Advanced Essay #2: Language and Society: A Glimpse into the Eyes of a Confused Traveller

This paper, for me, is a dive into many things: culture, linguistics, and the concept of not knowing a language when travelling to a foreign place. I really think I excelled at the narrative part. However, my reflection was a bit scattered and is where I feel I could've improved most.

Jack Sugrue

Mr. Block

English 3

December 10, 2017


Language and Society: A Glimpse into the Eyes of a Confused Traveller


I’ve been honored with travelling the world many times in my life. Much of that has come with the Keystone State Boychoir, or KSB. A memorable event from one of our tours was over the course of my second international tour with KSB. We spent the tail end of December 2015 and the beginning of January 2016 in Chile and Peru. We stayed in several cities with four host families over the course of the trip. Of those 4 homestays, only one of the hosts spoke conversational English. It was very challenging: we had to live with people we could barely communicate with (at this point, I had taken only a couple months of Spanish, so I knew practically nothing). One memory I remember clearly was with our homestay in Calama. They spoke no English. When we arrived in Calama, they picked us up, and took us to their small, one-story house. Lunch was on the table, so we ate. The two of us (me and another choir kid, Jamie) ate mostly in silence while the large family made small talk in Spanish. The food was delicious, and we expressed this to them as best as we could.

“Muy bien,” we said. “Gracias.”

We spent most of that afternoon in the guest room. At some point, one of our hosts came in our room, and said something to us in Spanish. I looked at Jamie, and he looked back at me. We both shrugged. The “conversation”, if that, was one-way: he tried to communicate what he was talking about, and we didn’t get it. Finally, he said one English word: “Shower.” It clicked. He was going to show us where the shower was. We thanked him and he showed us the shower. It was one of many interactions of this sort with our hosts.  It was tough for both , but they were still amazing hosts. We stayed in Calama for two nights, and they were very hospitable and lovely to us. At the end of our stay there, they presented us with some gifts from Calama. I got a small handbook from them that I still keep around, among other things. They were absolutely lovely, even though we didn’t really speak to each other much.

It’s tough being in a place where you don’t speak the language. However, it’s an inevitable fact of life. No one person can speak every language. Even those who are multilingual will find themselves, at some point, communicating in hand gestures or pointing at something or just having an awkward moment of that sort. Miscommunication is as unavoidable as communication. Despite the awkward, broken, language-bits you speak to someone else, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Language, as a whole, is what diversifies world cultures - almost as much as traditions, religions, and the like. People not only have their own languages for their own regions, but also establish dialect and other colloquialisms. There’s an interesting concept from a Chicano writer that touches on this: “There is no one Chicano language just as there is no one Chicano experience” (Anzaldúa 39). British English and American English is one such distinction: it sets the US apart from the UK in more than just an ocean.  Linguistic distinction is also such a creative way to look at the world. Along with cultural differences, even within one language, there are characteristics of every language that makes them unique and interesting from a linguistic point of view. A “universal language”, though ideal for communication, would rid the world of not just culture, but linguistic creativity. Tom Scott spoke on this very eloquently in “Fantastic Features We Don’t Have in the English Language”: “If English had utterly dominated the world and stamped out every other tongue, then we'd lose not only these rich languages, but we'd lose the insights that we gained of what the human mind is capable of.” There are so many ways to speak, to read, and that’s important to remember when speaking to someone who doesn’t speak your language well. It’s very important to treat people like our hosts in Calama treated us: with hospitality, decency, and respect. Though it can be easy to see people who don’t speak English well as “uneducated” and “dumb”, it’s important to understand how their grasp on English is just one part of their intricate personality as a human being.

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” Borderlands/La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1987. 33-44. Print.

Scott, Tom. “Fantastic Features We Don’t Have in the English Language.” YouTube. Tom Scott, 31 May 2013. Web. 10 December 2017. https://youtu.be/QYlVJlmjLEc?t=210


Advanced Essay #2: The Detriment of Standardized Testing

Introduction:

This essay is about the role that standardized tests have played in my life and in the education system. I am proud of my use of analysis and description in the essay. However, I would have liked to use more outside sources effectively. 

Advanced Essay:

I sat on a hardwood chair in front of a table in the dining room. On the table in front of me sat a large, colorful, number-filled paper. As I looked at the paper, I felt the stress rise up in me like the mercury in a thermometer submerged in a boiling pot. My eyes grew to two times their normal size, and my hands pressed against my face. The paper on that table was my PSAT score from my sophomore year. Though I will not disclose my exact score, I will tell you that the distance between the score on that page and the score I wanted was larger than what my parents saw as closable. I knew that the largest reason for my disappointing scores was my reading disability. My family had gone through the process of getting me the accommodations I needed, but I had yet to use them, and we had no idea how much of a difference they would make. My mother looked at me with concern on her face, and said, “Colin, I’m not sure if you can get your scores up to where you want them.” The stress hit me like a jolt from a resuscitator. I got up paced for a few feet and then turned back and looked at her. 

“Mom, just tell me that you think it’s possible,” I practically pleaded. 

“It’s possible for you to get your scores up, but I would not get my hopes up,” she responded. My mind raced like a balloon whose air had just been released. I thought about the future and my upcoming attempts at the SAT. The only emotion that I felt at that moment was uncertainty.
Tests of literacy have always been used to determine the intellectual abilities of youth. One of the most prominent examples of this is the Scholastic Aptitude Test. This multiple choice standardized test is supposed to be able to predict the likelihood of teenagers succeeding in college and adult life. However, this test only focuses on one very specific attribute of literacy: the ability to choose the correct answer out of four options to a question about the meaning of a random passage that you just read under intense time pressure. Throughout life, there will be very few times when the average person will end up in similar circumstances, yet this test is arguably the most important aspect of a college application. British inventor James Dyson once criticized standardized tests arguing, “The one size fits all approach of standardized testing is convenient but lazy.” There are many different types of situations in which literacy will be necessary for navigating life that are not represented in this test. 

Albert Einstein once commented on the American education system by stating that “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” He was pointing out that while individuals have many unique strengths, standardized tests and other aspects of American education only measure certain specific forms of intelligence and literacy. Individuals that do not excel in the forms of literacy and intelligence necessary for school are often told that they are less intelligent. This most definitely applied to my early life. My parents initially addressed my reading disability as though I was simply not as literate as I should be. To be fair, it was not exactly their fault that they viewed it this way. In our education system, one of the most valued parts of literacy is the ability to process words at high speeds, which was something I could not do. This was merely one aspect of literacy that was highly overvalued. I have always been able to analyze written materials, and I have come to realize that I can comprehend works of literature reasonably well when I read at my own speed. However, my below average processing speed had consistently proven to be problematic in my academic life, particularly on standardized tests. Because of this, my parents constantly attempted to strengthen my reading ability by any means necessary. 

One of their most ridiculous attempts to speed up my processing speed was in fourth grade when my mother had me do a karaoke program that had apparently had been proven to strengthen people’s reading abilities. My mom called my name, summoning me to the dining room. I glanced down at the table and saw my mom’s laptop and a box with a pair of headphones with a microphone attached. I peeled the tape off the box, lifted the top, and pulled out the headphones encased in plastic. I pulled them out and slowly examined them. I set them down and turned my head to look at my mother. “This is a singing program that has been proven to improve your reading ability to read.” I looked at her, puzzled.

“So, it’s like karaoke?” I asked.
“Yeah, basically,” she replied. “We’re gonna try this program out for a few months and see if it improves your reading ability.”

“How is singing karaoke supposed to improve my reading ability?” I questioned. 

“Well they’ve done studies, and found that kids who did this program improved their reading speeds,” she answered. I begrudgingly sat down, plugged the headphones into the computer, and pulled up the program. After going through a few diagnostic tests, I took a look at the list of songs they had available. I was thoroughly unimpressed with their selection. The only songs that were available were either public domain songs or songs that the program was able to acquire cheaply. I realized then that I would spend the next several months singing embarrassing folk songs that would apparently improve my reading ability. As silly and embarrassing as that experience was, the truly sad part was that my parents were trying to improve the speed at which I processed words rather than attempting to get accommodations for my reading disability. It seemed like they thought that the speed at which I processed words was because of my own shortcomings, rather than a task that I was unable to do because of a pre-existing learning disability. Though my parents’ attempts to improve my reading ability may have made some difference, those changes paled in comparison to the impact of the accommodations that I received later in life. I found that reading along with audiobooks drastically improved the experience of free reading and receiving extra times raised my SAT scores by a significant margin. I was a luckier than most people in this situation. Many students at public schools in cities like Philadelphia have learning disabilities that go undiagnosed and do not receive the accommodations that they need to succeed in their academic life. 

Work Cited:

“Everybody is a Genius. But If You Judge a Fish by Its Ability to Climb a Tree, It Will Live Its Whole Life Believing that It is Stupid.” Quote Investigator, quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/06/fish-climb/.

Waines, Taylor. “Knowledge based on memory: Testing in education.” The Chronicle, 25 Apr. 2016, chronicle.durhamcollege.ca/2016/02/knowledge-based-memory-testing-education/.

Advanced Essay #2: Robbed Of My Identity

My goal for this essay was to use clear language to describe an experience in my life that has influenced my literary identity. What I am proud of in this essay is how much I have opened up about this topic in my life. An area of improvement is to increase my descriptive vocabulary when I write about topics such as this one.


Amelia Benamara

English 3

10 December

Robbed Of My Identity

It was my third day of kindergarten when a woman with dark grey locks extended her gigantic palm to mine at my side before she began to shake it. She was a completely new face to me; I smiled and gladly accepted the gesture, nonetheless. At the time, I was a child of the age six who couldn't speak a single word of English.

“Hy, my nom es Mes Hyd,” she returned the smile.

“Azul! Je m'appelle Amelia,” I enthusiastically responded with a mix of French and Berber. Gloria Anzaldua demonstrates this skill in her infamous story: How To Tame  A Wild Tongue. Anzaldua describes her ability to speak more than one language in a sentence, “I may switch back and forth from English to Spanish in the same sentence or in the same word.”

Observing her gestures, I could tell she introduced herself. She seemed very excited to be meeting me, although I wasn't so sure why. As a toddler, I was always the type who was open to meeting new people no matter where I go. Her anticipation glued to me, as I began to be jumping with excitement ― literally. This lady didn’t intimidate me not one bit. Shortly after her and my parents had a conversation while I roamed the paintings drawn on the hallway's walls, Ms. Hyde grabbed onto my tiny hand and talked as we walked. I couldn’t understand, but I seemed to nod my head and agree with what she was going on about. The teacher leads me to a door with the labels ESOL on it. I was familiar with the letters when I write in French, however, I had absolutely no clue how to pronounce the word. We entered the room and sat across from one another. There were posters with words and drawings all over the walls. The elder woman pulled out a large printed paper with a flower design on it. There were multiple labels surrounding the colorful drawing, each pointing at a specific area. I wasn’t at all familiar with what the letters spelled out, but, I automatically figured out what the labels represented. It was almost like slow motion, where everything in the room was silent but Ms. Hyde’s lips continued to move while she pointed at the labels on the poster. I blocked all of what she was rambling about until her lips stopped moving as she waited for me to answer whatever question she asked.

Dee farraowen,” I casually responded in Berber.

A smile appeared on her face but it wasn’t that same friendly smile this time. She wanted to let out a laugh but tried hard not to. Although today’s version of me wouldn’t have smiled at that embarrassing response, instead, her laugh was passed on to my face. This strange exchange gave me comfort at the time because I was a kid who knew nothing about people’s reactions. I thought she smiled because she was happy, which made me happy. I was not used to embarrassment and what that was at all.

This experience was almost the same as what happened on my very first day of school. I walked into a classroom full of American kids who I shared the same height, uniform, and excitement with ― the only difference was the language we spoke. Most of the students were talking to one another and making new friends. They used words that my brain didn’t quite register, however, that didn’t stop me from attempting to make friends too. I approached the students and instantly began to speak with a mix of Berber and French. The kids around me laughed and I laughed along. Little did I know, they were laughing at me. Looking back at this moment, I can’t blame them; a classroom of kindergarten students laughing at words that were very unusual to my brain.

Let’s fast forward a few years later in 5th grade, I had spoken English by that time and had proudly graduated from ESOL with an honor roll certificate. Two of the friends I had at the time mentioned that same incident in kindergarten for the first time.

“No one had a clue to what you were saying, it was hilarious,” Ryan could hardly speak due to the laugh attacks he was having.

