Bilingual Mind

Hi,
Welcome back to the three text journey!

In the third text, “Bilingual Mind” by Jeffrey Kluger, the author is talking about how interesting and complex language is and about how learning two or more languages can bring some advantages to the speaker. These advantages are not related only to the ability of expressing your thoughts in two or more ways but to the benefits that those extra languages are bringing to your mind’s health. In the beginning, we are informed about the way in which we learn our first language, starting from zero and building our way with approximately three new words per day for a length of time of six years. After this process, we continue learning until we reach a great number of 50.000 words that combined with syntax and other grammar rules help us master the language and become fluent. The text continues with studies that have been conducted by language researchers in order to see if knowing two or more languages can affect the way you are thinking and your perception of the world. One test that has been presented is the Stroop test which implies writing the name of a colour using ink with a different colour. The participants who were asked to say the colour of the ink experienced a “lag” but it proved that the participants who were bilingual, trilingual and so on needed a shorter period of time to think about it. We are also informed about studies which showed how bilingual kids were beginning socializing earlier than monolingual kids, and about how being bilingual can delay the “aged-related dementia” with up to 4.1 years and the apparition of Alzheimer by up to 5.1 years. Some researchers showed that being bilingual had some potential disadvantages as well. One study showed how kids who were raised by bilingual parents in families where the “code-switching” was used had a less developed vocabulary than kids who were raised in families of monolingual parents. However this was proved to be only a temporary problem and those kids would eventually catch up.

Overall, this text contains some common points with the texts that have been covered so far and these points are marked by two key words: language and code switching. First, it is related to language and to be more specific to how it is learnt, how it changes our way of viewing the world around us and the possible advantages of knowing two or more languages and this is the focus of most of the texts that have been covered. One example could be “Bilingual Sestina” in which the author talks about learning a language as a kid, how kids learn by playing and how important it is for them to associate one object with a specific word. Another example could be “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris in which the advantage of learning a new language is represented by the possibility of understanding others. The author describes his experience in a French school where he has to learn French better in order to be able to understand his teacher who is not a good speaker of English.  Second, the text “Bilingual Mind” contains information about code switching and how it can increase the time in which the kid learns new words and becomes fluent in the languages that he uses. This concept of code switching can be directly linked to the text “Bilingual” by Rhina P. Espaillat in which the author talks about how language was changed in the family from Spanish to English and about how “My father liked them separate, one there/ one here (allá y aquí), as if aware/ that words might cut in two his daughter's heart”.

You Say Up, I Say Yesterday

Hi,
As it has been mentioned, in this post we will continue and make the second step in our journey through the three texts.

The second text, “You Say Up, I Say Yesterday” by Joan O’C. Hamilton has its main focus on the difference between languages, how people express their ideas in a specific language and how this way of talking can influence their thoughts and perception of the world. Lera Boroditsky has completed a series of studies in which she analysed how some phrases differ from one language to another and how the way in which the phrase is said can influence what people focus on in that situation. The studies proved that in Spanish or Japanese for example the intention of doing something matters when talking about a specific action and that this can shape the way people remember the incident. Also, the fact that depending on the language the same object can be considered either feminine or masculine is mentioned and this counts as another major difference of how people perceive objects around them based on what language they speak. Other pieces of evidence that people think differently depending on the language came from studying mandarin speakers which compared to English speakers that see time on a horizontal axis, are perceiving time as flowing in both vertical and horizontal directions. Boroditsky performed these studies knowing that her University Teacher used to tell his students that whoever will investigate these kinds of things would be considered insane. She also found out that in different languages people are not using the terms left or right but use the “absolute directions” and that in different languages people might perceive colour differently by having different names for the shades of a colour as for example instead of having only light blue and dark blue, having a range of light blue shades and/or a range of dark blue shades.
This text can be easily compared to some of the texts that have been covered in class. One of them would be “Me Talk Pretty One Day” by David Sedaris where the author goes through a moment of confusion caused by one of the aspects mentioned in the text “You Say Up, I Say Yesterday” as he cannot understand how to “to assign a gender to an inanimate object” in French. Mostly, the text is in a relationship with the other material studied because it is related to the way language is used and how languages differ from each other and shape our identities accordingly. As it was mentioned in “You Say Up, I Say Yesterday” language may change the way we think and it can have a big impact on the things we see around us. Some may remember an incident based on who took part in it, others on the location and so on. The possibilities are as varied as the spread of different languages around the Globe.

