My family is completely the opposite of the family in Housework. The family in Housework appears to be either a lower-middle class family or a lower class family. This family seems to talk in short and demanding sentences. The mother in the family, Martha, has a low paying job as a cleaner and the husband in the family, Willy, does work at home and also tends to avoid his children. They have two children, Monica who is 10 and Ursula who is 2. From the text, I frequently inferred that Monica had to do chores such as cooking and taking care of a baby. As for my siblings and me, we never had to do chores of the same magnitude, let alone do any chores at all. We are definitely a family of the upper-middle class. My mom owns her own business which is doing very well and my father is a lieutenant firefighter. Both make a more than decent income and have the luxury of spending a lot of time at home. Throughout my life, they both did the cooking, cleaning, and etc. at home which allowed me to not have to do chores, unlike Monica who has to do chores. Since both my parents spent a lot of time at home during my life, had well paying jobs, and talked with me a lot, I wouldn't say the language I use is completely sophisticated but it is high up there. My family never spoke demands to each other, "please" and "thank you" were always used. I am assuming that since Willy avoids his children, Martha is gone at work, and they are a lower class family, that these are the reasons why they talk in short and demanding sentences.
Besides my parents teaching me to speak slightly lower than sophisticated, the place I worked also improved my speaking. I worked at the Red Circle Inn, which is a fancy French restaurant.
My boss, who was also the owner, was very picking on the language we used around customers, whom he would call "guests." We had to always use "please," "thank you," "good evening," "excuse me mam or sir," and etc. Politeness when asking a customer to move or sit down for dinner was the most important thing to my boss. Numerous times I would have to tell guests, "Excuse me sir/mam, dinner will be served shortly. So may I ask you to take your seats please so dinner may be served?" This is different than in Housework where Willy would order commands to his children rudely and quickly. In Image 16, Willy asks Monica if there is hot water and Monica says that there isn't any hot water. Willy then says, "Then put some on." Monica replies, "Everything's washed already." So Willy demands, "Do what I tell you and get lost." Willy didn't simply ask Monica to put some hot water on politely by saying "please," he said it rudely. From the way I was taught to speak to others from my parents and my job, this would be completely unacceptable to me. If I were to say this to a guest at my job, I would have been yelled at or possibly fired.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
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I think that your experience working at the Red Circle Inn is one where work, class, and language may not be ideas that can be combined. No offense, but I would consider working in a hotel middle to lower class work, yet you were forced to use language that might be seen as a higher standard of language. As I pointed out in my post, sometimes language and class may not have much in common. But I think that many texts, like Housework, portray thoughs in tougher financial times as people who cannot string together a very structured sentence.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that language can be different even depending on the situation, rather than the class. When you were in high school, I am sure many of us did not discuss or talk at the level we do now. As you learn and as you grow, you tend to pick up more language and even more sophistication in your speaking skills. This might also be tying into language working with class, because if you are not able to go to college or high school, your lingual skills may not be as developed as someone who has the money to attend a university.