Code Switching
During the American Presidential campaign, one of the candidates tried to get a rise out of the other by accusing her of “talking black to black audiences and talking white to white audiences” as if this were some form of hypocrisy. Truth is, we all practice a form of this. It’s called “code switching”.
Speaking in the language of the audience is not only a courtesy, it’s smart. In multilingual societies such as Canada, you can’t really expect to succeed in national politics or business without at least some capacity in “the other language”, whichever it may be. Jean Chretien was first elected as a young firebrand with only rudimentary English, but he set out to force himself to function in English until he became a highly entertaining and effective speaker in both languages. Brian Mulroney was honey-tongued in both English and French.
Many of my formative years were spent in Atlantic Canada, and when in my late teens we moved to Ontario, I discovered that Canadian English doesn’t sound the same everywhere. Down East, one has in-shore-ance in case of a disaster, whereas Upper Canadians purchase in-shoo-rance for the same purpose. The Ontarian who visits Nova Scotia will be a tore-ist, but if his Nova Scotia friend visits Toronto, she would be a too-rist. And if she told her hosts that their hospitality was “some good” or “right nice”, she’d get a puzzled smile.
What I find happens when I spend any more than a few days Down East, especially in rural parts or the smaller towns, is that overnight I am talking just like I used to. That is code switching, and it happens without thinking and without any intent to be cute.
The same is true when a bunch of guys get together to swap out the transmission in somebody’s ‘63 Barracuda. G’s get dropped, salty language slips in, and we all start to sound like the rednecks we have become, if only for a few hours. There’s no pretense or falsity about it, we’re just speaking the language which is appropriate. If I talk like a big city lawyer when I have grease up to my elbows and grime under the fingernails, I’ll properly be taken for a pompous ass.
On the other hand, forced code switching is counterproductive. Trying to sound like you belong when you don’t brings ridicule, not acceptance. Those in leadership are expected to sound like leaders, not “one of the boys”. If you expect to be treated with respect, you need to act in a fashion deserving of respect. The judge who comes down to tell dirty jokes with the lawyers at the counsel table will have a hard time reimposing order and decorum when called for.
There’s another place for code switching, especially for professionals. When you’re arguing in court, particularly at the appeal level, you need to sound like a serious legal professional with precision and credibility, and “legalese” will abound. That’s because that is the local language of the courtroom. But when you’re explaining to your client what just happened, you need to code switch and speak in “plain English”.
When you’re reading a medical-legal report for a personal injury or malpractice case, you will expect it to be in doctor-talk. But when you sit with your client to see how the expert’s report squares with their day to day reality, you’ll need to speak “plain English”. All truly effective professionals need to be able to speak the language of their trade, but also the language of their client, and to be able to translate effectively. And that’s code switching at its best.