Yorkshire Named Top Twang As Brummie Brogue Comes Bottom

Hi,

For the next three posts I will be talking about three texts that I have read and how they relate to the material that has been covered during the English Language and Literature lessons.

 The first text, “Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom” is an article talking about one study which proved that people with a Birmingham accent- also known as Brummie- are usually considered less intellectual than people using the Yorkshire twang. Ironically, the article mentions that even people that say nothing are sometimes considered smarter than the people with Birmingham accent. The article goes into detail relating to how a research was conducted in order to prove the affirmations above. People have been asked to listen to some recordings of women models talking and in the same time the researchers have used pictures of the models. However, the voices of the models were mixed up so that they won’t correspond to the picture of the actual speaker. The three accents that were used in the recordings the participants have listened to were Brummie, Yorkshire and RP which is also known as Received Pronunciation, being considered the Standard English accent. After the participants have given their rating for the models, the results indicated that the persons which have been attributed a Brummie accent obtained a lower average score than both the RP’s and Yorkshire’s average scores.
I can say that this article is strongly related to the material that has been covered in class and one reason for this would be that the situation from the article is very similar to the one presented in the text “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan that has been presented in detail in my previous post, where the author has to deal with the stereotypes related to her ethnicity. Being Asian, the author is expected to have bad English and she is told that “[her] true abilities lay in math and science”. By comparison, in the article, the stereotypes are based on the dialect that people are using and these dialects are generating preconceptions of how intelligent a person might be. As the author mentions, these stereotypes are generated by the “criminal activity” in Birmingham which is associated with “low intelligence”. Personally, I think this article is not only trying to show how persons who speak a specific dialect can be discriminated but also to put accent on how some people think that one dialect is better than another which is equivalent to thinking that one language is better than another. Both these ideas are wrong since you cannot compare two languages and say that one is better than the second only because the second doesn’t conform to the rules of the first one. This was also the case in the text “Good English and Bad” by Bill Bryson where we are informed about how some English expressions are considered bad or wrong because they don’t “conform to the grammatical precepts of a language that died a thousand years ago”.

Mother Tongue

Welcome back,

This post’s focus will be one of the issues that is presented in the text “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan and that is how schools may sometimes direct students towards certain subjects depending on their ethnicity. In the text, the issue is presented from the point of view of the author who describes her own experience as a student. Being Asian, the author explains how she was usually directed toward Math or subjects that involved using Math by teachers that also disregarded the possibility of her doing good in subjects like English. This was due to her achievements in those subjects but also because of the stereotypes that link the Asians with exceptional math skills and “broken” or “limited” English as the author describes it. Before going more into detail about stereotypes related to the school performance and abilities of specific ethnic groups, let’s define the word stereotype. What are we thinking about when we say stereotype? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a stereotype is “a set idea that people have about what someone or something is like, especially an idea that is wrong”. In order to start the post, I had made some research on ethnical stereotypes and how they might influence the expectations that someone may have from a student with that specific ethnicity. Apart from the above described stereotype related to Asians and math skills I was able to find stereotypes linking Austrians with music skills and African Americans with impressive sport performances. However, these stereotypes shouldn’t lead us to the conclusion that people with these ethnicities can’t do different things. Personally, I think it is crucial to understand that even if sometimes the abilities of people with those ethnicities happen to match with the stereotype, it doesn’t mean that those skills and personal aspirations apply to every single member of the ethnic group. Everyone should have the right to choose what he/she likes and  the situation presented in the text is a big problem in society and not only in the school that is described by the author. By directing a student toward a subject and disregarding what he/she wants to do in reality, his/her possibilities of doing something in life are limited dramatically and the range of activities that the person will be able to choose to do is decreasing at the same rate. I am totally against people being forced into doing something that they don’t like only because of what someone else may think they are or should be good at based on stereotypical facts. Another part of my research has been directed towards whether or not stereotyping is considered a form of racism. Some people say that stereotyping is a type of racism because it is implying a person being judged by others based on specific aspects of his ethnicity and I agree with this idea. Some examples that were mentioned were the person's habits, traditional food and even daily activities.  However, others say that stereotyping is not racism based simply on the fact that stereotyping doesn’t imply that an ethnic group is better than others. Another reason would be that some "stereotypes are positive" as for example the stereotypes presented above: Asians and their math skills, African Americans and sport performances or Austrians and musical skills. All these statements are at some degree true, but I tend to disagree and the reason would be that these are only superficial views on stereotyping. As it was described in this post, stereotyping can have more profound effects and one would be limiting one’s possibilities in life. However, I think we can all agree that no matter if stereotyping is a form of racism or not, it is something wrong and should be avoided, especially in an international community in order to maintain the harmony between its members.

