Arriving at Shared Ground Through Difference (B Ed Comp English)

Arriving at Shared Ground Through Difference

                The essay 'Arriving at Shared Ground Through Difference' written by Daphne Marlatt shows a form of colonialism at work within the family. The writer was taught the King's English to behave and speak properly although she was exposed to other language there. At that time, she was a white colonial child there. She was trodden, scolded and ignored by others who spoke the Cantonese, Malay and Thai language. She wanted to understand their laughter, jokes, calls, exclamation, comfort and humming. She found that her English and her Amahs' (mother-substitutes') English were different although they understood each other. She realized that she grew up in loving the emotive sound of women's voices i.e Amah voices. But their experience was not considered crucial although they were devoted to take care of their Mem's children.

            The writer found differences between her English and her mother's English which had many intensifiers (e.g very, terribly, awfully, completely, etc.) emphatic sentence pitches and rising tones. She was taught to speak correctly but couldn't and felt embarrassed. She felt that the words she learnt there sounded funny in her mouth as if she were trying to speak counterfeit (false/fake) words. She realized that there was now a whole new level of her own vocabulary which sounded strange on the street. she had a long battle with her mother was trying to correct the daughter's the purity/accuracy of the origin but the daughter was correcting the mother's for common usage. Thus, they focused on two different versions (e.g formal and common usage forms) of the same language. Words were very seriously taken in her house because they were the weapons of their struggle on language. The writer thought that children are directly influenced by their mother's language but she found it different there. Her mother's words, her very style of speaking derided her own children. The writer's English was Canadianized. She denied her mother's English. Therefore, the mother withdrew into chronic depression and hypochondria. Thus, the writer finds a form of colonialism at work within the family.