When I was younger, of course growing up in New York, our slang here is not the most “lingustic”. One phrase I can think of at this moment is when I say “watchu mean” or “watchu talkin bout”. Of course, it means “what are you talking about?” but since it is the lingo over here, everyone understands it. I could say its just the accent, but it feels easier for me to say than saying it correctly. Now that I am older, I understand that i have to try to talk more like an adult and use correct terms.

When I was in high school I would always mess up between past tense and present tense words. For example, “in new york city there are (currently) many home teams, going (present) to the Knicks game is (present) something I always look forward to.” then later on saying “my cousins and I went(past) all the time.” This is something I would always get corrected on by my English teachers because I would often mix up past and present-tense words. I would also mess up when I would write “yours” and “you’re” and “theirs” and “there”. I would also mess up comma placements because I wouldn’t know if it came before transitions or after.

During my school years, I would use many words that are considered informal like ‘gonna’ or ‘ain’t’. I do recall a moment in middle school where I was having a discussion between my friends and a teacher when I used the word ‘gonna’ during the conversation. I remember the teacher stopping me mid conversation to tell me gonna is an improper word. I remember this because it was my English teacher and she used this to create a lesson for the following class. She listed many words that were used during regular conversation but should not be used during formal essays. One of the reasons she gave is because ‘gonna’ is not standard English. We were thought about broken English, where it is a conversation between friends where ‘gonna’ can be used because it was more of a slang. She said it is better to use the full ‘going to’ instead because it was clearer in sending the message. This thought me about rules used in English.

During my early years in elementary school, I remember how difficult it was to learn two languages at a very young age. I was born in Egypt, and Arabic, being my first language, made learning English grammar very challenging, not to mention pronouncing words. One thing I will always remember is when I would ask the teacher, “Can I use the bathroom?” and they would always jokingly respond, “I don’t know, can you?” That used to irritate me as a child learning a new language because they knew exactly what I meant, yet they enforced grammatical rules that confused me. Additionally, I recall in fourth grade during math class when my teacher would get upset if I added “and” between large numbers, such as ‘one hundred AND one’ or ‘two thousand AND twenty.’ She would always correct me and explain that there’s no “and” when pronouncing these numbers.

In my past few years of going to school, there were plenty of prescriptive rules that my teachers have taught my class and I. I was repeatedly told that there was a difference in words with punctuation. for example, in elementary school, I was having a hard time understanding that “you’re” and “your” are two completely different words. Another way the prescriptive rule was taught to me was by “their” and “there”. I genuinely had a rough time understanding the differences between such words but I overcame those obstacles. in my school experience, I was indeed told that “ain’t” was less valid than “aren’t” because my teachers said that “ain’t” was not even a real word. In high school, people were so into talking with lingo and that’s what had set the teachers off. so many students started talking like one another and this is what led to the teachers always telling us students that most of the words we used were not proper. Although, I would say that my teachers correcting me has helped me in my life today. if it wasn’t for them correcting me then I would not be as professional as I am now. I also wouldn’t have been using the correct words in certain sentences. I have stopped using the wrong words in phrases in my sentences now. I also look out for the correct punctuation. over all, I don’t remember many of my teachers ever explaining double negative.

Throughout my years in school from a young age, I do recall every teacher always reminding students not to write/type in the way that we speak because it is considered improper. Almost all my English teachers as soon as they assign a writing or essay whether at home or in-class, they would make sure to announce that we can’t use the word “gonna” or “ain’t” as it is considered improper. Teachers would say that if we wrote a paper for college or a resume using improper words that we would most likely not get the job or get a good grade on a college level paper. I always remember one of my English teachers in high school, she would assign a writing and then before she would allow us to write, she had to give us the improper writing speech and then let us begin our work. She would give this speech everyday! Till today i feel like i can still hear her saying ” we most defiantly can not use the word ain’t because that is not a word”. I also remember her saying how when we write ” don’t write like you’re talking to a friend” so therefore you can’t use words like “gonna” and “ain’t”. I can say that every English teacher I had would say the same thing. How we won’t get a job if we wrote improper words on a resume. The reasons given were very vague. The reasoning was just always that that form was improper English and not a professional way to show yourself. “It just doesn’t sound right” was also a reasoning behind why we can’t use “gonna”. Even though I was taught that these words are improper just because it doesn’t sound right, I still use them everyday when I speak with friends but not on a professional level like at work or writing a paper.

In my past years of going to school there have been a few prescriptive rules that the teachers taught the class. For example, I remember my 5th grade teacher would say never to start a with the words ”and or ”but, because a lot of students had a habit of writing this way in their essays, so she explained to us how when using grammar correctly we shouldn’t do that because it wasn’t the right way to speak English. Also, my teacher taught us although the words ‘I and ‘Me meant the same person, ‘I is supposed to be used when the person is the main subject of the sentence and me is used when the person is the object of the sentence. To explain this if you wanted to tell you were going to the store you wouldn’t say ‘Me going to the store but instead you would say’ ‘I am going to the store. Growing up this is how teachers explained to us how we were supposed to correctly use these prescriptive rules in language.

 In the past years of schooling, I remember my 2nd-grade teacher constantly reminding the class not to use the and then monster. We had a huge poster in the classroom that was always there so we couldn’t forget about the monster. The prescriptive rule she enforced was never to start a sentence with And. It could be anything but that word because then it would be considered a run-on sentence, and a new thought should be for the following sentence. Ever since 2nd grade I never started a sentence with and. Those are some of the prescriptive grammar rules that stood out to me in elementary school. Another word I remember teachers throughout the years saying wasn’t a real word was imma. It is considered a slang word and not proper English. I do agree with my previous teachers on this. I did find myself yesterday saying imma. I was going somewhere with my sister, and she reminded me that I needed to put gas in the car. I told her I’ll do it later because imma be out already dropping Mom off at the airport. I corrected myself by saying I’m going to since that is the contraction for imma. As far as double negatives I don’t remember my teachers talking about that.