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Ebonics speakers needed

Dittohead not!

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For Hire: Fluent Ebonics Speakers for DEA Jobs

It may be raising some eyebrows, but the Drug Enforcement Administration insists it needs to hire at least nine people fluent in Ebonics.

The DEA's Atlanta office has been looking for Ebonics "linguists" since at least May, when job vacancies were posted online.

According to one posting, the linguist's duties would include "monitoring varying numbers of communications intercepts during any given shift" and then providing "reliable and accurate transcriptions."

Language and culture are intertwined, as language is the means by which culture is shared. Are we really dealing with a new culture/language right here, home grown, in the US? It seems there is a good reason to think so.

What do you think?
 
people will speak at home what they choose to speak, what their friends and family speak, no matter what we considr proper. So,l to some degree, there is a cultural element, and a language. But like all such local variances, there is still a need to help empower all to speak something more formal and common when needed.
 
people will speak at home what they choose to speak, what their friends and family speak, no matter what we considr proper. So,l to some degree, there is a cultural element, and a language. But like all such local variances, there is still a need to help empower all to speak something more formal and common when needed.

we can't force people to speak the way we do..........
 
we can't force people to speak the way we do..........

Force? No. Help. yes. In the world, fair or not, right or wrong, opportunity comes to those who can speak to different audiences in a way acceptable to that audience. It is unlikley you'll get a job as a bank manager speaking Ebonics.
 
Force? No. Help. yes. In the world, fair or not, right or wrong, opportunity comes to those who can speak to different audiences in a way acceptable to that audience. It is unlikley you'll get a job as a bank manager speaking Ebonics.


yes, people should know what it takes to land a job. but that doesn't mean it will transfer to their private lives. it's their own language, much as hippies had theirs, and geeks have theirs. dig?
 
yes, people should know what it takes to land a job. but that doesn't mean it will transfer to their private lives. it's their own language, much as hippies had theirs, and geeks have theirs. dig?

That's why I said they will speak at home what they choose to speak at home. Groovey? ;)
 
For Hire: Fluent Ebonics Speakers for DEA Jobs



Language and culture are intertwined, as language is the means by which culture is shared. Are we really dealing with a new culture/language right here, home grown, in the US? It seems there is a good reason to think so.

What do you think?


They want to hire someone who can speak ghetto rat baby talk? That's ****en funny. What next are they are going to hire someone who can speak like a dirty hippy so they can igo to Berkly?
 
They want to hire someone who can speak ghetto rat baby talk? That's ****en funny. What next are they are going to hire someone who can speak like a dirty hippy so they can igo to Berkly?

The silly name calling aside, if you don't understand and want to understand or see a need to understand, it's not unreasonable.
 
They want to hire someone who can speak ghetto rat baby talk? That's ****en funny. What next are they are going to hire someone who can speak like a dirty hippy so they can igo to Berkly?

Thanks to affirmative action, they would also have to higher a guy with enough teeth missing to speak redneck.
 
There is some merit in having someone understand local slang, especially since the drug trade uses it so heavily. Ebonics isn't nearly specific enough, you really need someone from the specific region to get a decent understanding.
 
They should hire me:)
 
I understand wanting to understand modern slang but call it that.

Giving it a name like it is its own language is just rediculous.
 
I understand wanting to understand modern slang but call it that.

Giving it a name like it is its own language is just rediculous.

Why? Isn't it specifying which slang we're talking about?
 
They want to hire someone who can speak ghetto rat baby talk? That's ****en funny. What next are they are going to hire someone who can speak like a dirty hippy so they can igo to Berkly?

Wow. Racist much?

And I'm honestly not one to throw the "R" accusation around willy nilly.

Wow.
 
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