Gabriella Du Plessis – University of Johannesburg
The last four years of my life have provided many challenges. During this time, I was faced with having to learn to be independent in the sense that I was given the responsibility of my own actions and words. It is often outside influences, such as school and friends that will provide challenges especially during adolescence. During my teenage years, I had to learn to adjust to a new school and make friends with girls who come from vastly different backgrounds than that of my own.
At the end of primary school, I was awarded the coveted Student Sponsorship
Program scholarship. This scholarship would allow me to attend one of the most elite girls school in the country where I would receive the best education. The school is situated in the northern suburbs, which implies that the majorities of the learners attending the school live in the northern suburbs, and therefore come from rich families and live luxurious lives. The majority of the learners in the school are White, which was very different to my primary school where Coloureds were in the majority. These two factors would prove to be the basis of the challenge which I would have to deal with because I am from a middle class family and I was the only Coloured in my grade.
Being a Coloured usually means that you will have an accent. I was never aware of my accent because I had always been around people who spoke exactly like me.
At high school I was the only person that spoke in such a way and my peers and sometimes teachers never let me forget this. Yes, they were not teasing me but it was difficult to constantly have the way you speak laughed at because “it’s so cute” or having to repeat words because “it sounds so cool when you say it”. The difference in slang also provided its own challenge because nobody understood what I said as they had a different set of slang words to mine. These were all minor issues because after a while even the “cool Coloured accent” became boring and people got used to hearing me speak. The major event which I really found difficult to deal with was when a teacher corrected the way I pronounced a word and told me that I would be talking in a proper accent and tone by the time I finished Matric. This event made me look at myself as a person as to whether I do want to change my accent or not.
I decided that I was not going to lose my so called accent because a teacher thought it was not correct. My parents taught me never to change for anyone else and to remain true to myself and that is exactly what I did. By the time this event had taken place I had already made friends with girls from all races. They were just as furious about the comment which was made by the teacher and they too encouraged me not to change. With the support of my family and new found friends I did keep my accent but still achieve good marks for English speeches. There were days when I would teach my friends Coloured slang and they would help me in pronouncing words correctly and so in this way I stayed true to myself.
The result of my actions was that I still stayed true to my culture and the way we talk. The action I took also proved to my peers that I was a person who could be trusted because they could see that I would not portray myself differently to please other people.
Upon reflection I feel that I was correct in the actions which I took to overcome my challenge. One should never change who you are to suit other people because if you do then you have no true identity as you will always be portraying the identity which people at different times will want you to be.
This experience has had a great impact on my life. I now know that people will accept me for who I am so now when socializing I do not feel the need to portray myself differently. I have also learnt not to expect others to change for me. It has also shown me not to feel or think that I am inferior to other people because I am capable of doing the same as them if not better.
