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Black Language

Posted by Alhaji Koita in English 2 - Pahomov on
Hmm ... Where do I begin my language has changed for many years I am a dot on the face of the earth, compared to the change in my language throughout the past decades. To the wisdom of our father's father’s to the “ghetto” poetry of being poets and rappers. I am Black Language. Black Language now what is that really is that the evolution of my ancestors who put this country on their back and made it what it is today. The real idea is the disappearance of a beautiful language and all its speakers. My rhythm is an extension of me. I am the legacy that my brothers left. “The way I speak“ain’t”yo damn business.” Because I am the language.

Proper manners and speech are a  certain type of racial bystander to make others think of you better they are just another way society has put us in this deep hole of racism. My slang has changed I don't know anybody that talks like me. I know of many languages such as, Krio, Modern English, Mandingo, Spanish. All originate from their father Latin. Is that so terrible or is it just change that made us, Us.

We are pawns to the beautiful language known as Black Language. Underrated some would say. I thank god. This is life. We make mistakes, hated that's the way of life. This is my language that turns us to the pressure that we under. This is race, and I am a Alien in this line. Ready,set, Go! I'm off light years away on top of my game. I am Black Language.

In my life there have been moments that power is my language and how I can use that to my advantage. In this particular example the individual was a older white man that in my opinion was very racist. In the climax of the scene my language was my sword.

“ You old racist man you really think you can shut me and my people down, I gonna be me you arguing over a damn parking spot? This ain’t gotta be this serious!” This is probably the maddest I have ever been on something so simple like a parking spot. It was like someone was controlling my every word.
In my own right there some moments in life I don’t regret but this is not one of them. Another that was important me was when I was just with my friends talking about the All Star Weekend, and we used different words like “Flames” and Bangin’” These are simple words that mean something was good and we can see that our teachers were looking at us. They probably thought we were talking about sex or some inappropriate activity.But that's the stereotype that is automatically assigned to me because of the way I speak.
I try to ignore but it always seems to get to me. I asked my mom and dad why does the world still have to be Black and White? They replied the normal, “ Haji that’s how life is. You can’t let things get to you.” Then I told them about what happened in school that week.And their answer to this was baffling, But one thing that made me really mad, was when they said maybe you should change how you speak Haji. I thought about that at first I said, But then I thought why should I change myself for the benefit of someone else's selfish reasons. That don't make no damn sense! Who are they to judge me. "Imma be me!" I said.

  Black language is what unites people it's what gave my ancestors hope to be free the white man! We are people. What is the white man you say? White man is Pork. They are the oppressors. They rigamortis by the death we will still shine cause, we are the people. A dying language.

Racism will never die it will only multiply and this the hard truth. My name is Alhaji Sheku Taylor Koita. I got it from my grandfather. He was born in Mali but grew up in the city of Freetown in Sierra Leone. He was a famous taylor there that's how he obtained the middle name taylor. My name is very hard to say. Every new class, every new year. Never can my name be said correctly. The 1st year of the 3rd grade my teacher was taking role, she pronounced my name" lhahgi coyote" as 8 years old you could imagine my anger towards this teacher but I needed to realize that we are all different people and that we have different accents. And these accents make us who we are, for the rest of our lives.

I guess you could say that these accents are another muscle and you can be weak or strong. There are many examples of how Black Language truly exists and its full of unique and beautiful people. But know like this quote I picked from no other than, James Baldwin. He is a famous author, for his many inspiring lines and essays of dialogue. But it was a line in the essay he wrote called, “If black English Isn’t a language then tell me what is”. This actually got me started to writing this essay. But in the text he says, “Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound.”. I thought this was confusing at first, how would they sound different you may ask? Well because like I was saying accents are like muscles and muscles can be many different shapes and sizes and can be strong or weak. But it also goes back to how you use it in your advantage.

All in all, this is a language that has been matured from since it was an infant. Back when my ancestors were being enslaved. Trust me there is no enemy here. In fact without this most ridiculous times in American History I wouldn't be who I am. Hell I wouldn’t be able to write this essay. This is just a twinkle in the fire soon it will be raging flame thrower breaks the street of America. And then we can say,“Who will survive in America?”



Here is A link to my mid-portion to up right battle. This is my Black Language.

Black Language from Haji Koita on Vimeo.

