Peers vs. Family

Hannah Michelle Lambert
Swift
APL2
14 December 2012
Argumentation Essay
  Every person is unique in their own way. There are many ways that people express this uniqueness, their individuality. This dissimilarity is expressed through what people choose to wear, how they style their hair, what they do for fun, what they want to be when they grow up, and so many other ways. However, for me, there is no greater, more obvious way to tell who someone really is than the manner in which they talk. Although, this personalized "language" that every person speaks is not solely a reflection on who each specific person is, but additionally on the people that surround them. According to Amy Tan, many sociologists and linguists believe that language skills are highly dependent on peers, while Tan states that these skills are influenced much more by a child's family. I, however, agree with both sides. The way that children, or any person for that matter, speaks is affected equally by both family and peers.
  Peers are the people that students go to school with every day, adults work with every day and that retired folks play golf with every week. These people of around the same age constantly surround everyone for a majority of someone's life when they are out and about. An influential subcategory of peers is friends. Friends have a huge impact on how one talks because they become almost like a second family. Being like a family, friends' lingo and inside jokes are passed around and stick because they are together so much. I know for a fact that my friends and I talk differently than we used to before we met, because we can't help but talk similarly because of the bonds we have built, and we can't help but pick up sayings here and there. Then there is the other group of peers, which is the people that you see or hear about every day but aren't necessarily friends with. The effect that this group has on one's language can, in some cases, be even greater than that of...