How You Say It

Why You Talk the Way You Do—and What It Says About You

By: Katherine D. Kinzler

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

From “one of the most brilliant young psychologists of her generation” (Paul Bloom), a groundbreaking examination of how speech causes some of our deepest social divides—and how it can help us overcome them.

We gravitate toward people like us; it’s human nature. Race, class, and gender shape our social identities, and thus who we perceive as “like us” or “not like us”. But one overlooked factor can be even more powerful: the way we speak. As the pioneering psychologist Katherine Kinzler reveals in How You Say It, the way we talk is central to our social identity because our speech largely reflects the voices we heard as children. We can change how we speak to some extent, whether by “code-switching” between dialects or learning a new language; over time, your speech even changes to reflect your evolving social identity and aspirations. But for the most part, we are forever marked by our native tongue—and are hardwired to prejudge others by theirs, often with serious consequences. Your accent alone can determine the economic opportunity or discrimination you encounter in life, making speech one of the most urgent social-justice issues of our day. Our linguistic differences present challenges, Kinzler shows, but they also can be a force for good. Humans can benefit from being exposed to multiple languages—a paradox that should inspire us to master this ancient source of tribalism and rethink the role that speech plays in our society.

©2020 Katherine D. Kinzler (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

That was great and eye opening!

I have never thought about accents discrimination before this book. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

Very interesting

This book is super interesting and gave me something to think about concerning gender words. I bought it initially, because I was interested in bilingual children as my children are.

Not what I thought it would be

Thought it would explain why there are so many different dialects and accents - i.e., why do people from Boston and New York talk the way they do, why are there several southern drawls, why do some folks from California speak like they do, etc. Addressed that very superficially with most of the book addressing prejudice and discrimination against certain non standard English speakers. Important topic perhaps but not at all what I hoped the would be about for me.