THOUGHTS

The Allure and Fatigue Behind Code-Switching

It looks epic, but it’s incredibly draining.

Photo by Khoa Võ from Pexels

When you grow up in one culture and are constantly immersed in another culture, you might find yourself speaking in two different ways. For example, for many people in the world, you might speak informally with your siblings and much more professionally with your supervisors and managers.

At home, in Canada, my parents and I pretty much speak in Canadian English — but it’s more of a scientific brand of English that would be more appropriate for a laboratory. I’m aware that this is very unusual, but I don’t really speak this way around peers.

Ok, fine, the scientific vernacular occasionally pops up in my writing — but that’s it.

Childhood Ramblings

My folks only talk this way because they read so much literature while growing up in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, in real life, I talk in a much more subdued way, ever since I was a kid. I learned pretty early on that other people don’t understand scientific English.

If we take it a step further, there are some people who do code-switching across other socio-cultural parameters. For example, while we speak in English at home, my parents will randomly code-switch into Tamil, but…