“I think I even saw Ms. Karacomaza laugh with us!” Brianna nudged Ryan’s arm making him choke on his laugh.

Nothing much changed, they had the same laughs that caused a flush to appear on my cheeks ― this time I felt the embarrassment I should’ve felt five years earlier. I had long forgotten that memory, hoping no one remembered it but they killed that hope I clutched on to.

Now, as the teenager I am, I hardly speak the French language, as well as Arabic. The only language I seemed to have held onto was Berber. Moving to a country such as America, I feel robbed of my origins. I had moved here speaking fluently in three languages at only age six, and now at age sixteen I only speak one of those three. Gloria Anzaldua’s How To Tame A Wild Tongue explains a similar memory with her own Spanish language: “Through lack of practice and not having any others who can speak it, I've lost most of the Pachuco tongue.”

However, not all was misfortune because when I came to Philadelphia I learned a new language, English. I am lucky enough to go to the school I currently attend that gives me opportunities to expand my linguistic knowledge. As a junior in High School, I am taking Spanish classes. Although I am not fluent just yet, I am proud to have this experience. Speaking Spanish in school reminds me of speaking French in Algeria. The Spanish and French language are so incredibly similar that it truly brings back beautiful memories I had as a kid.

I only speak Berber in the house with my family, my parents say it is good to always remember a piece of culture I grew up in. I am afraid to even say a word in public that isn’t English because Berber is a very ancient language that a very small population can speak. When people hear the words, they stare and make unpleasant faces. I prefer to speak it with my family who will not judge the person I grew up as. A stranger can hear me speak, observe my face, but one thing they do not know immediately is my childhood story and what makes me who I am.



Advanced Essay #2: When the Audience Turns: An Analysis of Comedic Illiteracy and Sensitivity in America - Hopkins

Introduction:
In my paper, I tried my best to write about something I love to watch, perform, and now it seems study: comedy. More so the oversensitivity of audiences today. The comedic illiteracy of crowds in 2017 is a problem that needs to be addressed. When people don't understand that somethings are just jokes and shouldn't be taken seriously, they lack a certain amount of social capital that comedians and even some audience members do have. I think I provided some great quotes from some great sources and accomplished writing something I think could get people talking. I would have loved to go more in depth though, but to was hard to find the few sources that I did.

Advanced Essay:

Comedy is subjective. What’s funny to someone may or may not be funny to someone else. That being said, one would think a person could hear a joke and if it wasn’t funny, move on and wait for the next one. That’s not at all what happens in 2017. If a comedian is performing their set and a single joke is deemed offensive, the set is ruined and the career of that comedian may as well be over. While it’s slightly understandable that comedians have a higher sense of understanding when it comes to pushing boundaries with their performances, audiences today are entirely too sensitive and this widespread comedic illiteracy could be ruining comedy as a whole.

One of the worst things a comedian can experience is not getting a joke to land. In theory, the joke they planned and rehearsed was hilarious, but no one got it. No one understood. The performer didn’t “go too far.” They just weren’t relatable enough. This kind of comedic illiteracy is acceptable. But when a comic does, in fact, cross what the majority of an audience believes is “the line,” it can get ugly. At that point, the crowded becomes illiterate in the sense that they don’t understand that it was just a joke. This kind of illiteracy can be extremely frustrating for both the laugher and the laughee. It’s especially frustrating when you consider how, for lack of a better word, selfish this kind of sensitivity can be in a comedy club. Lenore Skenazy said it best when she wrote “When my idea of cruel is your idea of hilarious, my super-sensitivity automatically wins. I get to declare not just that the comic isn't funny, but that he is a bad person and needs to be punished.” Skenazy intends to put the reader into the mind of someone yelling about why whatever joke was said wasn’t funny and does a pretty good job of explaining the lack of consideration for the comic and anyone in the audience enjoying the piece.

It makes sense to be taken aback when you hear something that wouldn’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t be said in a public setting. Something racist, something sexist, or some other kind of “ist,” etc. But never should you get up in the middle of the set and start booing and screaming your opinion of the material. Especially since you for some reason don’t understand that you came to hear comedy and that what your hearing may even be topical. A question that never gets answered when comedians come under fire for testing the limit is “Why is comedy the only form of the arts where people think they have to agree with, or approve the content,” a question comedian Jim Norton has very eloquently pondered aloud. Norton and many other comedians often ask this question because when a book gets “edgy” or when a painting is graphic, no one bats an eye. The object is either praised or given respectful criticism. Comedy gets no such treatment. Comedy is held at some higher standard and to many not even considered an art.

But the issue is more than fair criticism of this kind of art. This kind of comedic illiteracy is bigger than someone not understanding what a joke is or why they even came to hear it. The question that we should ask ourselves before this gets out of hand is: at what point does this become an attack on free speech? And maybe we should even ask, what role do offensive jokes play in bringing to light issues that are commonly avoided. A comedian should be some who plays “an important function in society by holding up a mirror and forcing us to confront realities that we would often prefer to ignore,” according to Roger Cohen and Ryan Richards of Humanity in Action. It makes sense to use comedy in this way. If you look at America today, you see more and more people getting informed from comedy programs as opposed to traditional news. If we can’t use comedy to bring to light real issues and laugh about them too, then why do we even need comedy?

This ever growing divide between the crowd and the standup comic very well may continue to grow. The issue of oversensitivity to jokes and comically illiterate audiences has ultimate changed the comedy and has done so for the worst. Comedians even have started to avoid performing on college campuses for Christ’s sake! It’s our responsibility to fight for free speech, ensure knowledge can spread  in a comedic way, and find a way to desensitize our audiences. So much more is at stake than a few careers and some butthurt audiences.



Citations:
  • Skenazy, Lenore. “Who Decides What's Funny?,” August 4, 2016. www.creators.com/read/lenore-skenazy/08/16/who-decides-whats-funny.
  • Cohen, Roger, and Ryan Richards. “When the Truth Hurts, Tell a Joke: Why America Needs Its Comedians.” Humanity In Action, 2006. www.humanityinaction.org/knowledgebase/174-when-the-truth-hurts-tell-a-joke-why-america-needs-its-comedians.

Advanced Essay #2: Manipulation

Introduction:

In this essay, I want to bring light on how education, business, and media, play a role in the manipulation of the general public. I am proud of my analysis, but I would have liked to use a better scene.


Manipulation

Most evenings, while I am upstairs doing homework, I hear the inaudible sound of the news playing on the TV downstairs. And in some of those evenings, there is some breaking news that causes my parents to turn up the volume to get all of the details that the reporter is telling the viewer – or, in some cases, the details that the news wants the reporter to tell the viewer. In these cases, I can hear my parents saying things like, "That's a lie!" or "This didn't happen!" There are times when I decide to go downstairs to see what's being said on the news, and, when they finish telling whatever news story, a discussion follows talking about all of the blaring issues about the story the news told its viewers, or the blaring issues not told.

The idea of the media twisting stories, even just the slightest bit, is essential for the citizens in our society to be misinformed. In James Baldwin's If Black Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? he described how different languages in one region can affect the power dynamics. "It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power." (Baldwin)  In the United States, language, along with other factors such as race and gender, have been used as a way to give advantages to one group of people while creating hardships for the other groups.

Education gaps has been a major issue that affects families and individuals and how they view and interpret news. Socioeconomic class is one major factor in the quality of education. According to the Economic Policy Institute, students who are in lower social classes struggle more with reading than students in higher classes. Lower reading levels then results in students, eventually growing up to adults, who are less prepared for interpreting all of what is thrown at them. Lower education means students who are not able to, or do not want to, dig deeper into the meaning of, for example, a news story or a post on social media about an event. The education gaps, mostly put up against lower class citizens, is what allows for the manipulation of people. Most families will enroll their kids into public school, and public schools deal with being underfunded and generally having lower quality education.

For the school system to give lower quality education to students in a lower social class means these students are easier to manipulate by means of media. When students are taught less content, it is more difficult for them to be able to connect the dots when it comes to analyzing the world. Analyzing news usually requires background knowledge, or at least the ability of fishing for what is correct and what is incorrect – or what is "real news" and what is "fake news." The use of misinformation and lack of student support in schools sets up students for not being able to distinguish between right and wrong. Certain media, such as social media, conspiracy theorists, and even some news networks, use this lack of student education to their advantages in order to "sell" their news to those viewers.  

The news, in some ways, could be seen as a business. On television, there are promos to watch certain people at certain times, which usually are tagged with catch phrases such as "The best news," or "Trusted by viewers." The business factor of the news is another factor that affects the way news networks present news. Certain news networks cater to their own audiences. According to the Pew Research Center, "those with consistently conservative views" watch Fox News, a conservative and right-leaning news network. Most viewers who have more left-leaning views turn to CNN, MSNBC, or New York Times, which are more left-leaning news networks. This means that Fox News will more likely choose stories that are more critical of the left in order to retain its viewers, and CNN will choose stories that are more critical of the right to retain its viewers.  However, there is more diversity in the political views of the viewers that watch networks like CNN or MSNBC, while 60 percent of Fox News viewers are strongly conservatives. News networks, in order to appeal to their audiences, usually choose certain stories to make public, or will cover certain stories with different lights. In the 2016 presidential election, for example, right-leaning media covered left-leaning candidates – most notably Hillary Clinton – far more critically than left-leaning networks. However, they covered right-leaning candidates with very little criticism. This meant that those who view right-leaning media strongly disliked Clinton, or any other left-leaning candidates. Left-leaning media was critical of the right-leaning candidates, but also not as critical of left-leaning candidates.

The use of education and business has been a way for the general public to be manipulated by media and the government. Our sources of information are usually divided on political views, therefore changing what information is presented to viewers and how that information is handled.


Works Cited

  • Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 July 1979
  • Mitchell, Amy, Jeffrey Gottfried, Jocelyn Kiley, and Katerina Eva Matsa. "Section 1: Media Sources: Distinct Favorites Emerge on the Left and Right." Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. October 20, 2014. Accessed December 2017. http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/.
  • “Early Education Gaps by Social Class and Race Start U.S. Children Out on Unequal Footing: A Summary of the Major Findings in Inequalities at the Starting Gate.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/early-education-gaps-by-social-class-and-race-start-u-s-children-out-on-unequal-footing-a-summary-of-the-major-findings-in-inequalities-at-the-starting-gate/.

Advanced Essay #2: The Bilingual Effects


​Introduction:

My goals are for people to notice that society is really harsh on us, and future generations to come. I also want people to read it, to understand that languages are truly a challenge. I am proud of the use of sources throughout my paper and of the amount of thought I put into it. I need to improve on my use of scenes, and descriptive language.


Advanced Essay:

