Discussion Boards

I really enjoyed doing the discussion board activity. This was fun because I got to see what other people though about the videos and the experiments and not only have my own opinion on things. I went to respond to the other Courtney's thread and I noticed we had the same thought/idea about Dr. Taylor's video. So I responded to her thread. I wish we would have done more of these throughout the semester because I like having more than one opinion on a subject it makes me feel like I am learning more because I have more than one look at a topic I am studying. I can see all the sides that I never would have thought of but maybe someone else has. So I enjoyed doing this discussion board activity.

I was just reviewing my notes and I saw my notes on characteristics of Black English and it made me remember my womens studies class. I had to do a presentation with five other people one of them being African American. During my presentation I was listening to everyone and as soon as she started doing her part I immediately recognized what is Black English. It was amazing to hear this first hand because then I looked at my notes and she did almost all of the things Black English speakers do. The most common was she dropped "to be." I found this to be very interesting and when I initially heard her speaking in the Black English form I tuned in and listened more carefully to see if she spoke all of the negatives of Black English.

After watching the Dr. Taylor Stroke of Insight video I was inspired. For starters I loved that she had a real brain with her in her hands. But mostly I love her outlook on life. She is positive and believes in some things I do. We all have the choice to make our lives. No one makes our lives for us and we all have the ability to set the tone and mood of our lives and what we do with our lives. Like she said, she had an out of body expierence and she didn't know if she was going to be able to squeeze her huge spirit back into her little body. But she did because she knew this stroke would help scientists and be a good tool for doctors. I think she has the right attitude, not everything is abut you. Sometimes you need to think about others before yourself and sometimes saying hi or smiling at someone who looks like they are having a down day may make their day and put a smile on their face.

The Genie movie was very sad. She was definitely tested too much. Although she was tested all of the time she had a few doctors who treated her like their own. Genie really opened up to those doctors and you could see how attached she got to them. When Genie got put into the foster home the doctors were kicked out of the house because they did not want her to have those connections with them. I thought it was very interesting that there was another child similar to Genie, he was the wild child. The wild child was one who was said to live in the wild. He came to thwm without clothes on and he looked like Tarzan, that is my connection to him. I think the people who adopted Genie only wanted her because she was a very famous young girl. The people say sthey could help her but i only think they wanted publicity. I wonder why Genie took ice cold baths? What makes  her not able to sense the coldness. I also though it was very sad when that lady  was trying to get Genie to remember her childhood because Genie then wanted to see her father and when the lady told genie that her father was not living Genie got very sad. That to me was very depressing. Genie made a lot of progress. It was exciting to see that she was actually happy.

American Tongues Video

I watched the American Tongues video and found it to be very interesting. I enjoyed seeing how people from other parts of the world speak. For example, in New York people say the word "schlep" and no one else in the world uses the word "schlep." This word is used in place of "to carry." So they may something along the lines of  "Can you please schlep my bags." Or a moving company in New York is called the Schleppers (the movers). Another word used on the east coast, I cannot remember exactly where, but they use the word "cabinet" for ice cream. This would be very odd to go to the ice cream shop and order a cabinet because in our city cabinets are things we put things in. This video also had some racial aspects in it. One of the black men was talking about his son talking like a white men and he did not want his son talking like a white man. Also, a white man in the video said that people in the east talk like "niggers." When he said this my mouth dropped in amazement. All I could think of in my head was "wow, really?" But overall I though this video was cool to watch and I learned a lot. 

Language.

November 6, 2008

I think that the United States has a wide diversity of languages that are spoken here. I love the fact that I can be walking to class and here a group of Hmong speaking their language, or a few Hispanics speaking to each other. By national language I think like a language that everyone would know, everywhere! I think this would be very interesting and quite cool. But then their would be no desire or need to learn the different languages around the world because all anyone would need was the national language. And also how would we decide on a language..?? I love the fact that if you want to travel the world you have to learn a little about the people who call that certain place home before you can go there. I mean i guess you wouldn't really have to know the language but it would be very difficult to communicate with the people there. The idea of a national language would have to be thought over, deeply.

Observation 3

I am guilty of saying words incorrectly even though I know its wrong, I can't seem to fix it... EVER. I have tried trust me. I have grown up my whole life say fingernail as "fingernell." My parents, brother, friends, and family all make fun of me for this and every time I have tried to fix this annoying habit I can't. If I concentrate on saying it and say it slowly then I can say it correctly but if I am talking normal then I cant say it right. So because I have so much difficulty saything this word along with toenail, I try to avoid them. 

I have really slacked off on these blogs because I am never sure on what to blog about. But I found a good topic. So when I signed up for classes in the spring for fall semester I was only trying to pick out classes that I needed for my major and I heard this class was hard and didn't want to take it but it was the only other class not filled, so I signed up. After getting in the class and actually finding out what we would be learning and such I began to like it and it interested me. My friend goes to school in Davis and she was going to take Ling as well. I told her before she left that she would love the class because it was intriguing and it actually made me think and do work. When she got to school and her classes began she said she loved Ling and was glad she was taking it. This class could be a lot harder and much more boring if it wasn't for you. Thanks.

Readings..

In class we always talk about the chapters we are covering and then I go home and read the chapter we are covering. I like to get your lectures before I read the chapter because I better understand it. Although this has worked with the other chapters, I found your lecture to be way more beneficial to me than chapter 7. After reading chapter 7 i had to go back to my notes and remember your lecture because it was more confusing the way they put things. It did help in some areas but I think you are a great lecturer, or better yet a great professor. And I love the fact that you make class fun and you have a sense of humor, and can laugh and make jokes.. makes people actually look forward to class.

Observation 2

Once again another observation. My grandmother comes and stays at my family's house every other weekend, and after this semester started and I started learning about Linguistics and language I have been paying a lot more attention to the way people speak and the words they use. Well one weekend my grandma came down and we were talking one night and I heard her say the words "warsh" and "harse." Instead it should have been wash, and horse. I'm not sure why but a lot of the older people I know say those words like that and I'm not sure why or where it came from. I was tempted to ask her why she says it like that, but then I didn't because I didn't want to criticize the way she speaks.

Observation

So, I have noticed that my Women's Studies professor says "all" all wrong. Instead of saying "all" with an "ahll" she says "oll." This absolutely drives me insane.. I would love to tell her that she is speaking incorrectly but that would not be good for my grade. Also my grandmother says "warsh" for wash which is common amongst older people but that as well drives me crazy. Since the day we talked about saying retarded I have noticed myself when I say the word and to this day I think of the conversation in class and the fact that I may be offending someone around me. So I try to not use the word but like we discussed, is there a replacement word? I'm not sure.. Well those are some observations I have made recently. 

Week One Readings..

I found the week one readings very interesting. I pulled two quotes from each one both similar that i thought were good. From the Corballis reading I thought it was interesting that he said "language might well have evolved as a sophisticated form of ritualized and grammaticalized gestures." I liked this because it made me think of people just using their hands and facial expressions to communicate and then sound came after, like people who are today using sign language. in the next article i found somewhat of a similar quote from Elizabeth Bates. She stated this, "Gesture and language share a common neural substrate. This is consistent with the idea that vocal language grew out of gestural language, though it is also consistent with them developing side by side." I enjoyed reading about how similar humans and chimps are. I also believe chimps would be able to communicate with words if they had the larynx and pharynx in the same position as we do. I can't wait for more information on how language evolved.

Ling 11

So this first week of Ling 11 has been interesting and I can't wait for so much more. I am super excited to learn about language and words and how they originated. So Laura bring on the fun!!