A Struggle With Privilege

Posted by Alex Marothy in English 2 - Pahomov on
“Hello, sir, it’s a pleasure to see you once again.” 

“Oh, the pleasure’s all mine, dear boy. How are your studies?”
“They’re just fantastic, thank you. All A’s, you know.”

“As expected! You read a lot, don’t you?”

“Every day, sir.”



I’ve had this conversation countless times. I was raised, surrounded, and accompanied by the decrepit, aged, and uptight white men and women whose minds were locked in the 1940s. The pure insincerity in the dialogue above was the way I lived my life for many years. With a facade, I followed my parents to neighborhood parties. Parties. A word that concealed the reality of one hundred large, white men stuffing their faces with the delicious pastries their wives slaved over for the majority of the day. I squeezed my way through the victorian-age houses, another term I heard very often, and pretended to know the meaning of. I tried so hard not to be seen, developing techniques of in-and-out pastry missions, but they never worked. 


It was a bitter winter night, and I was sheltered in another victorian age cesspool of boring conversation. I felt a cold, pudgy hand on my shoulder. It squeezed roughly, turning me around to face the bland, dark blue tie of a scratchy grey suit. The suit held an apparently impressive man. He boldly told me he was the “Assistant Coordinating Manager to The General Assignment Contributor of The FFSA (Firefly Financial Service Advisors)” and had the nerve to ask me what I thought about that.


Luckily for me, I had mastered the art of pretending to be interested in someone else’s transparent successes. “That sounds like a big job, sir! You must have a lot on your plate, not to say you can’t handle a load.” Today, I was beyond uninterested. “I’d better let you get back to those pastries.” I walked away as quickly as possible, weaving in between these pure, civilized, undoubtedly drawl citizens. 


A greying housewife stopped me before I could pull open the unnecessarily heavy, maple wood door. “Oh, thank goodness. Won’t you be a dear and fetch me a few more bottles of 1978 Montrachet from the cellar?” 


“No.” I walked out, finally taking a breath of fresh air.


I was just fifteen, and already feeling the heavy effects and the rebellious attitude that came with the year. By this time, I was aware of the warmth in this world, no longer comfortable in the ice chest of privilege. I wanted to experience the relaxed atmospheres of the world made possible by casual language and rhythmic speech. I wanted to hold a conversation rich with expression, as opposed to the boring speech patterns that filled my life with a redundant story of white entitlement.



In James Baldwin’s short essay “If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” he said that “...language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power.” In privileged white speech patterns lies power of society, automatic success, and unearned wealth. Unfortunately, there is no single person in influential political power who speaks in “Black English,” for the history of the language is tarnished in an “equal” world. Yet I was intrigued by the language, by the dialect. As I grew and began to associate my own language with a stifling future I saw before me, a pathway already paved, others fascinated me. I observed true freedom only in dialects different from my own, while my language oppressed itself, suffocating its people in a self-invented stereotype.


“Son, why are you sitting out here all alone?”

“I can’t stand it in there.”

“These are our neighbors, our friends. Be respectful.”

“They’re your neighbors, not mine.”

“You should consider yourself lucky to be born into this culture.”


As I walked home, I thought about what my dad said, and what my language said about me. This world relinquished control to pale skin and expensive suits a long time ago, giving power to a community who would quickly grow accustomed to it, stepping on the feet of those climbing the ladder below them. A culture associated with power gained by trampling the potential of those different from them, never impressed me. No, what impressed me were the countless cultures who rose from nothing, stepping up each rung slowly, yet diligently, striving to be heard in society. The minorities of this earth have accomplished more than the “successful” ever did. There’s a certain pride that follows these successes. Something you can not experience if you enjoy what you have not earned. I wanted to be proud. 


In an essay by Richard Rodriguez, “Hunger of Memory” he spoke of his comfort with the Spanish speech patterns. “Conveyed through those sounds was the pleasing, soothing, consoling reminder of being at home.” I can say with certainty that as I grew, and my ear developed, the words I heard at home became sharper, rougher, another reminder of my humility. Instead of the linguistic comfort described by the minorities I admired, was the tasteless reality I was raised to carry on.


