Empowered or Exploited?

Hi and welcome back!

Social media, who hasn’t heard about it? It is everywhere around us. Follows us everywhere we go.  But are these websites helping us with anything, or simply using us as puppets in the plans of the great industries and advertising companies?  

After watching the Generation Like documentary I have reached a conclusion related to one specific ‘phenomenon’ of social media and the internet that is highly popular between most of the teens. You Tube stars. Also known as You Tubers, these people have become one of the greatest attractions of the Internet, reaching millions of views and subscribers. But let’s take a moment to think about these You Tube stars and how they are exposing their lives in front of people just to be liked, to be seen and known by others. Of course, it is their choice, they are having fun, and yes they can make money if they get popular enough. But is it worth it? Are they empowered by the advertising companies or are they being exploited in order for others to make profit? At the first sight, they are simply talking about what they like or what they don’t like, however, by simply doing this they are advertising willingly or unintentionally a specific product bringing huge amounts of money to the producers. We can be tempted to believe that by doing this they are getting a fair part of the deal and that the companies are empowering them to continue what they are doing by giving items or money in exchange. Well, unfortunately I believe this is not always true. I think that the companies are sometimes taking advantage of the unintended advertising that some of these millionaires in views are generating, because they don’t have to spend extra money for them, and let’s face it, who doesn’t like free things?
You Tubers can promote each other by making collaborative videos, meaning that the viewers of one You Tuber can get to know and like another one very easily. And what could this lead to? Exactly! More advertising. This means that companies could be able now not only take advantage of one You Tuber, but two, having access to both their audiences. Of course, this can go on and on, and the incomes of the producers whose products are being advertised can increase drastically. So is this not exploitation? Personally I think it is. However, I am aware that the number of different opinions and views towards this subject can be as varied as the number of people reading this blog and I respect that.

Print Ad Analysis

Hi,

In this post, I will be analysing the following print ad in order to see its cultural and social contexts as well as values considered important and who is empowered in the advertisement.

As it can be seen, the advertisement consists of two people, one male and one female being close to each other. In the bottom right corner we can notice the product that the ad is promoting. From the point of view of the text present in the ad it can be seen that it consists of few sentences that are meant to impact the audience and most importantly that are short and concise so that the audience could focus more on the image itself. Firstly, it can be stated that the ad is directed mainly towards the Indian culture and the reason would be the choice of the models. To be more precise, the female model has been identified as being Anushka Sharma, known as a famous Bollywood actress. Using a famous actress for such an ad can be considered as having a big impact since it could influence the society’s view of beauty and change its beauty standards. Knowing this brings us to the purpose of the ad. It can now be seen as valuing beauty and especially female beauty. It is noticeable that in the print ad, the female model is placed centrally and most important she is revealing most of her skin with the purpose of evidencing the smoothness that women can obtain by using the Nivea product. Therefore, this reveals not only the main purpose of selling the product but also another characteristic valued by the print ad, soft skin. Indian culture is as mentioned used for the ad’s context, where the empowerment is visibly owned by the female model, the male model only ‘filing the blanks’ of the picture. He is marginalized or ignored at some degree, revealing that, at least for this ad, the beauty and the skin’s aspect of the male is not as important. But what could be the reason? The reason could be the message that is trying to be sent. If we think about it, the ad could encourage young women to use the products in order to obtain a soft skin and therefore becoming attractive to men, this being the only aspect where the ad links to them. The way in which the advertisement is presented with the two models close to each other can reveal another valued aspect which is intimacy. The hint for this is being given by the relaxed and friendly tone of the print ad. Overall, all these elements of the ad can be considered as revealing potential views of the Indian culture towards beauty and differences between the beauty standards regarding men and women.

