I am Articulate!

I can recall being part of a group that gave evaluations in order to improve speaking. On multiple occasions part of direct and indirect evaluations on my speaking included the use of the letter ‘A’ instead of the letter ‘I’ during my speeches. It apparently was one of my evaluator’s pet peeves. To be specific there was little ado about me saying “thang” as opposed to “thing.”

I was listening to a show on NPR where a young lady named Jamila told a story about a talk she gave at the university she was attending. She was Black, I believe from the West Indies perhaps. After her talk a white woman came up to her and told her how articulate she was. That comment or assumed compliment was a problem. Why would Jamila need to be told how articulate she was? Do we go around telling everyone how articulate they are? Furthermore, who determines what it means to be articulate?

As a result, in part, of that encounter Jamila gave a Ted Talk using spoken word.  Check it out.

One thought on “I am Articulate!

  1. Wow! I am articulate left me speechless. The truth was spoken in so many different languages, well, only one language to me, just in different tongues; but many to others. All in all, it was all the same talk, but in different figures of speech, or different articulations for different settings, or people. She made some very valid points though. Hence: “Because the English language is a multifaceted oration subject to indefinite transformation.” “The only God of language is the one recorded in the genesis of this world saying it is good.” That alone deserved snaps. I also enjoyed the humor in her speech too. The joke about the British and how she puts tri-lingual on her job applications was truly real but pretty funny. But truthfully she speaks for a lot of people. We all are tri-lingual orators. I’m definitely gonna share this video!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *