Code-Switching
Code-Switching One of my favorite podcasts is NPR’s Code-Switch. Code-switching means to assume the cultural norms or practice the hidden rules of a different culture to be more accepted. As a white male, I know I cannot ever know what it means to code-switch daily. Nor can I ever understand the tremendous energy it must involve and how exhausting constantly code-switching must be. I went to a boarding school and several of my best friends were Puerto Rican. Whenever I was hanging out with them, I remember trying to use Spanish slang when telling stories. I remember them struggling to understand my family dynamics whenever they visited my house for a weekend. After a three-day weekend at my home, I remember Jaime saying, “Man, your house is crazy different. That was insane.” My niece, who spent the first years of her life in Switzerland, spoke French at her school and on a vacation in San Diego, she tied a rope around her waist and pretended to repel down the stairs. As she did so