A study examined the roles of language and school in the lives of a group of five Indochinese friends, aged 10-12, in the same sixth-grade class. Two were born in the United States; three were born in Thai refugee camps. The ways in which the subjects defined themselves in relation to other students, particularly other Asian students, and to each other are noted, and their language patterns both during sixth and seventh grades and in the intervening summer are described, with special attention to rates of copula deletion, use of rap slang/African-American vernacular, and "bad" words. Shifts in both relationships and language patterns during this period, and external influences on them, are also explored. It is concluded that the students' language use helped them define their identities in relation to each other and to certain social groups, and also revealed their understandings of various social categories associated with schooling. Contains 59 references. (MSE)