In this post, the idea is that native language is unchangeable, and identifiable. We talked about how language makes us identifiable, and how it is not easy to adapt to another language after one has moved to another country.
Though many people in the class stated that they had not found that their language had made them identifiable, and that it most likely never would. Going outside of the nation, one would typically have to use a different language, and like the foreigners in our country, would have an easily recognizable accent. People would ask where they come from, and perhaps make fun of the accent, and the response would be that the said person comes from the United States of America. This would be the instance where language makes their identity. I would assume that most of the people in the class have not been outside the country, or outside the touristy parts of a foreign country. The point is, maybe not in the country, language will always be the identifying mark of someone, whether it be that someone comes from a foreign land, or goes from the South to the North.
Unchangeable language is fast becoming a problem in our society. We have so many areas of the nation in which have become practical enclaves of our nation. While I believe we have immigrants learning English, and establishing English and Spanish as national languages, every major culture has an enclave in the USA, which has not forced the issue for most immigrants. In case one does not know, enclaves are those things that are foreign, but in another foreign entity. For example, the Vatican is an enclave. I believe that in a country like America, where we have so many of these enclaves, such as Chinatowns, and Little Italy, and Little Havana, immigrants will never fully embrace the English language, which means we should either adapt or English could eventually be phased out of the country.
The point of the post is not that language is concrete, is that the learning of the language cannot be undone. This can be good and bad, good because it allows for identity, and bad because it does not allow for immersion.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
ethnographic response
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jan/29/man-charged-in-gun-incident/
This is where the article that I used is found.
The article at question is one in which a local man fired his high powered rifle into the air near a school. The event happened just before 6 pm on Monday evening. After the man, Darryl Wilson was taken into custody, he was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and public intoxication. Various witnesses state that they heard shots, but never felt threatened, and had no idea what was going on.
The only real cultural information is that the schools were occupied due to extra curricular activities, and that there are those who do actually possess weapons. A fieldworker investigating this event and the people surrounding it is “why were there extra- curricular activities, which could have put people in danger,” and also question “how could one obtain a gun, and a high- powered rifle at that?” The only difference between a journalist’s questions and the fieldworker’s question would be that a journalist has some knowledge of the background of the situation, and the fieldworker might not have some knowledge. The fieldworker would want to ask who was involved, and why the persons involved were present, and also why the event took place. The fieldworker would most likely use personal interviews, and some case studies might help to understand the movement of people.
This is where the article that I used is found.
The article at question is one in which a local man fired his high powered rifle into the air near a school. The event happened just before 6 pm on Monday evening. After the man, Darryl Wilson was taken into custody, he was charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and public intoxication. Various witnesses state that they heard shots, but never felt threatened, and had no idea what was going on.
The only real cultural information is that the schools were occupied due to extra curricular activities, and that there are those who do actually possess weapons. A fieldworker investigating this event and the people surrounding it is “why were there extra- curricular activities, which could have put people in danger,” and also question “how could one obtain a gun, and a high- powered rifle at that?” The only difference between a journalist’s questions and the fieldworker’s question would be that a journalist has some knowledge of the background of the situation, and the fieldworker might not have some knowledge. The fieldworker would want to ask who was involved, and why the persons involved were present, and also why the event took place. The fieldworker would most likely use personal interviews, and some case studies might help to understand the movement of people.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Breaking Barrier
Language is long the dividing factor for countries, and people in the country. I have had a unique experience with the idea of language being a dividing factor. As I am a mixed child, half- Caucasian, and half- Hispanic, I do have family who are in another country and speak another language.
Born in the late 80’s, I have been to Panama about 7 times from birth to pre- 9/11. I do not believe I have ever had a full conversation with my dad’s side of the family. The love is still there, but there is a definite barrier present in the relationship. To provide the prime example, until recently, I have not understood Spanish well enough to know simple verbs such as “comer” and “lavar”. In order to express hunger, we had to have signs involving the mouth and the stomach. We never had the ability to effectively communicate.
Language has been something which has long been a grand part of my life. My dad’s second language is English, and his first of course is Spanish. In my previous blog, I have mentioned that things do not translate well for the converted speakers. This would also cause the communication barrier, simply because mistranslations would cause problems. I have also witnessed many occasions in which the Spanish speakers are trying to get things done in America, like purchasing groceries, or receiving admissions to hospitals, and due to the lack of Spanish- English translators, have had trouble getting the intentions across. I would then finally get to learn Spanish, and everything started clearing up.
When I started learning Spanish, my understanding of the communication barrier started to clear up. I started to learn that Spanish is one language in which the verb comes before the adjective, and then eventually learned that Spanish does not literally translate into English, and therefore the communication barrier started to crumble. I got the realization that though Spanish natives are trying and failing at speaking English, it was easy to understand their intentions. This allowed me to start to understand my dad clearer, and to try to effectively communicate with Spanish speakers. Now that I am seeing the language barrier crash, I am seeing it in the realm of politics.
