My first thought yesterday when I heard Rachel's last name and found out she was of Haitian descent was that English wasn't her first language.
Rachel reminds me a lot of a colleague I have who grew up in NYC. Her parents were Garifuna Hondurans. Her first language and language she mostly grew up using aside from at school was the Garifuna language (an Arawakan & Carib language with elements of French, Spanish & English). Her second language was Spanish, as she grew up in a Garifuna enclave within a Hisapnic community. Her third language, learned at school & from friends, was English. The friends generally spoke a type of English that was non-standard English.
This woman has a MA from a US university and is pursuing her PhD in a social science field. Her spoken English is still off, particularly subject-verb agreement. Her written English is still off if she writes quickly or on the spot; she has others who speak English as their first language re-read her written work. Her grammar reminds me a lot of Rachel's. (Although she does not use derogratory terms; I'm speaking soley about her grammatical English.)
This colleague can come off somewhat off-putting and like she has an attitude (although nothing like Rachel's) often when pressed to answer questions/speak English off the cuff. She also did not make friends with the class cohort right off of the bat. She didn't engage in conversation with us and many of us thought she thought she was better than us or had an attitude. In reality, I think it's because she 1) is unsure/not confident of her standard, academic, professional English and 2) she was often translating what was being said in her head from standard English to either the colloquial English she learned growing up from friends or Garifuna or Spanish and then translating her replies back in her head before saying them. If pressed for time or put on the spot, she resorted to her non-standard English full of subject-verb agreement issues and expressed a slight attitude.
I am glad someone else pointed out that Rachel probably doesn't speak English as the primary language at home and it wasn't her first language.
Thank god someone told her to answer with "yes ma'am" and "yes sir" today. That goes a long way and I wish the proescution would have worked with her on that or prepared her to do that before she testified yesterday. I'm really at a loss as to why this wasn't done before yesterday. Why didn't the prosecution work with her to prepare her better (as far as using "yes ma'am," "yes sir," toning down the attitude, etc.)?