In high school, we begin studying a new language. Most teach Spanish because it is the 2nd most popular in the United States. If you already know Spanish, there are alternatives. I personally did not know a language other than English going into high school. At Sharswood - my middle school, there was one year that a teacher came to teach Italian. Nobody listened or showed him respect so he left, and I now look back and wish I could learn Italian since I’m Italian. Languages help us to be open-minded, and an article by Telegraph states many other things such as better memory, better decision-making skills, and etc.
Spanish class during freshman year contained lots of basic sentences and greetings, which felt easy. Otherwise, English class has always felt like my weak spot throughout middle school and high school, so I started to feel literate and good in another language. In A Place to Stand, Jimmy Santiago Baca emphasizes that he felt capable of expressing himself: “This whole world opened up for me and I could write the words for me that matched my emotion”(Baca). A summer had passed and I didn’t study or practice at all for Spanish 2. All of my knowledge was gone and I started to feel illiterate in another language. This level of Spanish introduced a new level of words and stricter grading on pronunciation. I continuously got frustrated because I was unable to roll my r’s.
I remember in my third quarter of Sophomore year, during Spanish class. The unit was about sports terms and fitness videos in Spanish. The assignment was to choose our own set of workouts and make a tutorial video for how to do it. I had a group who did a good job incorporating their personalities and creativity, which made our project unique in that sense. I remember us constantly trying to figure out how we would write what we want to say. I never knew how and we would resort to outside sources. She told us to “change it and to use all the words and sentences and say things in a simpler way, and not to be descriptive.” The two language classes completely contradicted one another. English was about using descriptive and unique languages, such as similes, metaphors, and other forms of figurative speech, but in Spanish, we had to speak in the simplest way possible.
Projects don’t give the feeling that students need to think about what they want to say on the spot, kids receive lots of time to think of the script. The only uncomfortable part of the videos was having to be in front of a camera. Baca admits that there’s going to be discomfort when learning a language and attempting to learn, and there will be mistakes made throughout the process, “What I learned from these letters is that it’s worth the usual ‘discomfort’”(Baca). The video is usually based on scenarios people encounter everyday. Amy Tan states that people in her life didn’t understand the things her mother said, “Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50 percent of what my mother says”(Tan, 1). In class when I asked a question, I was never fully understood because I was unable to speak the correct way.
The issue is that we aren’t taught Spanish at the right age. I would still like to be fluent in languages such as Spanish. Studies, however, have shown being taught at a younger age can result in better skill in that field. Dr. Patricia Kuhl at the Institute of Learning and Brain Science at the University of Washington conducted research on that subject. She found that through the ages of 7 or 8, children can learn to speak a 2nd language fluently. The ability to master a second language gradually decreases after the “critical period” phase. The “critical phase” is a phase for children when the brain is ready to learn a language. I personally don’t believe it has to be Spanish in particular, languages are a skill that is better achievable for people when they get exposed to it earlier.
As we age, our abilities to speak and write are criticized more in society, especially if the way you speak isn’t formal, which is why most people have to code switch. This relates to how expectations become higher and higher in life, throughout high school and college. These expectations getting higher matter because it affects people in a negative way, it causes people to doubt or be disappointed in themselves and being stressed. The expectations are different for everyone because people growing up get different levels of education. Society finds a way to push us to this standard way of literacy that is “correct”. It’s easier for those who get a private education to live up to these expectations for language literacy.
If the expectations didn’t continuously get harsher or stricter than I believe we’d see more variety of new and unique personalities in formal environments instead of them being shunned because they aren’t societies’ standard beliefs; learning one’s true self instead of the persona they have to put on to do well in society. Mike Rose points out the fact that schooling needs to take its time when having high expectations for literacy,“But how would someone like Tommy Rose, with his two years of Italian schooling, know what to ask?”(Rose, 1). They expect you to learn a language with little to no experience, and no real-world application opportunities. There were many occasions in Spanish class, in which, I had a question, but I didn’t know how to word it.


Works Cited:

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” Google Drive,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Cvq7ioloJpZGNkYTM0ZjUtNDczZC00NWE2LWEyMTQtMjgzZDRhYTAzNTBi/view


Rose, Mike. “I Just Want to be Average .” Google Drive, Google,   drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Cvq7ioloJpN2JmMDk3ZWQtYmI5OS00OTM3LTk5MDctZWMzZTViNGVhNjBi/view.


“Why Learn a Foreign Language? Benefits of Bilingualism.” Telegraph.co.uk, 19 June 2013, www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/10126883/Why-learn-a-foreign-language-Benefits-of-bilingualism.html. Accessed 10 Dec. 2017.


Purves, Dale, et al. The Development of Language: A Critical Period in Humans - Neuroscience - NCBI Bookshelf. Sinauer Associates, 31 Dec. 2000,


www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11007/. Accessed 10 Dec. 2017.

A Place to Stand. aplacetostandmovie.com/. Accessed 10 Dec. 2017.



Humorous Language

​Introduction
My goals for this paper is to go into depth about how literature influences my perspective on the world and my perspective towards myself. It's to learn about myself and provide my audience with a perspective on the idea and the reasoning and purpose behind humorous language. I am proud of how much this paper really exhibits my voice, it isn't just a mindless piece of writing. MY language, the way I speak, is clearly present in the paper and it provides a much more personal piece of writing that is specific to me. However, I feel that I should have used quotes more efficiently because while they do relate with what I am talking about, I don't make more of a stronger connection between the quote and my thesis.

Advanced Essay #2:
Nick Ryan

11/22/17

Block

Advanced Essay #2

When I first started high school at SLA, I was terrified. I knew going in that I was going to be the only deaf student there and I didn’t know how the other kids would respond. Would they pity me? Would they start to avoid me? I constantly thought about what everyone else would think, and as a result, I completely changed my behavior and attitude to make myself more appealing to everyone, so it would be easier for me to make friends. I often wore nice plaid shirts and jeans, which is not my style at all, and I acted bubbly and friendly. One particular day in the first couple weeks of school, I was in biochem. I was wearing my awkward SLA lab coat, feeling like a geek. We were doing a lab involving changing the color of fire with the Bunsen burner at the back of the room at the lab tables. The lab tables are connected in two’s and our group was focused on working on the lab. Across from our side of the table, one of the group members came up to me. She was curious about my deafness, and by this point, she was the first to ask me about it. Shit, now I gotta explain my whole situation and she’s gonna pull the whole pity act towards me now.

“So, what are those things in your ears?” she said.

“Hearing aids, I’m deaf.” I said, cringing at every word.

“Oh… Were you born deaf?” Here comes the feeling sorry act.

“No, but, I lost it at a pretty young age, 17 months.”

“How’d you lose it?”

A thousand thoughts ran through my mind like buffalos stampeding through the plains, migrating, each of their steps holding the same powerful impact. I didn’t know how to respond to this. I wanted to just say the truth, explain myself and get it over with. But, something bothered me, I felt like if I did, it would just make her feel bad for me. So, I did something I never normally do. I made a joke about it.

“Oh, well, these aliens came and abducted me and performed experiments on me. They messed up with their probing and screwed up my hearing. And now here I am.” She actually fell to the floor laughing. I could feel all of her nervousness exhibit through her laughs. She was nervous asking me about something so touchy. My joke helped relieve all that tension she was feeling about asking me about my hearing aids. I was amused. Her laughing made me laugh and all of a sudden, I didn’t care too much about everyone acknowledging my deafness. All I had to do was joke about it, and no one would take it so deep.

As I’ve grown over the years, I’ve realized that language, extroverted, humorous language has always been a coping mechanism for me. I’ve consistently joked about my pain as if it were a simple trick, a silly story. All the pain that I have with my family, all the pain I have being deaf, all the pain of anxiety, I told to others in a humorous manner. I believe I did this to somehow convince myself that it’s all a joke and that it isn’t at all as serious as it seems. I’ve also did this to convince others that I wasn’t this torn apart kid who felt constant loneliness, scared of being left out of society and being treated as an outcast. I strongly believe in the Whorf linguistic theory, the idea that literature can influence its audience’s perspective, except literature influenced my perspective on my world. Literature is not only words on paper, it’s how we communicate with people. In a way, it’s made me more aware of myself. James Baldwin argues that people use language to “describe and thus control their circumstances.” I agree with this statement because that is the very thought process I have when it comes to talking about pain in my life. I use humorous language to control and release the pain that resides within me. I’ve seen this to have a negative effect on those close to me because they can’t seem to take me seriously and I don’t blame them, I consistently joke around and rarely am I ever serious. Even when I try to be serious, I can’t help but go into my joking nature again. It is a habit that refuses to die. Baldwin has emphasized on the idea that “Language, incontestably reveals the speaker.” My humor reveals a lot of what I go through in life, but it also reveals my attitude towards it, and that tends to throw people off because of the idea that I should care more about the subject. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I have a need to dull the pain. It’s as if it will somehow dull the pain and make me sound more modest about my pain.(Sherman Alexie, 13) I’ve never seen this as necessarily a bad thing because I love making people smile, laugh and just be happy, if my pain can make them feel that way, then why should I cease to do so? I am coping with my pain by expressing it in a positive fashion and as a result, people are entertained. Humor and language is a coping mechanism for me because I’m not speaking to myself or keeping my thoughts restricted in my mind or on paper, but instead I am opening up about it to an audience and receiving a reaction to it. Humor and language is a form of therapy for me.


Advanced Essay #2: Manipulation

Introduction:

In this essay, I want to bring light on how education, business, and media, play a role in the manipulation of the general public. I am proud of my analysis, but I would have liked to use a better scene.


Manipulation

Most evenings, while I am upstairs doing homework, I hear the inaudible sound of the news playing on the TV downstairs. And in some of those evenings, there is some breaking news that causes my parents to turn up the volume to get all of the details that the reporter is telling the viewer – or, in some cases, the details that the news wants the reporter to tell the viewer. In these cases, I can hear my parents saying things like, "That's a lie!" or "This didn't happen!" There are times when I decide to go downstairs to see what's being said on the news, and, when they finish telling whatever news story, a discussion follows talking about all of the blaring issues about the story the news told its viewers, or the blaring issues not told.

The idea of the media twisting stories, even just the slightest bit, is essential for the citizens in our society to be misinformed. In James Baldwin's If Black Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? he described how different languages in one region can affect the power dynamics. "It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. (Baldwin)  In the United States, language, along with other factors such as race and gender, have been used as a way to give advantages to one group of people while creating hardships for the other groups.

Education gaps has been a major issue that affects families and individuals and how they view and interpret news. Socioeconomic class is one major factor in the quality of education. According to the Economic Policy Institute, students who are in lower social classes struggle more with reading than students in higher classes. Lower reading levels then results in students, eventually growing up to adults, who are less prepared for interpreting all of what is thrown at them. Lower education means students who are not able to, or do not want to, dig deeper into the meaning of, for example, a news story or a post on social media about an event. The education gaps, mostly put up against lower class citizens, is what allows for the manipulation of people. Most families will enroll their kids into public school, and public schools deal with being underfunded and generally having lower quality education.

For the school system to give lower quality education to students in a lower social class means these students are easier to manipulate by means of media. When students are taught less content, it is more difficult for them to be able to connect the dots when it comes to analyzing the world. Analyzing news usually requires background knowledge, or at least the ability of fishing for what is correct and what is incorrect – or what is "real news" and what is "fake news." The use of misinformation and lack of student support in schools sets up students for not being able to distinguish between right and wrong. Certain media, such as social media, conspiracy theorists, and even some news networks, use this lack of student education to their advantages in order to "sell" their news to those viewers.  

The news, in some ways, could be seen as a business. On television, there are promos to watch certain people at certain times, which usually are tagged with catch phrases such as "The best news," or "Trusted by viewers." The business factor of the news is another factor that affects the way news networks present news. Certain news networks cater to their own audiences. According to the Pew Research Center, "those with consistently conservative views" watch Fox News, a conservative and right-leaning news network. Most viewers who have more left-leaning views turn to CNN, MSNBC, or New York Times, which are more left-leaning news networks. This means that Fox News will more likely choose stories that are more critical of the left in order to retain its viewers, and CNN will choose stories that are more critical of the right to retain its viewers.  However, there is more diversity in the political views of the viewers that watch networks like CNN or MSNBC, while 60 percent of Fox News viewers are strongly conservatives. News networks, in order to appeal to their audiences, usually choose certain stories to make public, or will cover certain stories with different lights. In the 2016 presidential election, for example, right-leaning media covered left-leaning candidates – most notably Hillary Clinton – far more critically than left-leaning networks. However, they covered right-leaning candidates with very little criticism. This meant that those who view right-leaning media strongly disliked Clinton, or any other left-leaning candidates. Left-leaning media was critical of the right-leaning candidates, but also not as critical of left-leaning candidates.

The use of education and business has been a way for the general public to be manipulated by media and the government. Our sources of information are usually divided on political views, therefore changing what information is presented to viewers and how that information is handled.


Works Cited

  • Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 July 1979
  • Mitchell, Amy, Jeffrey Gottfried, Jocelyn Kiley, and Katerina Eva Matsa. "Section 1: Media Sources: Distinct Favorites Emerge on the Left and Right." Pew Research Center's Journalism Project. October 20, 2014. Accessed December 2017. http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/.
  • “Early Education Gaps by Social Class and Race Start U.S. Children Out on Unequal Footing: A Summary of the Major Findings in Inequalities at the Starting Gate.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/early-education-gaps-by-social-class-and-race-start-u-s-children-out-on-unequal-footing-a-summary-of-the-major-findings-in-inequalities-at-the-starting-gate/.


Advanced Essay No. 2 (Limitations of Education) - Majo Bostani

Limitations of “Education”

INTRODUCTION:
In "Limitations of Education", I explore why students fail classes and are resultantly labeled as dumb. I'm really proud of all of the ideas that I had while writing this piece. However, I did feel like I tried to put too many ideas into 750 words, which made my writing and connections seem a bit sloppy. Enjoy!

ADVANCED ESSAY:
Education is something that everybody has had. Even if it is learning how to walk. While education is a really wide-ranged subject matter, there is indeed a misconception that the only education one could receive is in school. As a matter of fact, colleges usually only accept people that have been formally educated through some kind of a traditional school system. This creates a stigma that makes people believe that you can only get an education from a traditional, formal school. 
For the most part, the American education system has been the same throughout the entire 20th, and 21st century. The school day of a child having to be able to sit in rows for numerous hours, and listen to a teacher lecture on subjects such as Calculus, French, and History to be successful has been around for longer than the telephone. This has limited many students’ passion for learning, by zapping the enjoyability of learning. 

