Response Log to “Mother Tongue”

Language differences can be seen when individuals adopt different attitudes towards different issues or persons. The more respect or alienation we show, the more formal our language could transform.
Language in our generation turns out to be more modernized and informal than our parents’ ageto the point of misunderstanding. In my country, in order to show respect, peers prefer to hide themselves from those slang and jargon in front of their parents. Bad grammar may be appeared in conversations, but under most circumstances, peers speak properly and live up to their parents’ expectation to be qualified people. For me, slang will be chosen delicately before slipping out of my mouth. Words that regarded as dirty words or have too much interjection which indicates a casual attitude will never exist in our conversation. I had once been joking with my mother and unconsciously slipped out a sentence that could be really offensive from my parents’ viewpoint, but humor among our generation. My mother was so shock, acting like she had eventually found out who her girl really was. From then on, I will never attempt to take risk on that any more.
As for a formal situation, people tend to behave more cultured. Verbs are always translated into abstract nouns, definitions substituted for examples, slang replaced with literary phrases, cluttered sentences organized to be highly-structured paragraphs. However, recognizing who is the audience is critical since communicating in formal way at a casual environment always end up with a bad relationship.
To recapitulate, speak properly in a proper occasion. That's the way to the success in making relationship.