Fifteen was the year I broke the cycle. Growing up in privilege stifled my expression, and conformed me to a majority I would soon distaste. I knew the history of my culture, and I spoke the language associated with it. I hated to think what the sound of my voice triggered in the minds of my peers. It impacted my pride, my sense of belonging, and my view of the reality I knew. It changed me, made me want things out of my reach, and created a distance in my family. I still speak the language, but with reserve, an attempt at the absence of pompous inflection. In a simple alteration of linguistics, a change in attitude, a new culture is spawned within me. I was born privileged in all aspects, and died, born again, humbled. I struggled with privilege, but then rose above, victorious.

Q2 English - BM Movie from Alex Marothy on Vimeo.

Language autobiography

Posted by Estefan Carrillo in English 2 - Block on
Accents are everywhere and everyone has one even if you are born in the country you live in. If you hear an accent that sounds weird to you they probably think the same thing about your accent. My essay is about how my mom was judged on her accent and how people judge people on the way they speak and see them as less. 




Having a mother that is from Mexico and is English is not here first language it can sometimes be tough to understand her. People sometimes treat her as less because she has an accent but when she speaks english it is pretty understandable the only problem is her accent. Sometimes people immediately think that she is an illegal alien and speak to her as if she had never spoken or heard english before when some of them know that she has been here for more than 22 years.


People that are not native speakers from the country are mistreated and seen as less just because they have an accent or don't seem to speak the language the “right way”. Whenever the people that supposedly say they are the native people from here are actually not .They came here as immigrants too and don't have the right to judge someone just because they don't speak english correctly. If they were to go to another country where they don't speak english they would run into being judged too, for not speaking the language correctly or having an accent when you speak it.


Like the other day I was with my mom at a store and she was paying a cashier and the cashier started talking to my mom as if she was a baby because my mom had an accent and it was obvious that she was not born here the USA. My mom reacted because the lady was over reacting by saying that she could not understand her and was acting in a rude way towards her.


After the incident at the store my mom said to me “Esa senora era muy ruda” I answered back “I know she was mama, she was just trying to make you make but you did the right thing by talking to her manager” she said “sometimes people here can be so rude and not know how to treat people the right way, this would never happen en mexico” I said “I know it wouldn't, she did it cause she is not happy and her life is miserable just let it go” she said “i'll let it go but if it happens again I will not accept it”


Another instance was when my mother and I were returning from a trip to mexico we were on the plane and we we were speaking spanish, I guess a guy was in a bad mood so he said to us “ We are going to america so speak english”, My mom and I both thought that he had absolutely no right to say that and we could speak any language we want, There is not a law that says we can't speak our native tongue. Everyone has the right to speak whatever they want and how ever they want, No one can take that away from you.


The connection with what happened was that sometimes people judge people based on the language they speak, And that people sometimes think they have the right to say whatever they want because the feel superior. Just because you speak the language we were going to it does not mean you can treat us as lower and tell us what we can and can't do.

link to my video- https://vimeo.com/57535584 

Just a little different by Alexis McCormick

Posted by Alexis Mc Cormick in English 2 - Pahomov on

     Language can make you who you are. It can help you in some cases and in others, hurt. Sometimes using a different language others may look at you questionably. Language can tell a story about who you are. One language may comes with several different accents. Having an accent makes you even different as a person. You have to understand that even if you or anyone else had a slight accent there’s nothing different about that person, the only thing different is the way they pronounce a word. You can’t judge a person based off their accent, everyone has something they can’t control and their accent is what it is. 

     With that I will tell you my story. I am a girl that comes from south Philadelphia, born and raised. I can say I live in a pretty good neighborhood, which people generally call “dego land”, but if you go up or down a few blocks you will hit places you wouldn’t want to go. My surrounding are mostly asian and black with hints of white here and there. If you closed your eyes and get a white and black person to speak, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, but for some odd reason, im different. I hang out with every race, nothing particular. The questionable wonder from people about my accent is unanswerable. With this some accent judgement comes to play. And the even worse thing is that I get judged by some of my best friends.

      Have you ever been asked that question “where do you come from?” Well I do, all the time. Its all because of the way I speak. Its only a few words I pronounce differently. The worst feeling is when your own family and friends the ask the same question. The way I pronounce some words puts a slightly small toll on my life. I guess just because I grew up with a better education and payed attentions to the speaking test that I was blessed by being able to say words you would hear in the rich south.

     I’m very dedicated to my sports. If someone is playing a sport I’m interested in, then I’ll ask to play. But one day something happened at softball that I wasn’t expecting. That day it felt like it had to be at lease ninety five degrees out, and with the sun beating down on you makes it ten times worse. I needed a drink of water, I was so parched.

