#Sociolinguistics

Code-switching is the bizarre survival instinct of shedding one’s linguistic skin to morph into another grammar or vocabulary depending on the audience or setting. Academically hailed as a multilingual strategy, it is in practice a social performance that scripts the divide between private thoughts and public façade. Unnoticed by all, it crosses boundaries to deceive both speaker and listener, earning it the title of linguistic chameleon. Its stage ranges from boardrooms and bars to family dinner tables, where practitioners unwittingly change their personalities like wardrobe shifts to endure social life.