People have been lead to assume that if that a person can’t learn good in an old-fashioned, classroom setting, then they aren’t smart. It doesn’t really matter whether that person could build a house, or fly an airplane to most people. If the person that they are looking at doesn’t get all A’s on their report cards, then that makes that person “slow” in most people’s eyes.

This has caused there to be a lack of skilled labor in the 21st century. People are trying hard to get the jobs that people associate with “smart” people, such as engineering, medical studies, and the arts. This is due to the fact that they have become symbols of good cultural capital. Being able to understand the human body, highly advanced forms of math, and being able to analyze literature are looked upon as more challenging to master, rather than how to work with one’s hands.

This apathy is also created by the fact that most of our educational choices are made for us. I remember every thought that I had on my first day of high school. I tiptoed into my advisory room, being observed by the twenty or so other students who I’ll be spending the next four years of my life with. My advisor, whom also happens to be the college counselor walks up to me with a smile the size of Alaska and hands me my roster. Feeling confident about my placement tests, I expected to be placed into Algebra 2 to start out, with some Physics and Engineering courses to be added in.

But when I glanced at my roster, a look of disbelief struck my eyes - And not the good kind. “Algebra 1, Honors Biochemistry, African-American History, English 1, Art, Tech, Engineering, and Drama.” Right off of the bat, a good half of those courses sounded either easy or useless to me. How would an aspiring pilot benefit from learning about Art and Drama? Algebra 1 and English 1 sounded like two courses that I have done for three years, with African-American History, Honors Biochemistry, and Engineering sounding somewhat interesting to me. I then started talking to a fellow advisee, who revealed to me that he has to take Geometry, although he passed Algebra 2 at his old school.

I inquired about what his old school is, and he proudly stated: “Julia R. Masterman” That explains it well. I figured that it was unfair that students that attend certain middle schools are considered to be less smart, compared to students that attend others. While I see that certain middle schools offer higher qualities of education than others, I still don’t believe that a student’s potential should be limited by which high school they attend. If a student excels at a certain course, then they should be pushed ahead of everyone else. If they are repeatedly failing a course, then a new plan of action should be taken, as there is an underlying reason why that is.

In 1990, an education program called Vocational Education was designed to assist students who don’t learn best in a classroom. It taught students trades, as opposed to academic subjects. While this program did gain popularity throughout the nation, it did pick up a stigma. As vocational education student Mike Ross stated in his essay, I Just Want to Be Average, “Vocational education has aimed at increasing the economic opportunities of students who do not do well in our schools.” (p. 2) While this program has its benefits to some students, I believe that other forms of education should be recognized. Just because one size doesn’t fit all, it doesn’t mean that two sizes do. 

Works Cited:
Rose, Mike. "I Just Want to Be Average." Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Underprepared. New York: Free Press, 1989. 162-67. Print.

Advanced Essay #2: The Chameleon

Introduction:

My essay details how race is used a form of literacy in our society. Specifically, in situations where it is used as a first impression or form of perception. My goals for the paper itself were to detail the experiences I’ve had as a racially ambiguous person, and to detail how that’s affected my integration into certain societal events. As for areas of improvement, I could have expanded on my sense of memory by adding more dialogue. Overall, I am very happy with my essay and feel that it addresses literacy in a unique and interesting way.


Final Essay:

Being racially ambiguous is the human equivalent of being a chameleon. It’s a shapeshifting superpower that I use to my advantage whenever I see fit. Whether it’s when applying for a job or partaking in an interview, I modify my mannerisms and the way I look in order to fit into what seems to be the idea of perfection. In most cases, looking like a white woman saves me from facing the repercussions of being a minority in a majority ruled society. While I am not ashamed of my culture, it’s clear to see that being Hispanic is seen as a hindrance rather than a positive asset to many employers whom I’ve crossed paths with.  It’s the sad but true reality of my life, a clear depiction of the prejudices in place in our society.

When I was younger, I had never expected race to play as big of a role in my life as it does now. Race is nothing but a man-made system that’s sole purpose is to ensure that people are separated from each other, and it has managed to be an integral factor in determining my success. In more cases than one, looking like a white woman has saved me from the repercussions of being a minority in a majority ruled society.

A prime example of this was when I applied for a summer program at a distinguished university in Philadelphia. As I walked into the room for my interview, I could tell that the prompter was immediately confused. Her eyes darted towards the paper in front of her and then back at me. It was clear that I was not the applicant that she was expecting.

“Hi, are you Christina?” she asked cautiously, tension taut in her shoulders.

“Yes.”  I assured her.

“Great, take a seat.” she responded slightly confused.

As she took a better look at me her expression softened, while her shoulders eased back into a comfortable position. It was in that moment that I knew that she must’ve thought I was white. One of her own kind.

Day by day I relive the story of my life or as Jose Baca once called it in his book A Place to Stand  “the fable of my life,”  disappointed by the fact that sometimes I submit myself to society, by using looking white as a security blanket. I don’t embrace my Hispanic culture in those moments, but rather hide it in order to ensure my success. In our society, people like myself are forced to suppress their identities because they realize that we live in a white world.  Students of color come to the realization that they are at a disadvantage, and are forced to develop a kill or be killed mentality. This is not meant to be taken in a literal sense, but rather to signify that there is a need for minorities to develop thicker skin as a way to protect ourselves from the discrimination, judgement, and repercussions we face as a consequence of being marginalized.

Race is used and perceived as a first impression. In most cases, fair skin is seen as ideal and associated with being white, where are darker complexions are seen as odd and feared by many people. With that being said, people use their judgements to set lower expectations on people of color. Low expectations lead people of color to think little of themselves. They feel self-conscious and try to match their mannerisms to that of their white counterparts in order to fit in. The color of their skin causes their body language to change, analyzed in a way that will exaggerate any flaw. In my case, people assume my race and then refuse to believe me when I tell them they’re wrong. While it doesn't have much impact on them, I proceed to correct them. It's something I have to do in order to remain me, and remain true to my character.

W.E.B Dubois’ idea of double consciousness describes the feeling of having more than one social identity. Therefore, finding it difficult to develop a sense of self. This is a brief, but accurate description of the situation I am in. Although I maintain a high sense of pride for my culture, I wish that it wasn’t so hard to change people's immediate view of me. Correcting people feels like the only sense of dominance I have over my identity, and the feeling I experience is described wonderfully in the book Other People's Children when Delpit emphasizes that “you can only beat your head against a brick wall for so long until you draw blood.” In Delpit’s case she elaborates on how she feels that white teachers can not accommodate how black children needed to learn because they didn't understand how they feel on a emotional level. When comparing this to my situation, I clearly see her point because I face the same frustration in my everyday life, the feeling on being misunderstood.

In Dubious’  In The Soul of Black Folk, he argues that double consciousness is “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” This is a feeling that is a common occurrence in many minorities because so long as white people remain the majority race and minorities will always be looked at as a second priority. As this internalized and unspoken language remains to exist in our society, the expectations will only continue to grow, crushing minorities in their midst.


Works Cited

Baca, Jimmy Santiago. A Place to Stand: the Making of a Poet. Grove Press, 2001.

Delpit, Lisa D. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New Press, 2006. Print.

Doe, R. John.  Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh, 1998. Print.

“Double Consciousness.” Double Consciousness [DuBoisopedia ], 18 Dec. 2013, scua.library.umass.edu/duboisopedia/doku.php?id=about%3Adouble_consciousness.


Advanced Essay #2, The Power Of Words

Jacobo Pastor

Mr. Block

Advanced Essay 2

December 10th, 2017


Introduction: My goal for this essay was to showcase the power of words and effective communication, as they are the keys to success. I am proud of how every piece in my essay connects to my analysis. I feel like an area of improvement would be trying to get the message across using fewer sentences.

The Power Of Words


Following the whispers of the visitors, I entered a room filled with all sorts of emotions. Everywhere I looked, I saw the representations of feelings expressed by the many strokes of paint.  Those vivid landscapes filled my nostrils, making them able to inhale history and the interesting stories those canvases were able to display. Although I wasn’t capable of understanding the meaning of the paintings, I sensed that some of those pieces were able to transmit better stories than others. I realized that I was feeling more attracted to the art pieces with a better narrative. I realized that artist use their talents with more or less success as we all do when we articulate our ideas and express ourselves.

As I approached the Civil War years part of the exhibit, my mind went back 70 years, to a time I did not witness, but a time that I learned about from the many stories my grandmother used to tell me. Unlike the art, I was able to understand better and relate to those stories. I remember that she explained to me how the Museum used to be a hospital and a refuge from the bombing during the Spanish Civil War.  My fingers tingled, uneasy with the idea that I was standing in a place where thousands of people lost their lives over the course of three long years of war and terror. My ears could hear the alarm sirens and the people running to the basement to save their lives. Somehow the old words of my grandmother were making me see what art couldn’t. I saw my mom and sister walking nearby, looking at the art as if they were reading a poem, understanding every single stroke and detail. I wasn’t surprised when I saw my mom lost in her thoughts, as if the weight of past were on her shoulders. I held her arm, and with my sister, we continued talking about the art and life of the southern genius who was exiled in France never to come back.

Lost in the conversation, we made it to the heart of the exhibit, The Guernica by Pablo Picasso. Although I was surprised by its massive size and monochromatic palette, the enormous black, white and grey masterpiece about our war, about any war, did not capture my imagination. I knew the painting was important, but still, I couldn’t get interested in it. I felt frustrated with the idea of not understanding art as other people could. I could see all the details of the artwork but I wasn’t able to express myself. I saw the big bull which Picasso often used in his art to represent Spain. I saw the mother crying, a universal symbol of horror and desolation. I saw a lamp, a vivid portrayal of one of the many bombs. The masterpiece was there, in front of me, and I did not like it. But, how could I say that?

“Jacobo, what do you think? Isn’t it formidable?” My mother stated with teary eyes.

In that moment I made a connection with my art analogy. Just as an artist chooses very carefully their way to make an impact on their audience, I made sure to choose the correct words to impress my mom. I answered,  “Mom, I have an ambivalent feeling.”

I have noticed that my mother loved my expression. She looked at me with an enthusiastic interest.

“And…?” My mother asked.

“It is powerful but also so devastating.” I continued, using both my hands to express how big my devastation was.

My mother looked at me with love and approval. I escaped from her reach, making myself busy looking at other details of the painting. I remembered that in that moment, I realized how important my choice of words can be when trying to look smart and profound. I have never forgotten that lesson.

That day I learned that unless you make stories interesting or fascinating, they are just ideas, or thoughts. The storytelling is what matters. Many people believe that there are many shapes and forms of literacy, in my opinion, the literacy I understand best is the verbal communication between two individuals. Literacy has an important role in society, and although it is an injustice for many, the ability to be articulate determines your socio-economic status. Mireille Guiliano agrees with this idea, “Intelligence, knowledge or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted.” People communicate in many situations, such as in interviews or relationships, and only those who understand that words matter in our society, will have an advantage.

I’ve come to realize that I can not underestimate literacy, and the ability to communicate what I think and feel.  Therefore I must be aware of the power of words and effective communication, as they are the keys to my future success.  


Works cited: “Bio.” Mireille Guiliano » Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire Q&A, 25 Oct. 2013, mireilleguiliano.com/content/iwomen-work-art-savoir-fairei-qa.







Advanced Essay #2 Politics

Introduction:
The goal of my essay was to point out the fact that those with less money are destined to talk a different way that is not accepted by the working world. If you talk a way that is considered improper it is harder to get a job and survive in America

Advanced Essay:

Speech in society is judged by the populace. The type of speech that is acceptable depends on the culture of the country or area. For example what is acceptable speech at home would not be considered acceptable speech in the working world. In today's American culture the extent to which a person can effectively speak English contributes heavily to whether they lead a successful life. There is also a definite correlation between economic status and the way someone speaks, when a person who is of low economic status has a habit of speaking in a way that is improper it leads to them not being able to succeed in the future. Specific victims of speech harming a person's chances are immigrants, and inner city African Americans.According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics the African American unemployment rate is 3% higher than the national average I blame this on our “African American vernacular” and how its not acceptable in America's Culture


In one story I read, it talked about the black vernacular or the language that African Americans use to talk to each other. He justifies their use of the English language, while I think this is a good thing it limits African Americans. If society only accepts one way to speak it's necessary for economic survival to conform to that.