“Hey bri, throw me a watuh?”

“Sorry lex, we only have wateeeerrr, you know W-A-T-E-R.

     That day, was a day where I felt less than everyone else. That day at that moment, I was very tempted to quit something I really loved. All because my whole team was laughing at me because I said one word different. I realized that day that my accent could ruin things I really truley loved. 

     After that day I started to realize that I pronounced other word more differently. The first was “watuh”, then it was “bull” instead of “ball”, “gulf” instead of “golf” and “dughter” instead of “daughter”. What I learned through out this time period is that I was different from some others and it felt good. I was happy that I found out that I talk differently from others. Who wants to be just like everyone else? I know not me, because I like being my own person. 

      Something interesting was that some other people that passed through my life also spoke similar to how I pronounce words and others really liked the way I talked. So my little accent helped me meet new people who wanted to consistently engage in conversation just to hear me speak my words just a little differently. I kind of felt special after a while, people introduced me to their friends just because I tend to take away the “R” in water and the “A” in daughter.

     You can’t take something so miner to the head because you’ll never really know who’s going to like you for who you really are. I learned that my little accents helped in situations like when I have to talk to an important elder. When I encounter this situation I speak more properly. So in cases like that I feel like I do have an advantage.

     With that something else came to mind. The worst feeling is when you and your best friend get into a fight, right? Well one day me and my best friend Briana got into a little disagreement about something completely childish. She came at me with “I think im better then everyone and I act to grown for my age”. That right their lead into so much more, but she was referring to how I don’t talk with so much slang like every other child from around my neighborhood does. I told her, its not that I think im better then anyone. Im just a person who was raised with class and It was tough to speak with manors.

     I no longer get upset when people make fun of my little accent that I have, I just tell myself every time that this accent that people torture me with is what makes me different from a lot of other people. My accent makes me who I am and I wouldn’t change my experience with this accent for anything because it showed me a different view on life. This small accent I have helped me in many ways and I believe that it will help me because a very important part in many peoples lives and my very important future. 

     Don’t ever let something so little get you down, remember the people who hurt you with anything are just people who are mad, and if it is your friend, in any case, they aren’t true friends. Be who you are then you’ll realize that the people who come through your life and stayed are the people that will be there forever.  

English benchmark Digital Story from Alexis McCormick on Vimeo.

The War Of The Worlds

Posted by Todd Samuels in English 1 - Dunn on
It Is crafted to show correlation between The War Of the Worlds and the war in the city I live. In the lyrics I connect to the violence in the streets and how I live in this world everyday. I feel the way the main character feels in the story, he’s brave but not afraid he is aware of the danger that he has been faced with the difference in my case I never know who the danger comes from or could come from. In inner-cities People are killed almost everyday which is the point that it is difficult to make it in inner-cities. In the song one line is “A city street where a mom could lose her son at any moment”, which is true. At any point I could be faced with a life or death situation; someone was recently shot on the train a large number of students who live in the west section of Philadelphia, it could happen at any point to anyone. My main reason for writing the song was to show how I can relate to the story. This was most important to me it depicts the life that everyone in Philadelphia is a part of; I think I am best at writing my feelings through rhymes. 


The War of The Worlds is about Martians who come to earth after they have faced major climate change in their own planet so they then came to earth to seek out a new home planet. Astronomers in the story take interest to the rapidly growing subject. Ogilvy (one astronomer in the story) goes to investigate the meteor form which the martians had fallen. He goes off to warn everyone of his findings. Later on there is a large crowd around the pit where the meteor had crashed. The martians are described as being about the same size as humans, with tentacles and big black eyes. The narrotor goes to tell his wife of the danger that they could possibly be faced with. The civilians who stayed around the area were killed by the Martians. As the death toll rises the military becomes involved. As the narrator attempts to gain more insight on the Martians another cylinder lands on earth with Martians in it.


The Martians begin to use heat rays which kill civilians of the surrounding area of London. So the humans in desperation to escape head for the docks which are letting people leave on ferry’s. As the narrator and his wife get away the fifth cylinder lands. Now the narrator comes across of house to take shelter in. Policeman walk from door to door to warn everyone that the Martians are basically unstoppable. After fifteen days of hiding in a coal cellar he comes out and goes to London where he is astonished to see that there are dead bodies everywhere. There was literally a war outside that no one is safe from. He looks around then he hears a strange sound and realizes that the Martians are dying. The earthly bacteria in which the Martians are not accustomed killed the Martians. Life becomes normal again, the narrator returns home.


