I’ve been really interested in language since I was a teenager. I was fascinated, from a young age, by the power dynamics hidden behind linguistic interactions and the ways that some forms of a language come to be labelled as “correct” and others as “incorrect,” often in a thinly veiled effort to legitimize class-based or race-based power differences. That fascination is what motivated me to study linguistics and led me to become a language teacher. For a few years now, I have been teaching business English at a French-language university in Montreal. As a language teacher, I am usually expected to be the person who clearly defines for my students what is “correct” language use and what is “incorrect.” I’m amused by this irony.

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