auto. #5 interaction

C. Rosie Caldwell
Professor M. Boland
English 329
17 February 2009
Auto. #5 Interactions

I have been able to blend with my surroundings and the people that fill it. When speaking with my parents my vocabulary doubles and I become very aware of my grammar and the relevance of what I am saying as well. I become a proper little lady instinctively whenever I am interacting with them. When I am with friends, people doubt my honesty when I mention how I am finishing my degree soon. After I try to tell a story or a joke, my boyfriend will say “I can’t believe you are an English major.” I’ll start laughing before the punch line and forget the majority of the background information. When speaking with a barista or a server my politeness and friendly level is amplified and I can almost be viewed as a gregarious personality. “Hey, how are you doing?! Today is lovely! Hope you have a great day!” Yet, in contrast, I am not especially interactive in school, from fear of being completely off topic or being viewed in a negative way. In the past, dates that went well I was flirtatious and somewhat witty. On dates that didn’t go so well I was sharp, impatient and usually had a compelling reason to leave early. With police officers I become a little confused and excessively sweet. I find myself shifting into all of these different modes or personalities very easily. I put on a smile and switch interactive styles depending on the person and the social context.

Lately, I have noticed my ability to switch away from the droll scholarly writing I use for school, is becoming harder and harder. For my papers I will try to include sentiments expressed in class; and of course that varies from class to class, or teacher to teacher. Other than this, my language does not vary significantly in writing.

We all shift the way we interact with one another. With some people you need to be highly interactive and friendly, with others you should be respectful, intelligent and access all those multisyllabic words you learned in school. With some people you can throw around a few cuss words at and it’s all good. All depending on the social context and the person or group of people you are conversing with, your mannerisms, language usage and interactive style changes. It is a survival technique; it is what human beings need to be able to do to function in society. I have learned from a young age how to interact with different people, and how to act in different social contexts because I had to.