I've studied linguistics at undergrad and post-graduate level, and I am willing and happy to concede that BE (Black English) is indeed a bona fide dialect. I'd be interested in seeing research projects for basal readers for BE-speaking children written for the purposes of teaching the process of reading, for example, so they can transition more easily into reading and writing (and speaking) Standard American English at a later date. (Because it's easier to learn to read and write in your first language or dialect--then transfer those skills to another, that's why.) (And yes that's a HUGE argument I have entered. Is the use of a BE reader reinforcing BE? Prohibiting its use would imply that BE is a bad thing--and how can anyone's language be a BAD thing?)
I don't have much experience with BE, largely because I'm based here, and I am much more familiar with the emergence of Chinglish as a dialect at this point. (Ask me how!) Every language has its poetic and expressive mode and I occasionally run into an expression that entered common speech through BE and it often makes me laugh--not a laugh of derision and scorn but one of delight. Some things are expressed perfectly in other languages-- "woman of a certain age" in French, for example (and yes, that would be moi)--- but I do wonder if pop culture's sudden leap into a steady diet of "black" vernacular is going to have an impact on Chinglish. I say this because yesterday, when I asked a student how she was, she replied "My name Pony." I said, "Yes, Pony, that's WHO you are. HOW are you?" and she stared blankly at me. It's her second year in an all-English program, by the way. One of her cohorts took up the conversational slack. "I'm very good boy," he offered. "I'm glad to hear that!" I replied in my hearty jolly teacher manner. "F' shizzle," he replied, then headed off to class.