The way my song and the story connect is in the song I explain how life is like in an inner city and how it is a war in itself. I know kids my own age who have been shot, or even killed. The story is about how no one is safe in the society at one point in which the Martians were there but it is like that everyday in Philadelphia; at any moment it could happen to anyone. One line in particular I said was “this is not opinion ; nor fact versus fiction this is my mission to make it to twenty-five not dead I don’t mean mummified, all they know is Killadelphia because that’s what surrounds us walk in to a dark room they found trust in what surrounds us.” That to me means for young men or teens who are in the street will be lucky to make it to the age of twenty five, but since ‘Killadelphia’ or Philadelphia is all they know they become used to it so they put their trust in their guns.

Los seres Queridos en Mi Vida

Posted by Kevin Horton on
Hola! Bienvienidos a mi video. Disfurta!


Yo
Mi nombre es Kevin. Tengo 15 anos. Mi cupleanos el seis de enero. Mi gusta praticar deportes.


Ella
Se llama Victoria. Soy de nueva jersey.  Familia es muy grande. ella es mi novia

Ellos
Ameer y Nebil es mi muy bien amigos. Son ambos 14 anos. Son ambos el pelo negros. Ameer es bastante bien boxerador.

Ellas
Kristina Y Jennifer son 14 anos. Soy de del sur filadelfia

Nosotros
Brandon es beunos amigos. Son ambos 15 anos. Eran de filadelfia.

¡Gracias por midar mi video!

Video is here

Winter Town by Stephen Emond: A Review

Posted by Stephanie Dyson in English 1 - Dunn on
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​In our culture, we are surrounded with tales of love and happiness, encompassed by the idea that friendship works out for the best and that those six promising words, "and they lived happily ever after" are the only indication that you make now put the book down and have a final swoon.

Winter Town by Stephen Emond may seem completely different; it doesn't have a lovey dovey title, the cover only has one character portrayed, even the synopsis (which is pretty revealing so I couldn't put it in my review) doesn't outrightly suggest a young adult romance novel. Kirkus Reviews said, "Compelling, honest and true—this musing about art and self-discovery, replete with pitch-perfect dialogue, will have wide appeal.”

It might seem different from the rest because, in retrospect, it is. A finely cut, authentic, real gem amongst a sea of plastic rhinestones, Winter Town does not disappoint. 

In Stephen Emond's second novel, the relationship of two childhood peas-in-a-pod, Lucy and Evan, is written as well as the script for any indie-movie. As children, they were virtually inseparable; they went to the same school, lived within walking distance of each other, sat around and illustrated stories via comic strip, and created mythical worlds (Bridge to Terabithia-esque) in spare time that they always seemed to have while they were with each other. Lucy moves out of town as a result of her parents divorce and Evan anxiously awaits her arrival every winter; one year, however, he is met with a 'surprise'. The once clean-cut, semi-nerd, good-girl Lucy has transformed into an eyeliner-wearing, baggier, mysterious Lucy. What could it be that has changed her so drastically? The book follows the two as Evan tries to bring Old Lucy ™ back and as New Lucy ™ makes attempts at gaining Evan's acceptance, and finding herself. 


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​This novel is the perfect blend of romance, drama, and wit that many young adult novels lack. A majority of the books in that section of your local library seem fictional, even whimsical due to their 'too good to be true' nature. Winter Town does not fit this criteria for a few reasons. The first being that it is extremely realistic. Emond illustrates his characters so that they are relatable, one of his strong points with his writing. Evan and Lucy are not Extremes, meaning that Evan isn't overly popular or nerdy and Lucy isn't overly dramatic or depressed. At first it certainly seems this way, but it is not the case. They are both well-rounded individuals, and these are characters that young adult novels seem to lack. Another review I read prior to reading the book mentioned Lucy as being ‘wonderfully infuriating’. It’s a bit like having a crush on someone who makes you chase after them; she takes a little while to warm up to, but quickly becomes a favorite character throughout the book. The concept of opposites attracting wasn’t overdone in this book as Emond took two completely different characters and plotted the story in a way that they perfectly balance out each other.