It was first grade and I was sitting in my least favorite class, speech therapy. Around me were two of my friends, which wasn’t a coincidence, and the teacher of my first grade class

“One, Two, Three,” I said over and over again

The worst part about speech therapy is that they never tell you what you’re saying or doing wrong, they just tell you to repeat the words you mess up until you get it right. While in the class I was constantly wondering why I was there, I myself couldn’t find anything wrong with my speech. Looking back now I realize that I picked up a lot of language while talking to my friends and hearing my Dad speak to me, my Dad didn’t have a specific incorrect way of speaking but he always switched from the way he talked at work and around co-workers compared to when he was home.

“No, you have to pronounce the R correctly,” my teacher said

I finally knew something I was doing wrong from the perspective of my teacher. But from my eyes I was speaking the right way, I was speaking the way my dad spoke when he spoke at home. But I now know that in society the way I knew was right wasn't.


In Mother Tongue Tan provides insight into how her mothers language affected her life “I think my mother's English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities,”(Tan, 3). While I do not think the way my parents speak will affect my future in life, I know it will and does for other people and their parents. African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and anybody else who has an origin that is not from an English speaking country can fall victim to people associating speech with intelligence. Speech in America is a way to put down those already at a disadvantage, James Baldwin said perfectly that “Language is also a political instrument,” (Baldwin, 1). Employers choose not to hire people who don't talk within the cultural standard. Some employers choose not to hire these people without thinking of the reason they talk with their altered English. While there are many reasons people and cultures have a specific way of speaking, an example I can think of in America is slavery. During and after slavery African Americans were not allowed to be taught English at all, it was to prevent them from escaping their imprisonment and backstabbing their slave owners. After slavery, African Americans were segregated into poorer schools, this lasted until 1964 which was only about 50 years ago. In today's culture the effect of slavery can still be seen. African Americans have a higher than average poverty and unemployment rate and one of the causes for this is the fact that they were never accepted into the culture of America, instead they chose to make their own.


Something said by Baldwin many years ago still holds true“If you are not a participant in the culture of power being told the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier.” (Baldwin, 1) There are exceptions to what I’ve said above and that pertains to people who have forgotten their culture or choose to hide when in sight of those who do not accept it. My Dad is an example of this, like everybody does, he code switches between using the language his culture taught him and using the language cultural capital taught him this allowed him to see success in America. But is the fact that he had to code switch to succeed in America really a bad thing?


Baldwin, James. "If Black English Isn't A Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?." Nytimes.com. N. p., 1979. Web.  July. 1979.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html


Tran, Amy, “Mother Tongue.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Cvq7ioloJpZGNkYTM0ZjUtNDczZC00NWE2LWEyMTQtMjgzZDRhYTAzNTBi/view


“Bureau of Labor Statistics Data.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000006.


Advanced Essay #2 Chinlish

Introduction
Overall my goal of this essay is to show that a lot of people don't speak a perfect language but instead speak it in their own way. A way that makes them most comfortable. I am proud to be able to rewrite my whole essay and turn it into something special. And I feel like I can improve on the analytical part of the essay.

Advanced Essay

Generally, everyone learned their first word from their family. As I grew up learning English and Chinese, I remembered those days when I would run into people where I have a hard time speaking to in Chinese because of how I grew up learning it. One day, my mother was speaking to me about my Chinese. About how I only knew so little of it, and it was true.

Feeling helpless, my mother said jokingly, “You’re so useless, you can’t even speak Chinese that properly and if I were to ever take you to China you would be so lost.”

I never attended  Chinese school like the other kids did. So I didn’t expect myself to speak the “Chinese” like they do. Technically I did go to Chinese school for a year, but stopped, and it was terrible, I learned absolutely nothing. It’s like when you were in preschool and all you do is draw and run around and have fun. My parents would’ve taken me to Chinese school if they had the time to, and they didn’t, which is why I could only learn so much from my parents. When I started to learn English, I started to mix my Chinese with my English, so the words in Chinese I didn’t know would be substituted in English. I guess I can call it Chinlish. This was generally a family thing, I did it to most of my family and my siblings does too, except for the ones that didn’t understand English at all.

The way I speak with my families and close one are a lot different than how I would talk to another person in chinese. In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan points out how the way she speaks English and what that English they used has become: “It has become our language of intimacy, a different sort of English that relates to family talk, the language I grew up with” (Tan, 1). In the way I speak Chinese to my family is typically another way of how I speak to my family. Just like in Mother Tongue, Tan can say her mother speaks broken English. And in my case, I can say I speak “broken Chinese,” or Chinlish(Chinese and English together). This is what you can consider a type of literacy, the different forms of languages you take on and if you dig a little deeper how you use these languages in a way you feel most comfortable. When I run into a Chinese person that doesn’t speak English, I would feel uncomfortable because I have to speak in a way I’m not used to or I’ll not know what to say. Which will make the person I’m talking to think I’m stupid or uneducated.

   In a place like China, people would expect you to speak and understand Chinese fully. And there are three languages that fall into the category of Chinese which is Mandarin, Cantonese, Fuzhounese. My parents knows how to speak all three, I only know a few words in each languages mainly the words my parents often used, which are pretty much consider foul words. But besides that, the language I grew up with I can barely speak one without throwing an english words in. So if I were to go to China one day, I would run into a lot of trouble and probably be considered out of place.

When I look at languages throughout the world I can see similar situations happening. A good example is Amy Tran in Mother Tongue, she has a similar situation but with english. It’s how she has a way of speaking english to her close ones. In anyone's case it all depends on what circumstances you are under. Everyone talks different in a environment they are in, and some talks the same too.

Overall, the way I speak Chinese will always be fine throughout my family, but I constantly have have to speak a certain way in the environment I am in. I cannot have a conversation with the way I speak to my family to other people who would not understand what I’m saying. I have to speak the language they are most comfortable with. It’s like how I talk to my friends and how I talk to strangers. Overall people will feel more comfortable with their friends than strangers. I can’t just talk to someone in a different language or way because they’ll just be confused and awkward. So I’ll have to switch the way I speak to where I am, even though it may be difficult, especially in Chinese, I’ll only fail a couple times.


Advanced Essay #2 - More Than Words


Introduction


The goals of this paper is to elaborate on the fact that there is uniqueness to all languages. It is not simply a form of communication, but also has a value to people. Whether people do not speak the same languages should not be an automatic barrier and separation between them. In this paper, I am proud of being able to show the progression of how I felt toward my language from the beginning to the end. Although, an area that I would be able to improve on is elaborating more on the idea of language holding a value for people, rather than leaving it vague for the readers to determine.


More Than Words


Teochew. That is the name of one of the languages that I speak. If you have never heard of it, that doesn’t come as a surprise. Frankly, I did not know the name of it until only four years ago, despite it being the first language I spoke. Some may even call Teochew one of the forgotten languages, but does that make it any less important? Looking in a positive light, does this actually make the language unique? Language is not just words, in fact, it is filled with values.

In How to Tame a Wild Tongue, Gloria Anzaldúa describes the value of she and her family speaking Chicano Spanish, which is a different dialect of “normal” Spanish. She writes ”Chicano Spanish sprang out of the Chicano’s need to identify ourselves as a distinct people. We needed a secret language”. It’s a language that a certain part of her community speaks, and from her perspective, that distinct dialect was made to serve as a special language for themselves.

Relating the idea of a secret language to my own life, I realize that speaking this unfamiliar language, Teochew, springs up plenty of different conversations. Reality is that everyone has a different view and perspective on it.

Starting off, even though I was born in Cambodia, I lived most of my life in Philadelphia, picking up English as my first language. Although, this is a different story for my mother, since she was actually raised there. When I was old enough to enroll in school, I spoke English all the time, since that is the one language that everyone around me is learning and understands. Even if I wanted to speak Teochew, who would be there to understand? It would be pointless to even try. I always thought of my language to be valuable, but it seems different at school.

This is a normal thing that I am used to, but every time my mom calls, I speak her first language. Always hearing English, my peers around me commented on the unfamiliar words that escaped my mouth. “Woah, what are you saying?” “That sounds so cool!” “It sounds so weird!” “Is that your first language?”

Those are just a small part of the collection of responses that I receive when I am heard speaking another language other than English. Although, the responses are usually said with positive intentions. People see it as something unique and are even able to connect it to them speaking a different language at home. That’s where it brings my peers and I to a common similarity, a feeling of mutual appreciation.

Something to keep in mind is that these responses are from people who have never heard of the language that I spoke. Actually speaking Teochew to my family, people who grew up with this language, the responses are almost completely different. I recall a time where I spoke a majority of English, even at home. Having an open ear, I overheard my grandma pointing out a concern to my mom, that maybe I will drop my knowledge on the Teochew language.

To my family, not being able to speak this language is a very inconvenient thing. Since everyone in my family speaks it, they see it as a necessity, not as something unique. It is something normal that I should automatically store in my head. Surely the language is greatly appreciated if they make such an effort to teach it to the future generations, but it makes me wonder if a difference in language separates people. Do people need to change their view on needing to know the same language to be able to connect?

Obviously, being able to speak the same language as the person that you are talking to allows more room for conversation. Although, the thing is that if people hear that you speak a different language, sometimes they quickly give up and do not try to talk.

Anzaldúa also points out that poeple will in fact separate due to language barriers: “And because we internalize how our language has been used against us by the dominant culture, we use our language differences against each other”.

Actually, knowing this unpopular language is something that I am grateful for. Originally when I was younger, I had this little feeling of embarrassment tingling in the back of my mind when I would be heard speaking a different language. Although now, I am proud that I am able to speak something that makes me feel comfortable. Whether around people who understand or even people who do not, this language will always hold a meaningful value to me.


Works Cited


Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.


Advanced Essay #2: The Juice Aisle

​Introduction:
My goals for this paper were mainly trying to incorporate different ways of analysis into my essay aside from the obvious routes. The parts that I am proud of are those that include the descriptive scenes. This essay is alright, however the topic I chose for my essay could have been way better. The topic that I really wanted to do was going to talk in depth about the different social cues and how they differ from America's but I was really restricted on time and could not complete that. If I had better time management I would have been very satisfied with this essay. 

Advanced Essay:

The idea of literacy is a topic who’s definition stays the same throughout time, and space. Literacy is defined as reading the word, and reading the world. This definition is applicable to almost anywhere in the world. Whether you are a mechanic working on a car, or you are a student in Greece reading a book, this definition of literacy holds true. So of course there has to be guidelines for literacy, right? This definition- nay, this idea, just can’t exist, right? It has to have some defining guidelines. Well, just like most things, literacy is made and created by a society, to benefit a society. Thus, it rings true that literacy is different in different societies and cultures to benefit said society and/or culture.

There I was. Staring at this indecipherable, new language. The inscriptions on the glass bottle read strange new words to me that I tried to pronounce. “Jus”, I say to myself, sounding out the words. “It’s pronounced Joo,” a lady next to me said. She had light brown skin and wildly long curly hair. She was wearing a yellow shirt, with blue jeans. I assumed she was around mid 20’s to early 30’s because she didn’t look that old. That or she aged really well. I also assumed she was from the area since she had a slightly weirder accent than mine. The pronunciation of the vowels was slightly… off. She talked as if English was her second language, that’s the best way to describe it.  “Thank you”, I say. She smiles and leaves the aisle, taking the dark red colored juice bottle with her. The juice and water aisles were always interesting to me because in America, they were always the same. They had the same items, the same layout, and the same shelf that was too high for anyone to reach. The supermarket was slightly colder than the outside, and the outside was how you would expect Canada to feel during December. As a 6 year old, a new country really is new. All the streets, and signs, and buildings look foreign to you. Back to the store. The floors were a square design with the occasional tile here and there being colored brown. The lights at the ceiling had a soft yellow light. To my back was a wall of water bottles and Gatorade bottles, and to my front was a variety of different glass juice bottles. The inscription was in French, and I knew this because of my past knowledge. My past knowledge being the wars between France and Canada, and the resulting language barrier between me and this juice. In the past, I’ve read books in French and English, regarding the different wars both countries have had. Sitting in the middle of the aisle, staring at the bottle, I felt like a detective, figuring out a clue that would lead me to a discovery.   