Sources used for research:

-Is stereotyping racist?

http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-stereotyping-racist


-Stereotype definition: 
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/stereotype
 

Good English and Bad

Hi,

For my third post I would like to discuss about a text that I read recently and that is "Good English and Bad" by Bill Bryson. Let's start by asking ourselves what does this title tell us about the text? Is it going to be one of the "this is what you do wrong and this is how you should be doing it" type of texts? or maybe the "some individuals speak English better than others?" type? Well, the answer to both of these is no. This text is about English language, about rules that are created by grammarians and that when possible, are simply ignored because of the overcomplicated words that are created. I think that overall, the author of the text is trying to send a message about the standards of usage and that is that sometimes the rules which are imposed can have no actual reason and here is where the author is using also irony saying that the reason why the word hopefully is not allowed to be used in an absolute value is because "somebody at New York Times once had a boss who wouldn't allow it because his professor had forbidden it, because his father thought it was ugly (...) because he had been told so by his uncle (...) and so on". I feel like the author is somehow criticizing a bit the mentioned standards by mentioning some "pieces of advice" which after less than a century became "immutable rules". The example that the author is giving in this case is the rule according to which you should not end a sentence with a preposition. The text contains many more examples regarding rules of English and the way English has changed after it started following the "grammatical percepts" of Latin, "a language that died a thousand years ago". Overall, this discussion made me reflect over my lapses and made me realize that English is a complex language which is far from being easy. By reading, I found also some rules that I haven't heard of before and I am happy that I had the opportunity to learn something new since this is the first step into improving my language and this way removing the previously mentioned lapses.

A Good Name

Hi and welcome back,

In today's post, I would like to talk a bit about my name, what is its significance and how this reflects over my identity. How many of you have heard before the phrase "do you know what your name means?" or "did you know that your name means...(something)" in a certain language? Well, this has happened to me before and I still find it an interesting subject of conversation, not only because it enriches my knowledge but also because I have the chance to compare the certain attributions related to a name with the actual behavior of the "owner". To begin, let me tell you some things about my name. The equivalent of this name in English is Andrew and it is the derived name from the Greek name "Andreas". According to Greek language, Andreas means man or manly but it can also be interpreted as strong, powerful, courageous and so on, all being considered characteristics of a fighter since in the past, Greeks have been known as being a warrior nation. However, as the years passed, the name has started to spread as well in other countries, some of them being English speaking countries/regions, where it took the mentioned form Andrew, and also in regions like Italy where the name derived into Andrea. In some countries, Romania being also one of them, the name Andrea is used as a girl's name. So, to summarize, the name Andrei is carrying with it the expected characteristics of a warrior: manly, courageous , powerful and fighter. It is also said that people with the name Andrei grow up being able to get out of many unfamiliar situations and acting according mainly to their intuition. In the Christian religion, Andrew/Andrei was one of the twelve apostles and he is also referred to as Saint Andrew (or Saint Andrei) being considered the protector of several countries as Greece, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and others. I think that the characteristics attributed to my name are at some degree reflecting over my personality, since in general I like to fight for what I want to achieve and sometimes I need to act based on my intuition even if I don't always like to rely entirely on it. I think that in most of the time I am able to get out of unfamiliar situations in a way or another and this would be another characteristic that comes with my name and that reflects over my identity. As for my second name, I am not entirely sure of the meaning (if any). The only information related to this name is that it has Greek origins and that people with names which were ending in "idi" or "idids" were generally living next to or in the vicinity of the Black Sea and they were called Pontic Greeks or Pontian Greeks.
This is all about my name, where it started, how it varies depending on cultures or countries where it appears, its meaning and how it reflects over my identity. My name, is a good name.
So, have you ever thought of the meaning of your name? If not, maybe you should give it a go! Your name could be a good name and you may not realize it yet.

