never have thought about.
For
example, in the migrant health care system in this country and others around
the world, if you are unable to tell your doctor that you are highly allergic
to a type of medicine your life could be in danger. The same is true if you can’t
tell the trauma surgeon what happened to your friend. I never considered the
idea that just because you cannot communicate even in a 1st world country,
your actual life could hang in the balance.
This
make me wonder what else could be hindered just because you can’t communicate
clearly; anything from not being able to get a job to not being able to get
food, or even accidentally insulting people. We have all had that experience at
McDonalds where we try and order something to eat at the drive through or the
counter. We pull up and begin our order and all we hear back is
“jfodurow;qnvifsagfsavq” and we have no idea what was said or if they got what
we said. Is this what this immigrants live with every day?
