Is all code-switching bad?
In my last post I talked about the term ‘code-switching’, and how I have adopted it throughout my life to try and moderate some of my behaviours to make the people I’m with comfortable. The response was incredible, and I’ve since felt compelled to explore this a little further.
My wife (Imogen Pierce) posed the question “Is all code-switching bad though? Does it really hide who you are, or does one just amplify and dial down specific behaviours, traits etc to suit the situation”.
This got me thinking.
I don’t regret adopting ‘code-switching’ to help me throughout various junctures, however it is only a term that has recently been used to describe perhaps a wider range or cover more types of code-switching. When you google the definition of code-switching you get the following;
“the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation.” — Definition from Oxford Languages
Language captures so much more than just words; words without expression, emotion, body language etc will not convey the intended meaning or story — we have all probably read or heard at some point in our lives that (depending on which study you read) somewhere between 70 and 93 percent of communication is non-verbal.
If we adopt the term ‘code-switching’ as a catch all for all types of expression and how one can modify them to suit or influence a given situation, then we can start to ask ourselves where the boundaries might be with respect to good or bad code-switching.
My first name is Karandeep. I’ve had many nicknames throughout my life, but the one that most people seem to settle on is ‘Deep’. The origin stems from my first year in university, where during fresher’s week you meet hundreds of people, and have to have the same conversation hundreds of times. Here’s how my conversations would start;
“Hey, who are you then?”
“I’m Kuh run dheep (very loose phonetic spelling…), what’s your name?”
“What? Like Karen-deep?”
“Nope, pronounced kuhRUndheep”
“Oh cool… so not like Karen then?”
…and so on…
I would start introducing a nickname as quickly as possible, not because I was annoyed with people (although there was a small amount of that), but mainly because after such awkward introductions, it can really put people off talking to you. I would even just go along with the overly english pronunciation of my name because I didn’t want the conversation to potentially take a wrong turn or head towards awkward territory. I was young, I didn’t know any better, all I wanted to do was to make sure that I would fit in.
If we have the ability to study language, to get close to decent pronunciation of GCSE French, Spanish, German, Latin etc words in our subjects at school, then we should generally have the ability to have the patience and understanding to learn and repeat names as they were intended at birth and according to its native culture and language.
This for me is an example of a boundary that I have established for myself where I can recognise what may be a type of ‘bad’ code-switching. So how do I recognise some ‘good’ forms of code-switching?
The honest answer is that I’m not actually sure! If we think about what it means to be a likeable person, or rather, if one has the desire to be a likeable person (most of the time), one might often find themselves code-switching to fit in or better suit the situation. At times this may be basic social awareness— for example, moderating or reducing our use of profanities in a professional setting, if ones usual conversation is peppered with excessive use of the word s***. This may be considered as a ‘good’ code-switch, as the likelihood of most people accepting the use of that kind of language so casually, is probably quite low.
But then again, I may be over generalising the general population…and I’m definitely not an expert on social studies, social science or humanity.
Here’s the point that I am trying to make — I’m not saying that the examples of boundaries or code-switching in this article should be adopted for everyone, but everyone should try and identify what boundaries they would feel uncomfortable crossing when code-switching. For me personally, I want my name to be used, it’s what my mum and dad named me, it comes from a culture and a history that I identify with and want to learn more about. I want my name to be used in the way it was intended, as a reminder to myself and a mechanism to help others potentially learn something new or gain some new insight.
Perhaps it isn’t right to use ‘good’ or ‘bad’, it’s really difficult to clearly disentangle different types of code-switching; one needs to do some soul-searching to try and find out what feels right, what aligns with ones values and beliefs, and just be conscious of when a situation maybe crosses some of those lines. More importantly, we have to have the confidence to describe to others why it may be uncomfortable to cross those lines, such that you can strive to be your most authentic self.
Ultimately we all have different experiences, sensitivities and boundaries. It’s up to us to work out what underlying values shape each of our individual code switching parameters— let those values guide us, and in doing so, help ourselves and others understand when code-switching is uncomfortable.