As I stood there staring at this puzzle, it soon occurred to me that this bottle was in French, because the people there spoke French. I know, huge discovery. Well it was, for a 6 year old. Looking back on this memory, the reason I was so confused as to what the bottle said, and I had to figure out what it said was because of the conflicting dominant culture of Canada, and the subculture of America. The literacy of a culture or society, is shaped to whatever needs needs to be filled by that literacy. In other words, literacy for a culture isn’t the same consistently through cultures. An example of this is shown through my experience in the little juice situation explained above. The quote, “People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances.”, said by James Baldwin, really builds onto my previous point. The languages of Canada, aka French and English have been used interchangeably and in tandem in order to better help the people that live there. If the languages there on the juice bottle had been a language such as Albanian, where the majority there did not speak that language, it would have not benefited the people that live there. Therefore, naturally, it would have changed. The interpretation of this is quite literal, as the literacy, in this case, language, changes to match the needs of the citizens. The citizens read both French and English, so the words and descriptions are written in both languages. In conclusion,the definition of literacy is the same throughout cultures and societies, however, the idea and concept of literacy changes throughout cultures and societies consistently changes to match whatever the society or culture needs. Whether this change is shown through ethics, morals, social norms, or more bluntly, language, things are read differently and understood differently. In the case of my Canadian experience, as well as  



Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me What Is?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 July 1979.

Advanced Essay #2- Chinlishese

Introduction:

The goal of my paper is to present to others that it is okay to speak in broken English or any other language. The part that I am really proud of are the quotes that I picked from Mother Tongue while comparing my situation to society. The area that I need to improve on is is making my writing flow better with different types of transitions.


Essay:

For my whole life, I grew up having to translate for my parents because of their lack of knowledge in the English language. At the same time, it was also hard for me having to learn new words through descriptions using words that I currently knew. I felt that I was always describing something that was so easy and could be one word, if I only knew that word. My parents didn’t finish their homeland’s education before coming to America and when coming to America, they had to leave what little English and ESOL school they had to take care of their families. For myself, I’ve noticed English is very different from Asian languages, especially with the pronunciation of the words and tenses. Languages have multiple interpretations, meanings, and ways to pronounce them - it’s the skill of maneuvering through each pronunciation and proper grammar.  

Cantonese, a dialect in Chinese, was my first and main language until I learned English in preschool. At home, my family and I speak Vietnamese and two different dialects of Chinese, Cantonese and Fujianese. At school, I only speak English because that is the only language that everyone understands and this made me lose my Chinese and Vietnamese. Which is why in Elementary School, I spent more time learning to speak Fujianese and Vietnamese because I knew they were languages that I wanted to keep alive. Even though my parents didn’t go to school, they would do everything they could to help us in school. Buying English and Chinese speaking dictionaries to help us with our reading and vocabulary words. Buying math books and working on the problems together. My parents wanted my sister and I to focus on our education that they didn’t get.

In the story “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan describes her experiences with speaking improper English, “Like others, I have described it to people as 'broken’ or ‘fractured’ English. But I wince when I say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than ‘broken,’ as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness and soundness.” (2)   Thinking about this quote and relating it to my life, I understand that the way my parents and I speak is not damaged. With the ability to speak multiple languages at once, my family and I have own language together, “Chinlishese,” which is Chinese mixed with English and Vietnamese. I’ve learned that no one can speak a language correctly, there are always something more to learn and improve on.

Throughout my whole life, I would always mix up the two Chinese languages together because I only knew some words in Cantonese and other words in Fujianese, but they still understood me. I would accidentally mix-up the two languages without even knowing. It didn’t matter how I said it because my parents would still know what I meant.

This mixed language did not roll over with my extended family. My aunt, for example, had a harder time understanding the mix. When she needed someone to go with her to the doctors to help translate for her, I was always there. When the doctors kept asking me questions, I’d have to interpret to my aunt in Cantonese. While I was interpreting, I forgot that my aunt couldn’t understand Fujianese. She kept making fun of me and saying in Cantonese “this is why the young generation are useless because you guys can’t speak properly” and “who teaches you Cantonese.”

This made my self-esteem low. After that, I was cautious in what I was interpreting. I realize that my parents and I have our own unique language. I had to learn how to differentiate between the two dialects. People like my aunt assume that all the younger generation kids are not able to speak any language except English. This is not true. This makes me wonder why can’t people accept their own language. Thinking of what my aunt said, it allowed me think that the language my parents and I speak is our own unique language.

Another quote in the story “Mother Tongue,”  Amy Tan mentions her mom experience’s when they go out anywhere, “the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.” (2)  In society today, people who can’t speak proper English or any language, do not get the full attention they deserve, like people who do. Everyone in the world speaks their own type or version of languages.

At Geno Steaks, customers who can’t speak proper English, the employers would not take any orders from that customer, which is not fair to the immigrants, who want to try the famous cheesesteak in Philly. This shows that some people in society are shallow to those who are different. People who can’t speak proper should still deserve the same respect because it is not their fault that the language you want them to speak isn’t their first language and only language.

In our society, it is important to not be divided because it is important to be united and help others especially those with disabilities or language barriers. It is very important to make sure that everyone has a voice. It is hard to learn a new language and speak it properly and there is not just one way to speak any language, but a multiple ways too. This is something that should be carried with us when meeting people from all walks of life.


Work Cited:
Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue."

Bilingual Bewilderment

​Introduction: 

The paper I wrote was mainly focused around a memory I had from Kindergarten, where my polish culture was challenged based on an answer I gave to a Phonics question. The goals for this paper are to get the readers to understand my thesis which is that "a person’s language doesn’t change the message they are trying to get through, 'it doesn’t affect the quality of a person’s idea,'” as well as for them to understand the situation I went through, which affects many immigrants in this country on a daily basis. I am proud of the scene, as well as my conclusion, and I hope to improve my essay introductions in the future.

Advanced Essay:

Literacy can be found everywhere we look. Even though this may be seen as something obvious that anyone would know; why is it that people still have a prejudice against languages, other than the one they speak. I believe that a person’s language doesn’t change the message they are trying to get through, “it doesn’t affect the quality of a person’s idea,” but for many people, their perspective is different. Throughout my life I have experienced this in many forms and instances, whether it be a teacher questioning my knowledge of a subject based off of how well I can annunciate and express my thoughts in English, or my peers judging the level of intelligence I posses based on how well I can communicate my ideas with them. A specific memory that I still vividly remember to this day was an experience in Kindergarten, where I experienced prejudice. It was a time in my life when I was still adapting to the English language and the American culture that varied significantly from my very own.

Kindergarten had gone and passed and I was now stepping into a whole new ballpark... the first grade. My Polish friends and I have been discussing this transition for the whole summer and experiencing it for the past month and a half. First grade wasn’t that bad, we still had fun although we didn’t play with toys anymore, nor did we have nap times like in kindergarten, but the enjoyment of learning was still there for me. I remember one day though when I didn’t feel this same joy, a day when I became very angry that I hadn’t learned English at a younger age like most of my peers. We were working on our phonics notebooks and labeling pictures of things. Everyone in the class was sharing out their answer for one of the pictures when the teacher suddenly called on me.

“Marcin, what is the item in the ninth image?” I looked down at the image and stared blankly. What was it called again? I pondered for a good couple of seconds before my teacher asked,

“Marcin do you not know the answer?” I suddenly turned red in embarrassment and started to think harder. Then it hit me, I opened my mouth and spoke the word,

“Byk.” The entire class stared blankly at me except for my Polish peers who understood what I just said.

“No Marcin, that’s a yak,” my teacher said.

“I said that, that’s what byk means,” I replied.

“Well it’s not correct, let’s try another one,” she said. I didn’t want to start another one though, I got the answer right, it’s just that I didn’t say it in English, but I knew what the meaning was.

Had I really gotten the answer wrong, or just given a different version of the answer? The reason I chose to write about that scene, was because it’s a very vivid memory in my mind. The memory is so fresh in my mind because that’s one of the first times ever in my life that my Polish culture clashed with this new American one. I believe that the idea of a teacher telling me I was unsuccessful in identifying something, just because I didn’t know the word to describe it in this exotically new language, is culturally offensive. I knew what the image was, I could describe it perfectly in my own language but yet the teacher said my description was wrong, which it wasn’t.

Taking a look at the passages we read in class, one stands out to me that really connects with the idea I’m trying to project. "If you want to be American, speak 'American.' If you don't like it, go back to Mexico where you belong," (Anzaldúa, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, 34.) The author brings up this quote after stating that her elementary school teacher would hit her with a ruler on the wrists for speaking Spanish. The teacher would go as far as to do this even when the author was just trying to tell her how to pronounce her name. “If you want to be American, speak American,” really stands out since it shows that people in this country have a close-minded ideology, thinking that for people to belong here, they have to speak the countries language.

What is the message I am trying to deliver with this essay? The message and my overall thesis are that a person’s language doesn’t change the message they are trying to get through, “it doesn’t affect the quality of a person’s ideas.” Across the world we can find many intelligent people with amazing ideas and thoughts, ones that have been, will be, or are, revolutionary to the world we live in today, yet we don’t treat these people’s ideas with the same prejudice just because some of them are thought of or portrayed in a different language. We can’t judge thoughts with the idea in mind that they are worse just because of the way they are conveyed to us, just like we can’t judge someone’s skills or talent based on what they look like.


Works Cited:


Anzaldúa, Gloria. “How to Tame a Wild Tongue.” https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf

Advanced Essay #2: Ashley

Introduction:

My goal for this essay is to have others who read it understand me and how it is that I was able to learn how to speak the same language that they do. I’m extremely proud of my first paragraph because it’s the part that describes how I felt when I was 5 years old. I’m proud that my language barrier was demolished and that this allowed me to connect it to literacy. In the future, I plan to go to lit lab in order to have it better peer reviewed.  

The Language Obstacle

It’s difficult to understand and try to learn a new language when you’re accustomed to something else and were taught it growing up. It’s also difficult when at home your family only knows 1 language, so they only speak to you in that tongue. Since they only speak 1 language, they can’t help you with your homework because they themselves don’t know what the paper says. They’re going at the same pace as you because they have to learn it with you because they have to apply it to their daily lives in order for them to be able to communicate as well. The only people you can rely on are your teachers and any additional outside resources, when all of your other classmates can rely on their family members. Once something is taught in class, your classmates can go home and just ask their parents for help because they’ve already learned this. Meanwhile, you go home to be just as confused as your parents, having to go bother your neighbors for help.

This was was I had to go through when I was in Pre-K, about 12 years ago. I was born in California, and there I attended school where people spoke. Once we came here to Philadelphia, school was very different because everyone spoke English. My parents enrolled me into a Catholic School, and when I started school, I had no clue as to what the teachers were saying. Everything they said to me sounded gibberish, I was getting lost in whatever the teachers assigned for homework because I didn’t understand them they taught it in class.

I remember what a typical day after school looked like for me. At 2:50, the bell would ring, announcing to the students that the school day was over and everyone was allowed to go home. I would walk outside, waiting to see my mom’s round face, smiling at me, taking me by the hand and telling me that we would be going to the library. All of my friends would say,

“I can’t wait to go home and watch tv,”

“I can’t wait to go home and play video games!”

Meanwhile, in my mind I would say, “I can’t wait to go to the library,” in a sarcastic tone. My mom and I would walk down to the library, from about 3 to 6:30, staying there just to ask others there for help. I would feel so shy and kind of embarrassed because I felt stupid for not knowing English. I would pick out graphic novels, just because they mainly consisted of pictures, so I could easily follow along with the words. After we got our help, or sometimes didn’t, when the homework helpers weren’t there, we’d go home and ask our neighbor for help. My mom would go knock on her door and with her broken English ask,

“Can you help my daughter?”

Our neighbor would smile and always tried her best to explain it to me and my mom because my dad was often absent because he was always working long hours. At the end it all paid off because I graduated being the only one that knew how to read. At the end a lot of the parents and teachers came up to me to say that they were really proud of me because they’d known how much I’d struggled. All of my hard work and efforts finally paid off, from this, I was able to teach my younger siblings English and when they came to me for help, I was able to help them because in a way, it was my way to giving back to those who helped me.

I would practice the English I was taught, just so that I could prove that I wasn’t the typical Mexican who knew very little English. There’s always been this expectation that in order for someone to succeed here in the U.S they have to know how to speak English, which I believe was a main reason for why my mom was so hard on me when I was little. “‘I want you to speak English. Pa’ hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu educación si todavía hablas ingles con un ‘accent.’’ my mother would say, mortified that I spoke English like a Mexican.” Gloria Anzaldúa writes about how there’s always been something set on us, that if we speak with an accent, then people will judge us and not want to give us a job.