FOA Activity Reflection

During the FOA that took place, we have created a pitch for Glamping trips in Oregon.  The five main advertising appeals that we decided to use for this were: the need to satisfy curiosity, the need to feel safe, the need for intimacy, the need for guidance and the need for aesthetic sensations. The reason why these were considered the most effective was given by the subject itself. Firstly, when thinking of glamping, we can realise that people who would actually go for it are mostly the ones who would not feel safe or comfortable in a normal tent. Secondly, no matter of the audience’s preferences of safety or comfort, when talking about trips our thoughts automatically fly to adventure, discovery or why not simply relaxation. This means that the audience would either be guided by their curiosity of exploring new places and especially the nature or they will be guided by their need of getting away from stress and from the mass agglomeration of a crowded city. This last one is the result of the need for intimacy. Finally, when people decide to go camping or in our case glamping in the nature, they are most probably expecting to spend time in beautiful places where they are surrounded by a predominant green image made out of grass and trees, flowers, etc. These are contributing to the formation of the aesthetic sensations that the audience is looking for. The need of guidance was considered effective since the audience was more likely to accept an invitation to a glamping trip if they were told that they don't have to do all the work themselves and that they will be guided by others.

Next, the persuasion techniques used were rhetorical questions, the bandwagon, association, maybe, fear, the big lie, humour, new and flattery. Some of the rhetorical questions used were “do you want to relax?” or “do you want to get away from the stress of your work?” and the reason to consider them effective was that the stress and the need to relax are common for humans in general and therefore the questions did not really need to be answered since the answer was obviously ‘yes’ for any member of the audience. The bandwagon, association and maybe were all three used in the same sentence during the pitch “join the hundreds, maybe thousands of happy people that chose glamping for their vacation”. By mentioning a big number of people that chose glamping and in the same time associating the number with happiness was expected to be effective since the audience would be influenced to believe that if many are already doing it and they are happy it must be a good thing indeed and therefore they should try it as well. However, an important aspect is that an actual count hasn’t been done and therefore the sentence can be considered a big lie that is backed up by the word ‘maybe’ which signals the existence and importance of the ‘maybe’ persuasion technique. Another big lie used was telling there will be no ‘unwanted guests’ (insects) during glamping. By being confident when saying this, it was less likely that the audience would actually realize it is false and same applies to the ‘lie’ mentioned above. This also linked to fear which was supposed to be effective since there are many people who have Arachnophobia or Entomophobia and who would do anything not to come in contact with insects in their vacations. An attempt to humour was used when telling people to “Shut the door in the faces of those uninvited guests” and its effectiveness consisted in making people relax and in the need of some members of the audience to ridicule the fear (Entomophobia).  The 'new' was used by telling the audience of the "new technologies" that are offering the "ultimate comfort" and it was considered effective because comfort and technology are both aspects that are desired by many people. Lastly, the flattery was considered effective because the audience was going to hear what they like to hear, that they are “intelligent and independent and know what they want” this way making them feel good and trust the advertisement more.  

The awareness of the audience and context greatly influenced the content of the advertisement since it had to address people that are adventurous, who love family trips, enjoy nature, and the ones that wish to become closer to nature but finding it difficult to leave the comfort behind.  The advertisement was supposed to appear in Oregon which is a good place for glamping since it is known for the beauty of the forests or other possible places where people could camp. However the audience was addressed using the persuasion techniques mentioned earlier and due to the universality of the problems and aspects treated (Entomophobia, the need to relax, etc), these could impact not only people from Oregon but also people from other countries around the Globe. Some of the most important images in the pitch were the ones of a person surrounded by greenery, the one with the happy family sitting on grass, the process of packing a tent as well as the spider and the images of people enjoying the comfort of a bed or chair. The reason why these were supposed to be effective was that, they were highlighting the main benefits of glamping. The people laughing or smiling in each picture was associating glamping with happiness while the abundance of greenery was emphasizing the connection with the nature and the intimacy. The same could be applied for pictures containing the means that were improving the comfort during camping (such as chairs and the bed). The picture with the spider was supposed to shock and in the same time convince people that with glamping they won’t have to face those kinds of insects during their vacation. Lastly, the picture with the people packing a tent and the aid of telling the audience they can forget about that struggle, was considered effective because it was highlighting the 'guidance' in the trip.