An extremely strong point in the book is the dual character format in which Emond writes the book. He writes the first 'part' from Evan's perspective, there is a small interlude, and the second part is told from Lucy's perspective. Both sides of the same story are given; you get into both heads. It's perfect. As for Winter Town's weaknesses, I would like to mention that though the synopsis says it's funny, there were very few points in the book that I had a nice hearty laugh. Giggles were strewn throughout the book, certainly, but I wouldn't classify Winter Town as a comedy. The incredible art that Emond weaves throughout the story is also a strength of the novel.




    
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I’m sure not everyone will love Winter Town as I did, but, I suppose if you read my entire review, you can see that I would certainly recommend this book to anyone with a lazy day or two that needs a cute, clever, simple, and touching novel to pick up. Winter Town is certainly a piece that I'd pick up and read again; you should treat yourself and read it at least one time.

My short bibliography

Langauge.

Posted by Ronald Harper in English 2 - Block on
​For my 2nd Quarter benchmark, we had to write an essay about language, the different languages that is used, not only from English to spanish, but accents, slang, you're lingo and more. You're prospective on grammer isn't always the same as the person sitting next to you, it makes the difference between you & that person, but we all find connection in another way to come together.




Where your accent stands, can also depend on where you live, your environment, culture, “Hood”, street, it all trickles down to something as simple as that, it can spread from the east coast to the west coast, to someone in your neighborhood & someone is the neighborhood right next to you, The language that people use in philly, differs from the language for people in Florida, even though both of the states/cites are on the same coast of the united states, It can range from anything.


Society can judge you based on your accent, your lingo, your slang, it can really be determined if you’re accepted into the community you’re in, even clique that the new kid wants to be apart of at school, morley this has to do with fitting in, people can even judge you on your speech, maybe assume you’re smarter than you are, or even dumber than you actually are. Your accent can go back to your ancestors, the way the language can also determine the way of someone’s life, you’re in your comfort zone, talking to a group of people who speaks different, can easily pull you out of the same comfort Zone, “Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.”  - Carl Sandburg, New York times, 13 February 1959


I have a close friend named Dovi, she’s lived in philadelphia her entire life, she’s grown to be quite comfortable with the people she talks too, & even more important, The way she speaks, maybe when you’re so used to speaking some type of way, you start to think that everyone speaks the same way. Well last year her mother told her that they were moving to Florida to start a new life, when you’re moving, language isn’t the first thing that you think about when you’re also thinking about starting a new life, new friends, new atmosphere. She just assumed that since we’re all the same age, we spoke the same, she was in for something more when she moved. She started school in florida, she soon learned that almost everything is different, what people’s hobbies are, people’s opinions, including the language that people used down there, the generation gaps with elderly people, and the slang and lingo, the terms that she bought down there, the kids didn’t accept it, she felt like an outsider, different, but in a bad way, she was always the type to stand out and stay apart from something so regular and what was considered ordinary, but language can be the reason you don’t feel the same way anymore, it felt awkward and even threw her more out of her comfort Zone, she was used to the way people talked in Philadelphia, she loved the way people talked in philadelphia, she went down to florida with the philadelphia language, Philadelphia language, words such as “Young Boul” which means someone who's younger than you, or someone whose Immature, or “Dickeater”, means someone who is in your business, or someone who is annoying, “Bars” which means making fun of someone, or rapping, In florida Bars is “Roast” means talking about someone, “Spitting Game” means in philadelphia that you’re trying to talk to someone, get to know them better, but in florida, to talk to someone in florida, it means “Caked-up”, One more word “Lay” means that you have nice clothes, but in florida, it meant “Dress code” She noticed that slang there was different, She felt like she had to quickly adapt to what kids were saying in her new life, like that was the only way she was going to fit in, like you’re pushed into talking the way that they do, or else no one will understand you, you’ll be locked up in your own world, you couldn’t laugh with anyone, more importantly, you wouldn’t be able to relate to anyone but yourself.



But the same way that language separates people, it can also bring people together, being with someone different from you, you learn more, you find it interesting, it’s not the words that connect you with another person, “Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words”  is a quote from the Islamic poet, jurist, Rumi. What this quote is saying that is isn’t always quite the language, but the person, doesn’t matter what language you’re speaking, what lingo, or slang you’re displaying to others, everyone can connect in some type of way.