Sometimes I feel insecure with my English because I feel that people will think that since I’m Mexican, it justifies why I can’t speak it well. There’s this expectation that I have for myself which is that I can’t mess up when speaking English because I don’t want to show that “weakness” that I ever had a struggle of understanding/learning English. As Amy Tan says, “Fortunately, I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disproving assumptions made about me.” I believe that my parents influenced me in a way that I was forced to learn this language, they set me up to succeed, because they knew how hard it was for them as adults.


Works Cited:


Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.

Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." Dreams and Inward Journeys: A Rhetoric and Reader for Writers, edited by Marjorie Ford and Jon Ford, 7th ed., Pearson, 2010, pp. 34-44.


Advanced Essay #2: The Case for Music as a Form of Literacy

Introduction

In this paper, I aimed to present similarities between music and common forms of literacy. I am proud of the points I was able to make. I need to work on being more concise because I struggled with the word limit even though I had already cut out a lot of content.


Advanced Essay

Going into middle school, I knew the very basics of music. I could sight read simple pieces, play scales, and recognize some intervals. Over the next four years, I studied music theory, learning about different aspects that go into a seemingly simple musical sentence. The elements of rhythm and melody and what falls underneath them; endless note values and time signatures, overwhelming scales, modes, intervals, and harmonies. Combining these pieces creates infinite possibilities in only one bar. Combining bars together then creates unique lines, which can be used to construct a piece. What Sherman Alexie said of paragraphs in The Joy of Reading and Writing can be said of musical lines; “A paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose” (Alexie, 12). If a note with a rhythm and a tone is equal to a word, then a bar is a sentence, a line is a paragraph, and a piece is a story. Music theory is the grammar of musicality.

When one thinks of types of literacy, books, articles, languages, and similar subjects usually come to mind. These sorts of literacy provide examples of the different ways literacy is used. I will be looking at a few different pieces that are used for communicative, personal, or both purposes.

Communication can be argued to be the primary purpose of literacy. Letters, texting, and emails provide simple interactions. Larger pieces of literacy, like papers and books, are meant to be read by other people and are therefore types of communication. In a piece of music, there is a transfer of information, often through a story being told. Such a story or scene is brought to life by emotions and atmosphere that the composer creates. Knowing theory helps a composer use the tools to reach for these emotions more effectively. Communication through music also extends to the way it is performed. Just as a word can have different connotations depending on the way it is said, a single note can be played a multitude of ways that are limited only by the instrument itself. Depending on the way a piece is written, certain liberties are up to the performer, bringing forth unique versions of the same piece, as the performer chooses how they want to interpret it.

In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan speaks on the power of language, that it can “evoke emotion, a visual image, a complex, idea, or a simple truth” (Tan, 1). I would say that The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi does all of these things. The Four Seasons is a well-known work, comprised of four concertos, each representing a different season. When listening, one can actually feel each season. In Spring, Vivaldi begins with bouncy and clear melodies played by a lead violin. Summer is fuller, with more of the orchestra and harpsichord filling in and creating an adventurous feeling, which progresses into Autumn, featuring a slightly brighter and more neutral theme. There is no way to describe the sound of Winter other than crisp, like the feeling of stepping on fresh snow. The way Vivaldi and the performers use music brings forth a quite clear narrative of changing nature through each distinct section.

Besides communication, another common use of literacy is personal. Many people choose to keep journals or diaries to record their thoughts and emotions. Some use creative forms of writing, like poetry, to express their feelings, or get something off of their chest. Listening to music can have the same effect. Some people listen to music to fall asleep or relax. Some use it to get fired up for a workout. Some depend on music that they can relate to. When I was in middle school, I spent a lot of time listening to the alternative band Twenty One Pilots. Their music largely focuses on living with illnesses like anxiety and depression, and I was drawn to them because of this. I remember spending nights shut in my room in the dark, listening exclusively to TOP on repeat. Although it seems crazy and cliche, their music made me feel safe at a time in my life when very little did. I depended on their songs for comfort and something to connect with when I was too timid to talk to anyone about my problems.

Music is a versatile form of literacy that everyone uses in various ways to accompany various aspects of life. When considering concept albums like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, that are chock full of social commentary, masterpieces like Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, that showcase musical creativity and talent, or historical songs like Hirsh Glik’s Zog Nit Keynmol, (inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising), that document suffering and pain, it is easy to see the many forms music can take and the functions it can have. These functions differ more than they overlap with those of The Four Seasons or the songs of Twenty One Pilots, and thus it becomes apparent that music is one of the most multifaceted and important literacies we know.


Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman, “Superman and Me: The Joy of Reading and Writing.”

Tan, Amy, “Mother Tongue”


Advanced Essay #2: Silence

Introduction


This essay is about sensitivity in society today and the silencing of literacy today. People are too scared to speak their opinion because people keep telling them its offensive and through this essay I had explained the ideas which surround the silencing of people. This had been the goal, to portray this idea to the world. One thing I am proud of is the analysis on the quote and I think it had been used well and supported my argument clearly. Improvements for my essay in the future, I would like to have a better written, stronger scene. I think that it is the section which needs the most work.


Advanced Essay

As a child, I had grown up in a majority white neighborhood and went to a majority white elementary school. Then I had changed schools in middle school and suddenly, half of my new class had been African American. This was a new experience for me and I didn’t really know what to do. I could tell they had been different from me in appearance but I still didn’t know if they had been different from me in any other way. I was still innocent at the time and more curious than I should have been.

   We had been watching a movie in class and there had been a short scene where this little boy a been pretending to be this gangster with his friend and I didn’t know why they would want to act like that. After the movie, I had raised my hand and asked my teacher, “Why are those kids acting like thugs cause I had thought that thugs weren’t supposed to be good people?”

   The response that my teacher gave had been some kind of nonsense about kids imagination which I as a kid bought but the key thing that I remember from that day is this kid from across the classroom calling out, “They were trying to act black.” To this day I don’t know who it was but what I do know is what my teacher did in response to it was not the right thing.

   “Be quiet, and don’t say something like that ever again,” with a stern and serious look on his face. I was scared. I thought it had simply been an attempted joke but according to my teacher is was like forbidden language. Today I understand the comment had been racist but when I was a child, I didn’t get the explanation I needed.

All throughout middle school I remembered living is worry that I might say something about black people that may offend them. It was hard because I didn’t understand what was right and what was wrong so my choice was just to stay silent. Not a single word had come out of my mouth whenever anything about black people had come up.

If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it. 

Every student hears this in school but what defines something as not nice. Something you say to one kid may mean something else to another kid. The only things this statement does is silence students and instill fear into them that language isn’t free to speak and thought is not free to think. This idea poisoned me and still poisons the lives of students all over the US.

In the story How to Tame a Wild Tongue, they had been talking about how you cannot adopt an accent into a language but instead, you must get rid of it all together and the author makes the claim, “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,”(Anzaldúa). When people are offended by a specific phrase, they aim to suppress it or ban it all together. As more and more thing become considered “offensive” by society, we will have a world full of mute men and women who dare not to say a word. When relating this quote to this theme, it states we cannot control the use of offensive language, we must discard it and language cannot be discarded. Every word has to mean, and to every person, that meaning is different. As a society, we should understand that that words spoken should not be taken in our own perspective but in the speaker's perspective.

The easy choice is to be silent, the harder decision is to speak.

It does not take a lot of effort to sit in a classroom quietly all day and then at the end of the day just leave and go home. It takes courage and strength to speak about what your opinions and what you believe it. Instead of focusing how some words offend you, you should focus on the message they are trying to get across. Show compassion and empathy for them and put yourself in their shoes. It is not easy to raise your hand and confidently speak to the class. Any teacher would prefer to hear people’s unique perspectives rather than nothing at all.

The world is slowly becoming silenced and slowing our growth as a society. People’s sensitivity is driving this silence which is putting our advancement as a society to a stalemate. People should speak their opinion, every opinion should be heard no matter the topic, and those opinions should be understood rather than silenced. This is the only way we will progress as a society.


Works Cited


Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.


Advanced Essay #2-Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover

Introduction

The goal of my essay is to explain how one’s identity is a literacy and how stereotypes based on predictions affect how one views their own identity as well as other people's identity. The essay goes more into depth about sexuality specifically.  The part of the essay that I am most proud of is the third paragraph down. I could improve on allowing my ideas to flow better.


Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover

My hands were swinging by my side, the air was cold and there was snow on the ground. The street was loud, booming with crowds of people. I thought that maybe I had heard it wrong. My mind raced with the possibilities of what he could have said, hoping he said something different, praying, as I heard the words run through my brain. The words he spoke tainted the image that I had of him, more than I could have ever imagined.

I was happy not knowing the gleeful ignorance of his misunderstanding when he exclaimed the words “I would not have sex with a bisexual person because of sexually transmitted diseases.” My stunned response led to more rude comments that I would have never expected, unveiling ridiculous stereotypes of a bisexual person, statements such as bi people are whores, and questioning why bisexual people can not commit, or why they cannot choose between heterosexuality and homosexuality.  This is normal for me; my friends and people around me making homophobic, or just generally offensive, jokes at my expense and expecting me to laugh as if my feelings do not matter. It was a few years ago, but the voice still stings in my head, the words, while not important to him, changed the way that I spoke my language.  

The stereotypes that are ingrained in our society allow people to judge a book by its cover, determining one’s value by looking at the outside cover without reading the inside.  People give these stereotypes no second thought, living and breathing based on the judgements that they make.   There is nothing wrong with the judgements, but people can go above and beyond those two dimensional images. It is when you force any one person into the stereotypes where the problem comes up. Forcing people into set images separates them from their identity.

Each person's identity is a language that each person speaks, but it's more than the actual words, it is also made up of the actions, the ideas, and the visual representations of the person. The combination of these aspects is what makes up a person's individual language.

The following quote by James Baldwin in his work, If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? reinforces the idea that people’s language is what makes up their identity and creates the image that people see.  “It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identify: It reveals the private identity, and connects one with, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.”  The way people communicate and interact  are tainted by the outside world, the way people look at them and the way you look at yourself are shaped by the the words and views of other people. They can not speak their language because people do not understand it.  

Sexualty is not on a lever where you can switch it from straight to gay, there is a sliding bar of sexualities. Each person fits somewhere on the scale. The people who do not see and understand this look at the world as a black and white image, the vivid color of each person's identity is drained from their view.  It is no different than the different languages people speak. Some people speak English, others speak Spanish and people are judged by how they speak by different groups.

Some people believe that repeated slurs can change a person's perspective of themselves. This can be seen in Gloria Anzaldua’s work, How to Tame a Wild Tongue in the quote,  “Repeated attacks on our native tongue diminish our sense of self.”  It is acceptable to speak a commonly known language that people can learn and understand, but as soon as it's not easy for the majority of people to understand, it is deemed wrong. People may correct those mistakes and attach negative ideas to that correction. Being prejudged and berated erodes a person’s identity of themselves, it creates a society where people are ashamed to speak a language that is not seen as normal. That feeling of the lack of normality leads to the more negative effects, creating a never ending cycle.

Work Cited


James Baldwin,nytimes,New York Times,July 29, 1979,http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html,

Accessed Dember 8. 2017

Gloria Anzaldua,everettsd,Borderlands = La Frontera.,1987,https://www.everettsd.org/cms/lib07/WA01920133/Centricity/Domain/965/Anzaldua-Wild-Tongue.pdf,Accessed December 8. 2017

Advanced Essay #2: Literacy of Violence

Most 4th of Julys I spent with my dad’s side of the family in Atlanta. I loved how the lights painted the sky bright reds and whites. It took me a while to care about the smoke that came after, to wonder how it choked thousands of Eastern Bluebirds each summer. The few times I witnessed the sky light up on America’s independence day with my mom were quite different. First was the house. When I was little I had imagined our 19th century home was built by a spy. Most walls had large windows overlooking the neighborhood and the bricks allotted the conversations of passerbys to seep through. Usually this front row seat to the average west Philadelphian was entertaining, but on nights like the fourth of July my house felt more like a bomb shelter. The painted sky to Julee was more a reminder of blood than patriotism or maybe they were one in the same.  I would sit next to her and play the wawa welcome america concerts loud but the explosions of light in the sky were always louder.

“Zoey turn the volume up!”.