Personally, I think that the activity went well despite of the fact of missing one member during the presentation. From the point of view of my confidence and knowledge of the subject I am happy with my performance and I think that the presentation was effective in sending the desired message to the audience since the prepared points were made clear both verbally and visually (with the aid of the pictures). Overall, I think that this activity’s results will inform me whether or not I am on track of making a good FOA this year by highlighting both the good aspects of the presentation and the aspects that could be improved.

Ethos, Pathos and Logos

Hi

Today I will be analyzing one commercial based on possible intended impacts on the audience. But how can an advertisement of any kind do this?

The three persuasive ‘tools’ as described by Aristotle are Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Ethos is the tool used to influence the audience appealing to an authority as for example a celebrity. Pathos on the other hand is aiming to influence the audience’s emotions and lastly logos, used to influence using logic and reasoning. However, an advertisement doesn’t necessarily have to contain all three in the same time.

The advertisement that I have chosen is “Drake’s Sprite “Spark” Commercial”. In this commercial, the well-known rapper, Drake, is represented as having a bad moment and finds it difficult to record his song, however he decides to have a drink and immediately after he is good to go. Personally I think this advertisement is mostly making use of Ethos since it is using an ‘authority’ in order to make people buy the product by showing them how the artist becomes inspired and feels better only after one sip of it. Also, the advertisement might be seen as making use of pathos as well since it is presenting a moment that most probably has been experienced by any person at some point in life.  This way it is reaching for the audience’s emotions telling everyone of how they might overcome these moments which let’s face it, are not the most pleasant in the world.

Here is also a link to the advertisement for those who haven’t seen it yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBxcMImubk

Letter To The Editor

Hi,

For this post I will be writing a letter to the editor of the article “Twtr? It’s majorly bad!”  in order to discuss some disadvantages of texting continuously.

To the editor:

Recently, I have found and read your article “Twtr? It’s majorly bad!” and I was simply astonished by what has been written in it. I just can’t understand how some students can even think of using words and expressions from the well-known ‘world of texting’ in their school essays and answers! It is outrageous! I’ve always been aware of the fact that people make mistakes, and I think it is normal. Mistakes have been a common factor in language since…well, since forever and of course, as the language has evolved, mistakes have evolved once with it, but this? This is too much. Living in the technology era seems to lead us into the wrong direction. Children no longer need to worry about spelling or developing their vocabulary these days and I could understand them. Why bother when you know that a machine behind you will correct every single mistake that you make or that www.dictionary.com will always have the word you are looking for? We live in a world where everyone is under continuous pressure and where writing things such as “gr8”, “m8”, “u”, and so on is viewed as incredibly helpful while in fact it is just deteriorating one’s way of writing and expressing himself. Students and people in general need to wake up and realize that they are trading language, a highly needed skill, for speed and for one extra second that is won for each word they type. This is the mentality of the twitter generation and this type of thinking is ruining the hard work of teachers and parents worldwide of teaching children how to speak properly.  Someone has to make them understand that during a job interview, an interviewer will not care of how “gr8” your text speaking skills are, but you can be sure that he will care of how “majorly bad” both your spelling and vocabulary are. However, I’m afraid this will not stop unless people start taking action and start fighting back the cybernetic attack that has been launched against our beloved language. I would like to thank you for writing this article since this is the first step that has to be made in order to understand the problem that surrounds us and hopefully one day we will be able to overcome it.

Andrei Stefanidi

Interview with Eminem

Hi, and welcome back.

 Today’s post will be a fictional interview between Josh Eells of the music magazine Rolling Stone and Eminem, the rapper whose career has generated many controversies over the years. 

Josh: Hello! Thank you for accepting to come for this interview. Let’s begin, shall we?
Eminem: Ok, let’s start.

