"Sista Tongue" review

To me, the layout of the book acted as a puzzle that kept the reader occupied and interested. It kept me continuously reading because it was just sort of eye-catching. It kind of helped to make the assignment part of it disappear and seem like something I was just doing for fun. We had said in class that the size of the font affected how the material was read. For me I noticed that it didn’t really have an impact on how I read the memoir parts; I just read according to how I would speak it out loud to someone. It did, however, affect the way I viewed the academic portion. As I read it, it seemed to me that the bigger the font was the more important that portion was; I took it as the main topic of the sentence. I think the spaces act as an aid in the way a reader reads the material. I think the spaces are there to let the reader think between lines about what’s going on in the story.

Kanae’s argument is that Pidgin is not a speech impediment but rather a type of cultural identity. Pidgin speakers in Hawaii are looked down upon because “they no can speak good English”, but for them it’s just like a different language. It is treated as a disability, but in actuality it shouldn’t.

Personally, I do speak Pidgin. I don’t speak it in public to others, though, because I know a lot of people who don’t speak Pidgin disapprove of it. It’s not my “first language” and I don’t speak it just because I grew up in Hawaii; my friends and I speak Pidgin because it’s a fun way to just “chillax” and not worry about perfect grammar. I think if people don’t speak Pidgin they should try it sometime or watch a program with Pidgin in it; expand your horizons. :)

As for the purple cover, I’m not sure of the significance. In the memoir portion of the book there was reference to the book “Harold and the Purple Crayon”. Beside that, I don’t know the significance of the color purple…I heard it was a good movie though. (LoL, just playing around.)