Politics, until recently, never regarded the language barrier of most Americans. In the Election of 2004, I had started to see signs that multiple politicians were actually regarding the minority Spanish- speaking populations. Before the election, there was not a lot of publicity and regard for the Hispanics and Spanish- Americans. Language was something that most were expected to know, and the politicians were not too keen to deal with the Hispanic population. The change came rapidly after 9/11, when the government started to recognize how grand the minority Spanish- speaking population, and began to smash down the language barrier.
Really the language barrier is being broken all over the place, in my life, in politics, and even in the rest of the world. Many people fail to realize that there was a barrier for language, and that it is currently in the process of being knocked down. We are making progress as a nation, and I am making progress as an individual, with the rupturing of the language barrier.
Born in the late 80’s, I have been to Panama about 7 times from birth to pre- 9/11. I do not believe I have ever had a full conversation with my dad’s side of the family. The love is still there, but there is a definite barrier present in the relationship. To provide the prime example, until recently, I have not understood Spanish well enough to know simple verbs such as “comer” and “lavar”. In order to express hunger, we had to have signs involving the mouth and the stomach. We never had the ability to effectively communicate.
Language has been something which has long been a grand part of my life. My dad’s second language is English, and his first of course is Spanish. In my previous blog, I have mentioned that things do not translate well for the converted speakers. This would also cause the communication barrier, simply because mistranslations would cause problems. I have also witnessed many occasions in which the Spanish speakers are trying to get things done in America, like purchasing groceries, or receiving admissions to hospitals, and due to the lack of Spanish- English translators, have had trouble getting the intentions across. I would then finally get to learn Spanish, and everything started clearing up.
When I started learning Spanish, my understanding of the communication barrier started to clear up. I started to learn that Spanish is one language in which the verb comes before the adjective, and then eventually learned that Spanish does not literally translate into English, and therefore the communication barrier started to crumble. I got the realization that though Spanish natives are trying and failing at speaking English, it was easy to understand their intentions. This allowed me to start to understand my dad clearer, and to try to effectively communicate with Spanish speakers. Now that I am seeing the language barrier crash, I am seeing it in the realm of politics.
Politics, until recently, never regarded the language barrier of most Americans. In the Election of 2004, I had started to see signs that multiple politicians were actually regarding the minority Spanish- speaking populations. Before the election, there was not a lot of publicity and regard for the Hispanics and Spanish- Americans. Language was something that most were expected to know, and the politicians were not too keen to deal with the Hispanic population. The change came rapidly after 9/11, when the government started to recognize how grand the minority Spanish- speaking population, and began to smash down the language barrier.
Really the language barrier is being broken all over the place, in my life, in politics, and even in the rest of the world. Many people fail to realize that there was a barrier for language, and that it is currently in the process of being knocked down. We are making progress as a nation, and I am making progress as an individual, with the rupturing of the language barrier.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Language, the universal divider
We talked about language, and how it is ultimately the divider of the world. I mean that we mentioned how language is something that does not translate perfectly throughout, meaning that there are obvious barriers for members of different native tounges to communicate.
I have experienced this in the first hand. I know a person who has studied english in an American college. This person has lived in the United States, worked, and has attempted to conquer the english language. Proper word order is still messed up, because this person's native language is Spanish, and therefore he is translating as he knows. He does speak english, but he would say things such as "what do you want for drink?" rather than the proper "what do you want to drink?" There is nothing that would be considered a barrier to communication. I just wanted to put that out there for consideration.
Learning a language requires that most people go out into the place where the language is spoken to really learn it. One can learn slang, but, as in the case of Spanish, slang changes from region to region, and then country to country. Learning a language must be hands- on. In the case of the person who came to the USA after learning english in the USA, we have different slang in every part of the nation, as was mentioned in class. Many people who even speak english have problems with different slangs.
The basic point I am trying to make, which is far-fetched and sounds like I wrote this at waining hours of another 20 hour day, is that language is not something that is meant to be easy, and not something that is supposed to be understood overnight. Essentially, when you read this, you should understand that if you were in another country, and struggling to form a conversation, you would want some patience. The same patience you should show to those who are struggling, because a non- native language does not come easily for some.
Victor
I have experienced this in the first hand. I know a person who has studied english in an American college. This person has lived in the United States, worked, and has attempted to conquer the english language. Proper word order is still messed up, because this person's native language is Spanish, and therefore he is translating as he knows. He does speak english, but he would say things such as "what do you want for drink?" rather than the proper "what do you want to drink?" There is nothing that would be considered a barrier to communication. I just wanted to put that out there for consideration.
Learning a language requires that most people go out into the place where the language is spoken to really learn it. One can learn slang, but, as in the case of Spanish, slang changes from region to region, and then country to country. Learning a language must be hands- on. In the case of the person who came to the USA after learning english in the USA, we have different slang in every part of the nation, as was mentioned in class. Many people who even speak english have problems with different slangs.
The basic point I am trying to make, which is far-fetched and sounds like I wrote this at waining hours of another 20 hour day, is that language is not something that is meant to be easy, and not something that is supposed to be understood overnight. Essentially, when you read this, you should understand that if you were in another country, and struggling to form a conversation, you would want some patience. The same patience you should show to those who are struggling, because a non- native language does not come easily for some.
Victor
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