J: How did it all begin?
E: I was born in 1972 and I grew up with my mother and smaller brother. I never got to meet my father though. We had big problems with money, you know, but we had to keep moving. We had to move from one house to another. Of course, this brought more problems for us, change people around us, change schools, you know. When you’re the new kid and know nothing about the school or people there, like what they do, what they’re like, you end up being a target, you know, for bullying. I used to be that guy, and it was not easy man. Then, I discovered rap and I began to attend different battles. There was a problem though; I was white. People used to ignore me somehow, to underestimate my abilities because you know, rap is an African-American music. This was the main problem of my childhood. We were living in a neighborhood of African-Americans and I got beaten up many times for being, you know, different. However, at one point people started to admire me somehow and this is where it all started I guess.
J: Why do you think white people are underestimated while coming to rap music?
E: I don’t know. Maybe because white people are associated with wealth, happy lives, you know, no problems, no worries whatsoever and consequently people consider they don’t have that rage and ability to talk about problems.  Well, it’s not like that, not everyone is rich, not everyone has a perfect life. This problem is kind of stereotypical, you know.
J: Is this the reason people talk about authenticity in rap music?
E: I guess so. Authenticity is like the whole thing in rap music you know. If you want your song to be good it needs to be real. You can’t simply put some words there and say you have a song. It has to send a message. It has to be your way of expressing your feelings, your past, your present, your future. This is what all music is about. Feeling.
J: Your authenticity has been generating controversies over the past years. What were some of your intentions when you were writing the songs? What were you hoping to achieve and how did you want to impact people listening to them?
E: I was hoping that I could make myself heard, you know; make people understand my struggles as a child and later as a teenager. I wanted to open their eyes, evidencing the discrimination and the harassment that surrounded me and that surrounds many others. I also wanted to make people see some of the failures of our society as well as making them see the hypocrisy that surrounds us. As for authenticity, I think one of the best proofs of mine is my background. I didn’t start in life having everything I wanted. I built my way to the top from almost nothing. My biggest ambition was to show people that I can become someone and that I can rap. Of course there were lots who said I will not succeed, you know, because of my skin colour. I wanted to prove them wrong. All the rage, all the hate in my songs was real. It was reflecting over a period of my life, you know. Maybe this won me some extra authenticity points. Violence and hate sell well. Especially to people who are just like me, who have to deal with the unfair situations of life. Discrimination is a real problem in our days, you know, having people acting different just because of your skin colour. I understand this, because discrimination is not directed only towards African-Americans. It can be used as a weapon against anyone and I learnt that the hard way. Life is not easy, and discrimination and harassment only make it worse for certain individuals of the society. However, my songs are meant not only to attack different individuals that represent our society but also to give a hint of hope to those that are going through tough moments, those who think than nothing and no one can help them, those ones that are ready to give up. I would tell them to keep fighting, ‘cause no matter how hard it might look like, it is certainly not impossible.
J: So you are saying that your hate and rage are directed towards the people discriminating and harassing others.
E: Yes.
J: But what about the language that you use in your songs? Do you think that it has any impact on the songs and most importantly, do you use the same language at home, around your kids? Taking for example your song “The Real Slim Shady”, what’s one of the messages that you were trying to send?
E: Language that I decide to use is important in my songs. I want people to understand exactly how I feel, no matter if they get offended or not. If I think something I will say it exactly as it is, you know. And this is one of the aims of the song you mentioned. I was trying to make clear that no matter what, I will not be “false or sugarcoated at all”. Sometimes people accuse me of profanity and say that my kids shouldn’t be exposed to this kind of language, and they are right, you know; but the words I use in my songs are not something that I use in a conversation with them. You know, where I lived when I was a kid, words like that would just come out from anybody at any time and I feel like it is important to use them to describe that situation. I am aware that kids nowadays are attracted by these kinds of words in songs but it is not my problem. When it comes to my music there are my rules but one thing should be clear, there is a huge difference between my music and my home. Music is art and my home is no place for profanity.
J: I understand. Thank you again for being here today! It was truly amazing to find all these things about you.
E: Thank you for inviting me.

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.