“Yes mom.” I raised it up a little.Another explosion rang the house. My mother held onto my hand. My wartorn mother was alway caught in a state of limbo with the dead bodies she had to step over on her way to school tugging at her waist while squeezing my innocent American hands.  Shaking her head she directed “again”. I turned it up. The sky lit up before us through the windows and my mother shut the blinds. We were in for a long night. In America there seems to be a widespread acceptance for blind patriotism. There is a lot of pride taken for the scriptures soaked in freedoms and rights. There is little conversation however surrounding the cost of these freedoms and who’s paying it.

Millennials born and raised in America have never really experienced war. They unlike many around the world their age have not seen it outside of images, screens, and textbooks. They may know people who have, after all this is a country priding itself on its melting pot of diversity. However this does not change the overwhelming culture surrounding how we understand violence, how we talk about it, how we react to it. From the words given to us by news reporters, historians, entertainment, and in classrooms we are taught to read violence and more specifically war in a very distanced and desensitized way. This I argue is quite intentional. When Americans distance themselves from the violence displayed on the news they no longer have to evaluate their country’s role in it. Making patriotism appear as a no brainer and oversimplifying its’ cost.

But I was raised by a war refugee. I wasn’t allowed to watch anything making light of events mirroring the source of my mom’s ptsd. “These children are much more outward looking. They see books less as mirrors and more as maps” (the apartheid of children’s literature(christopher myers). In other words the information children acquire from books and other mediums are maps defining their relationships to the world and others. When it comes to violence they are in deed flawed in their oversimplified approach. We recount the events of 9/11 and our victorious assassination of Osama Bin Laden. Yet we seldom discuss the countless villages bombed regularly overseas to achieve our victories. The few times history classes witness gore in war is in a glorious light.

Not only are children being shown the wrong approach to violence but those willing to create texts with broader perspectives are not given the platform to sell their products. “The MArket, I am told, just doesn't demand this kind of book,...has asked that we have only text on the book cover because white kids won't buy a book with a black kid on the cover -or so the market says” (the apartheid of children’s literature). Is there a market then for games and shows and books that create empathy? In history classes we discuss the 60s and racism as if they occurred centuries ago. Teachers gloss over the brutality with sugar coated versions of peaceful protests. This quote is also showing how people are being raised to not just be ignorant of the depth of the injustices this country is responsible for but that they also are being taught to reject any narrative opposing the former . THe quote refer specifically to the lack of literature accurately describing the black experience in America. If white  people will not read about their neighbors then they surely are not equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and build empathy and agency for those a sea apart from us. This quote also comments on profit. This country time and time again chooses profit over education. Games like call of duty and Halo are mass produced and actively desensitize children of the pain in war. The focus is on profit not concerned at all with the affects the product has on the children.  It seems there has yet been a time when the focus was about how educated people are, about how this is impacting the country’s overall sentiment or lack thereof towards other countries. There is a barrier being created it seems, preventing americans from caring about the impact of the myriad of US bullets piercing through foreign bodies every day.

There is a very tangible difference in the literacy of violence in America than in other countries. Privilege becomes clear in the necessity of the literacy. This literacy in America gets much more complicated when you zero in on each neighborhood. For those who live in neighborhoods where the illegal acts in call of duty are everyday occurrences just beyond their front porch the literacy of violence is a necessity. In Sanyika Shakur’s Monster he describes the violence between the south central LA gangs as war because for those who dealt with those affected by this violence every day their livelihood depended on seeing it as war. “Language, incontestably, reveals the speaker. Language, also far more dubiously, is meant to define the other--and, in this case, the other is refusing to be defined by a language that has never been able to recognize him”(James Baldwin).This language reveals our focus as said previously on demonizing and desensitizing. We have the privilege of rarely being on the receiving end of war in terms of physical danger and we often take this for granted. We have also distanced ourselves from staying aware of the impact of our presence in other countries. This and our entertainment has helped desensitize us from war. My mother is fluent and well practiced in her literacy of violence. She can interpret how far away a plane is to determine whether or not she needs to seek refuge. This language “comes to existence by means of brutal necessity” as said by James Baldwin. There was a necessity in Liberia in the 80s to speak the language of violence in this way. There on the other hand in America seems to be a necessity for speaking about violence in the way that we do. In order to maintain support for the egregious act of violence inflicted on “enemies” we must begin with how we describe and discuss the issue. It must continue to be supported even in the aftermath through an interpretation of violence that is understanding of the US and demonizes the victim.

After years of numbing people of the devastation that is war, the language surrounding it changes.  Millennials in America do not understand war the way their parents or grandparents understand it. They most certainly do not understand it as other countries who see it every day understand. We are taught to be literate in violence in a way that strips it of the value in its impact. We are taught to react to the bloodshed as if it were as fake as the games imitating it. We have comfortable to the point where we gain entertainment from it. This literacy perpetuates the oppressive machine that is America. Our patriotism and consumerism has blinded us and we must stop willfully accepting this perspective.

Works Cited

Christopher Myers, The Apartheid of Children’s Literature

James Baldwin, If Black Isn't English then Tell Me What Is

Sanyika Shakur, Monster



Advanced Essay #2: The Freedom of Speech

Introduction: I feel as though the goal of this paper was to address the different ways a person can use or violate the freedom of speech. I am proud of the research I conducted, but feel as though the paper in general could flow better, and I could include more scenes.

On September 25, 1789, Americans were given something that some take for granted and others do not use to its fullest potential. Yes, I am talking about the freedom of speech/expression. The law that allows us to partake in symbolic expression, give money to campaigns involving politics, gives us the right not to say anything, etc. The law that is not a safe haven for any type of inciteful speech that does not pass the Brandenburg test, a test spawning from the arrest of a KKK leader who made a speech that advised violence. What comes from the freedom of speech/expression and how do people find loopholes? Protests, activism, and the right for newspapers and such to criticize the government are all proper uses of this section of the first amendment. Even though people use words that the freedom of speech protects, some are highly offensive and can cause outrage, which can ironically result in the above proper uses of the freedom of speech/expression ( i.e. protests because of ignorant statements from well known people). In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldúa discusses an action that would be against the freedom of speech when she states, “Attacks on one’s form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the first amendment” (34). When analyzing different ways to look at freedom of speech I stumbled upon how freedom can affective the user in negative ways. The National Review examines how verbal abuse can affect the one who uses it, claiming, “Racist hate speech has been linked to cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and requires complex coping strategies. Exposure to racial slurs also diminishes academic performance. Women subjected to sexualized speech may develop a phenomenon of ‘self-objectification,’ which is associated with eating disorders”. This, as cheesy as it sounds, shows that what you say won’t just hurt others, but can also hurt yourself. People are also allowed the luxury of lying or stretching the truth without consequences from the government depending on the situation. It is also true that people can say things that others do not agree with, and this can create a healthy argument. Mike Rose, the author of I Just Want to be Average, gives a realistic scenario of when one could possibly encounter an argument when he comments, “No matter how bad the school, you’re going to encounter notions that don’t fit with the assumptions and beliefs you grew up with”(4). A school is a setting where one can alter, completely change or, solidify their ideas by talking with their peers. A real life example of an attempt at a healthy argument was last April, when I was sitting on my bed, dialing the phone number of one of my black male friends for the first time after I’d seen him at the bus stop on the way home and exchanged contact info with him. I had always been self-conscious about talking on the phone because there were always awkward silences that ensued when I had no interesting conversation starters. However, before we could even get to the inevitable awkward silence, right after I said “Hey, what’s up? I just got home,” , he couldn’t stop himself from claiming, “You talk lik’a white girl.” That completely stopped me in my tracks. “What do you mean?” I fired back. I had talked to him in person before and he’s never said anything remotely close to that. Was there some type of vocabulary that was associated with white people that blacks were presumed not to possess? If so, how could he have picked that up from me simply saying “Hey, what’s up? I just got home,”, or was this a cumulative question out of all the times I’ve talked to him, which was still minimal? Did my voice sound like a white girls’? If so, who cared, and since when was designating types of voices to certain races a thing? Of course, I didn’t overwhelm him with all of those thought provoking questions. I personally felt and still feel that everyone has their own unique voice, including myself. He went on to give a desultory answer, but it made me question where this idea of his came from. Judging someone for the way they talk is not uncommon. However, he must have given a white voice high expectations after experiencing it at least once in his 17 years of life and subsequently lowered the expectations of a black voice, much like the rest of society. Overall, the freedom of speech is a human right that we are lucky to have. Whether people choose to use it or not, demean people or compliment them, lie or be honest, is a reflection of that person.

Works Cited:

“The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.” National Constitution Center – The 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, www.constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i.
“What Does Free Speech Mean?” United States Courts, www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/what-does. Abusing the Limitations of the First Amendment – Columbia Undergraduate Law Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2017. http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/culr/2015/08/09/abusing-the-limitations-of-the-first-amendment/. French, David. “National Review.” Free Speech Violations — Radicals for Censorship Persist | National Review. N.p., 22 June 2017. Web. 10 Dec. 2017. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448886/free-speech-violations-radicals-censorship-persist.

Advanced Essay 2- The Difference In Our Words

Introduction:​

My paper is about the ways in which we speak differently around certain people and why. I hope to shed light on how society has expectations for how we act in public and how we bend those unspoken recommendations around the people with whom we are closest. I am proud of how I believe I gave people an insight to who I am as well as what I believe is expected from me. I wish that I had included examples of how I deviate from societal norms with my friends in addition to just my family.


The Difference In Our Words

I change how I communicate when I interact with different groups of people. In particular, I speak differently. I change what I say, when I say it, and how I say it. This is true for most people, because we learn when it’s important to follow societal norms and when it’s acceptable to push those boundaries.

Cursing is something that most people do only in particular circumstances. While I am the same way, unlike many others I curse around my parents, who are mostly ok with it as long as I do it with a smile on my face so that they know I’m not serious or angry. Many other times, though, I know to hold my tongue and speak properly and with decorum.

Back in September, my Dad and I were at our friend’s house watching the Eagles game. As school had just begun, the group -- mostly made up of forty-something year-old Dads -- was discussing the pleasures of kids being back in school.

The host explained, “It’s nice to have them in bed at a reasonable hour. All summer, they were just banging around the house at all hours of the night.”

My Dad, sarcastically pretending that I wasn’t sitting right next to him, stated, “It’s amazing to have Leo back in school. I believe we had more than enough time to bond this summer.”

My response was already at the tip of my tongue. It would have been so natural, and so satisfying, to have released the words, “Fuck off.” It wouldn’t have been anywhere near the first time that I had said it, and I don’t believe that’s a bad thing. As Robert Klein explains, “I’m not against profanity. It’s an important part of the language when used properly.” Cursing is not just a way to express anger towards someone, but a way to strengthen a bond between people and to add humor. While I would have been comfortable saying these words to him with a smile if it were just the two of us, I restrained myself due to our present company. Some people might not have understood my sarcasm and would have taken it as me not respecting my Dad. Society creates expectations about how we are to act, and while we all strive to be our authentic selves, we also have to learn about the importance of operating inside society’s norms and therefore when and to what extent we should express ourselves in different ways sometimes.

Jokes are one of my favorite ways to express myself, but I have to be careful about what I say depending on to whom I’m talking. There is a fine line between what is funny and what is considered offensive. Many times it is hard to know where that line is, because it is different for each person based on how well we know each other.

For the last five years I have only rarely called my sister by her name Rebecca. Instead, I call her Tubby Bear Junior or some variation of it such as TBJ, Tubs, or Junior. Now while the Bear and Junior parts of her nickname are acceptable for all audiences, Tubby is a name that refers to someone who is overweight, which in a nickname would normally be thought of as derogatory. In this case, though, due to my closeness with my sister and our common understanding that not only is she not fat but in fact is fit and athletic, the nickname is just an ironic joke. It reflects how close we are to each other.

This is the type of joke that you can only make to someone with whom you are very close. I would never call any of my friends by a nickname that referred to them as overweight or anything related to body image, which can be such a sensitive topic. But with my sister it is ok because she is in on the joke and interprets it as the affectionate nickname that it is.

Just like many other people, I conform to society’s norms most of the time. The only times that I feel comfortable stepping outside what is considered typical is when I’m with people that I am very close with and who know my personality. It is not typical for a child to curse in front of his parents or to have a nickname for someone that contains derogatory language, but due to the bond I have with my family and also with my closest friends I am able to push society’s communication norms with that limited group of people. Pushing these norms not only allows me to express myself in the way I sometimes like to, but it also helps create and strengthen the bonds I have with these people.


“Robert Klein Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robert_klein_678411.