Discourse Community Blog

The discourse community that I am most interested in right now is the language discourse. My native language is Hmong. I communicate with my parents through the Hmong language. Well, my siblings too but we sometimes speak in English. Everyone in my family knows how to speak in Hmong because the only way we can really communicate with my mom is through the Hmong language. She does not really understand English. A lot of Hmong teenagers these days cannot speak in Hmong fluently. I am not exactly sure what it is that they cannot speak their native language. And not to be mean, but their English is not that proper either. Maybe it is the English language that affects their ability to speak fluently in Hmong? I do not know. Language is very important to us. If we did not have a common language in our lives, we would not understand what one is saying. In order to comprehend and cooperate with each other, we would need a common language to know what is going on and such. The fact that we live in America and the language we use every day with our peers and colleagues is English, can possibly be a factor that affects our native language.

I do not exactly know what other cultures are like, but in the Asian culture (specifically Hmong), we kind of have some strict values and morals. We really have to respect our elders and have ways of entering houses, such as taking off out shoes. To communicate with our elders, we really have to know how to speak in Hmong. Elders often make fun of kids who do not speak in their native language. They think that it's wrong to not know your native language and your culture. We're not allowed to date someone with the same last name. That would be like dating your own sister/brother. But the strange thing is that you can date your cousin. Someone with the same last name as you might not be related to you at all, but you can't date them. But a cousin, different last name and related...allowed to date. That is strange, don't you think? Kind of weird too. A code we use before eating is washing our hands. Hands tend to be dirty and before eating, it is important that we wash them before putting food in our mouth.

 

For my research, I am looking for articles that show or discuss about how the English language is affecting native languages. The fact that the English language is being taught all over the world, teenagers are losing their native language. And that is forgetting out morals and values.