Da Switch Between Yooper Talk and the Michigan Accent

Everyone is born somewhere and in that place there is a unique accent, that really only belongs to that area. For me, it is da Yooper’s accent. I was born in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so ja I am one of da lucky ones too call ourselves one of da few Yoopers, da lucky people! This accent is very cool in many ways. It is hard to write in the way a Yooper would talk because the big thing that we do is we have a very pure O sound. So we would say GO ShOpkO, eh? Instead of go Shopko! I myself do have a Yooper accent and I am very proud of it.
However even though I am very proud of my Yooper accent many people think that it is a bad thing or that just because you talk with one it is because you are a hick. Which, I would have to say, I am not. Knowing this fact is one of the main reasons that I try my hardest to turn my accent off when I am around people other than my closest friends and family down here at school. Moving down to school has made my non-Yooper accent show up more than it did while I lived in the U.P.
When I moved down to East Lansing my school language was the primary way that I talked. I switch between a generic Michigan accent and a Yooper accent all the time when I was at home because both were very acceptable. The language that I use in school is what you could call almost Standard English. I talk like teacher teach us to teach when we are in grade school, in the proper form but with slang here and there. For example I say gonna a lot more than I say going to. However even with the use of some slang it is really easy for me to take the slang out when writing papers.
Moving here was the biggest event in my life that showed me that I switch between my two accents. When I am on the phone with my parents or talking to my friends I let my guard down and my Yooper accent comes out more. Whenever I talk to fellow Yoopers with an accent I start talking with mine. I never noticed this in me before until I was away form Yoopers and only around a select few. My home language is the Yooper accent and not being around it made talking with it not happen all that much.
However even though I talk with a Yooper accent a lot I hardly ever write in one. This is because writing in a Yooper accent is hard because most of it is how we pronounce our vowels. There really isn’t a way to put that in writing. Because of this I believe that my writing style and my speaking style are the same. Being a Yooper affects the way I talk but not really my writing style.