Language, most definitely, shapes our identity. Consider the use of urban slang. Most young people conform to the usage of urban slang as they don’t want to feel alienated from their peers.Think of classic literature. Remember Pip from Dickens’ “Great Expectations”, he was trained and polished in how to speak as he grew older and came to make his place in society as a gentleman. So do we find, young ladies being instructed in which words are appropriate to use and which words should not be used in polite society. If they defied these instructions and used foul words unsuitable to be spoken out of a lady’s mouth, they’d be considered lower-class and looked down upon.
When you learn a new language, you earn yourself a new identity in the process as the language you’ve just learned is free from the connotations you had to imbibe as a child. If you go to a foreign country, you learn their language to fit in as one of their own. If you don’t speak their language, you are considered an “outsider”. Accent also comes to play a major role here. You must train yourself to duplicate the accent that the foreign language is spoken in to earn credibility as a speaker of that language.