Language and Thought

I am a person of very bad memory capacities. To be honest, I personally do not remember anything earlier than age, 5 or 6. However, my family has told me stories of what I use to do. I would associate flashing blue & red lights as police catching a bad guy. A ding-dong sound would mean someone is at the door but do not open it.  A ringing telephone would indicate that I needed to let mom or dad know that someone wanted to talk.

Writing for an Audience

To best friend: 

So this guy in a mustang pulls up to me at the light, and he wants to drag me down 44th. I'm like sure whatever, that street has no cops. I'm winning the entire time,and like a cop pulls up from Quincy and tags me. I just thought to myself, "really...REALLY?" WORST DAY EVER man.

To Parents:

 Mom, Dad, You guys have a good day at work? Really? some customers gave you gifts?! That's amazing! See that reminds me of something kind of bad that happened today. I was rushing to practice and a cop pulled me over. He ended up giving me a speeding ticket. I'm sorry and I'll seriously leave on time from now on.

To Judge:

I am sincerely sorry. I was a late for dance practice and that road is rarely ever populated with cars. From all the years I've lived here, there really isn't much traffic. I see the potential danger though so again, I regret my action and will learn from it.

Each situation has a different audience. Some vocabulary can be used for one group and is considered awkward if used to another group. My story changes from really laid back, common talk to a very formal as the situation changes.

Nine Ideas about Language

The first thing I noticed about this writing was its length. Lauren wasn't kidding about being a long reading.  In the previous semester, I took a linguistics course. It covered the majority of the topics discussed in this reading. It was a refresher about how children learn language naturally and relatively efficiently as well. I also liked how the author brought up the point about the many dialects and how value of a certain language/dialect is completely up to the individuals preference. This is one of the main topics I brought home from the class. No one language/dialect is "correct" so I feel being punished for miss use of language is very stupid.

Regarding how this article plays into my paper, There were parts about how we all switch from formal to informal depending on context of the situation. I expressed that in my paper. I also heard people talking in different jargon and etc while I was in the cafeteria. 

Discovering the Power of Language

My memory is terrible but I believe one day long ago, my mom had lectured me on the importance of vocabulary. She told me that it was important to learn both English and Vietnamese. This is probably slightly different advice than what others would have gotten. People tend to laugh at you and look down upon both you and your family if you cannot speak Vietnamese. It's just a cultural thing over there. To them, kids who grow up and totally forgot their root language is just - I think embarrassing is the word I'm in search of. As for English, the better the vocabulary, the smarter you will sound. 

About the advice my mom gave, I think that it is great. As far as how much I hold true to that advice, that's another matter. I do try to learn new vocabulary often but as I am now, I feel that there is much room for improvement.

Be Specific

I was very relieved today to find a paper slip in my mail box indicating my English book had finally came in. There was a shipping issue but that's besides the point; I am now able to blog about something.

If someone stated "I walked in the woods." I would picture the woody area around my house back home. The trees would be scattered about with many twigs and leaves on the ground. There would be a dirt hill here and there. Tiny shrubs would also accompany the few trees in a refined area. 

"I walked in the Redwood Forest."

Now I see something very different. I'm now in a special park. Humongous dim red trees dominate the land. There are more shrubs, more twigs, more everything! Different shades of twigs help compliment the vast greenery that can be seen everywhere.

Theres a huge difference between my two descriptions; in fact, almost everything differed. I believe the reason for this is the fact that Redwood Forest paints a different portrait than just woods. 

Dutton's "Language Crimes" & "Bad Writing Contest Press Releases"

1/8/09

I had mixed feelings about these two articles. On one hand, I loved it. The point the author is pushing has came across my mind countless times and it feels good to have a highly educated person agree. But in contrast to that happy tone,  the articles also brought me to scratch my noggin and lose interest rapidly. While "Language Crimes" was pretty enjoyable, "Bad Writing.." was very annoying. As a reader, I believe the point was made halfway through the second example of THE WORST SENTENCE EVER. But then I looked to the right and saw the scroll bar indicating I had tons left to read, I let out a sigh. I then just skimed through maybe half of each show off sentence and read the analysis from the author. To be honest, I went to speedy skimming mode for this article. 

Over all, I feel like this is a good way to start off a class. Its very...different. And yes, change is not always bad :)