Introduction

            Hi. My name is Andrei.

I am a student and I have decided to start my own blog. For my first post, I would like to begin with some of my interests and also some goals that I have in mind for the future:
First of all, I like reading. I believe it is something that develops your way of thinking and also enriches your culture and knowledge. Sports and music would be second in the list, being also important for me. It would be really hard to decide which of the two is more important since I like to practice all kinds of sports, and I really think that it helps me relax after a long day at school or between long sessions of homework. However, sometimes I just need to sit down with my guitar and play because it helps me take my mind from work for a couple of minutes so that I can go back relaxed and have a go again at whatever did not work the first time. Of course, all these are just some of my interests and they are focused mainly on the free time. I am also interested in school and more than that I would like to start soon the flight school and become a pilot. In my free time I also enjoy playing with animals. Cats are my favorite animals followed by dogs. Here are some reasons why cats are my favorite animals:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      

And dogs:

 

 

 

 

 

Here are also some pictures of my own pets:

 

 

     

Of course, for writing this blog, there is an important element that has to be explored, and this is language. Sometimes, we come across the question: “why does one have to study the language if he can already speak it” and I think the answer for this question is simple. We are using language every day to communicate. But communication is not only words. Communication is also the way in which one uses the words in order to express his ideas and in order to send a specific message to his audience. This is why language is important to be studied. Because knowing how to use words, they can become your most precious power. I tend to believe that the strongest people are not the ones that can lift hundreds of kilograms from the floor of the gym, but the ones that can lift the spirit of hundreds of discouraged people using only the power of words. With this been said, I can also add that language has a very important role in my life too. It is somehow defining me, making a difference between myself and others. It shapes my identity and makes a difference between my way of expressing my thoughts and other's. Thinking about it this way, it can be said that language can at some degree make each of us unique based on the way we are using it every day. Sometimes not knowing a language may even lead to a barrier between people and this would be the result of not understanding each other. When one studies a specific language in depth, he might be able not only to avoid the barriers between him and the others but he might also remove certain barriers between other people which are not able at that moment to understand each other's ideas. This situation, of two people not being able to understand each other's ideas can occur even if the language that is spoken is their mother tongue. A person that masters his own language is always going to be able to adapt better to various situations as this one and will be able to express his ideas in a big range of linguistic levels so that he will be understood by the others. This can make the person extremely valuable in the society. Not studying a language can increase the power of this barrier because not knowing how to express yourself will most likely result into the lack of self-confidence. When starting to learn about the language you are speaking or trying to speak, you start feeling more confident with each new word, each new phrase or expression you learn and start to realize that it will be possible for you to use it in a future conversation. Personally, I have never felt excluded due to language barriers however I cannot say that I never had a moment where I had to deal with a language barrier. One example would be when I first moved into a new school, being the first time when I had to express myself in a different language than my mother tongue. Practicing the language and learning about it every day, I was able to slowly remove the barriers and start feeling more confident about the new language. One of the most common problems that one has is that he/she is afraid to express himself wrong and/or make mistakes while speaking in a different language. This is caused by the idea that the audience might be hunting and ready to criticize your mistakes while in fact they are only looking after understanding your ideas. Once this fear is suppressed, the language barrier is easier to be removed and you will be one step closer to reach your goal of being able to send a message effectively for an audience.