Language Autobiography

Posted by RubyJane Anderson in English 2 - Block on

In this unit, we learned a lot about language and power. This unit really helped me reflect on language, and it helped me realize that I judge people based on their language when the truth is that you cannot tell a persons character from the way they look or speak. 



My mother is white. My father is black. I have never really considered myself black. I am black, but I don’t feel black. Yes, black DNA runs through my veins, giving me nappy hair and a wide nose, but I don’t feel black. I was raised in University City, the bourgeois part of West Philly. There were some black people in my neighborhood, and my best friend growing up was black, but she struggled with language in the same ways I did. We were both physically black, but not culturally black. 

I went to a very diverse elementary school. About 70% of the students were black, and about 50% of the students were classified as “economically disadvantaged”. None of this really made a difference to me (or anyone else). We all got along (for the most part) and I had lots of friends, both black and white. It wasn’t until middle school that I really noticed the cultural divide between other black students and myself.

My middle school was not as diverse as my elementary school. Although it was a public school, most students were white and middle class. There were some black students, but they only hung out with each other. I didn’t really notice this until my best friend Ivy said to me “Ruby, why don’t you act black?”. At first, I was very offended. 

“How can someone act black? Is it because I’m smart? Because I speak proper english? You’re a racist”

This isn’t what she meant. I know that now. She was referring to my language. I don’t speak in Ebonics, Black Vernacular, African American English, or anything of the sort. But, probably due to some internalized racism, I associated speaking in Ebonics with being dumb, and (indirectly) I associated being black with being dumb. 

I didn’t realize that I was harboring some serious internalized racism until about 8 months ago. I stumbled across a few social justice bloggers, and one wrote a really long post about code-switching and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). He basically said that AAVE is a first language for most black people, and many have to change the way they speak in professional setting because AAVE is seen as “unprofessional”. This is still a common belief, and it’s really racist. Saying that AAVE is unprofessional or wrong is like saying black people are unprofessional or wrong. AAVE is a dialect of english, just like people from California and New York speak in distinctive tones and have different words. The only difference is that AAVE and the black community is the only dialect that is singled out to the extent that it is. This reflects a greater issue: racism in America. 

Africans were brought to the US by slave traders. They were forced to learn english, and (like most english language learners) developed a distinct accent. Because the Black community was (and still is) so isolated from white america, this accent stayed. AAVE does NOT include slang words, and has rules and pronunciation.

After learning about AAVE, I realized that I judged black people for using it and immediately wrote them off as dumb and not worth my time. Since many black people use AAVE, I made judgements about the entire race and didn’t associate myself with them. I was a racist. Not the kind that you see on TV, burning flags and wearing t-shirts with bright red swastikas, I was the kind of racist you most often find in the US. The kind who scoffed at black teenagers on the bus, and the kind who said things like “Just because I’m not dumb doesn’t mean I’m not black”. I thought that I was a champion for my race, but I was just whitewashed, and because of this I saw myself as superior. This was wrong, and I understand now that AAVE doesn’t make a person dumb, it’s just another way of speaking.

I don’t feel black. I have never experienced black culture. All my life I’ve listened to white music, eaten white food, and spoken in white english. But, I don’t feel white either. My tanned skin and curly hair have always served as a reminder of my otherness. I still don’t know where I stand with my race. When I refer to the black community as a whole, I never know whether to say “them” or “we”. I feel silly saying “they”, but “we” feels strange. I’m not black, but I’m not white. I don’t really know what I am. 

Language Autobiography from Betty Louis on Vimeo.

Art in Every Language

Posted by Chaveliz Nieves in English 2 - Block on

Language Auto from chaveliz on Vimeo.

Language is a form of art. The more  languages you know, the better your art will turn out. I’m a canvas, not full of images but of words. Creating a story everyday and everynight. I wake up to a new story not knowing if I will hear it in English or in Spanish. I am proud to say that I am bilingual. Being bilingual throughout my entire life has been a true blessing. You have a feeling of accomplishment. I know that I can communicate with my family in two languages and also be able to travel from one place to another, without having to worry about understanding other people. But being bilingual had its disadvantages. At one point in my life, I had trouble being bilingual.
When I was in the second grade, my mother decided to transfer me to an all english class because my oldest sister was in Masterman, and she struggles because she wasn’t as good in english like the rest of her classmates were. I was delighted because not only was the class different, but it was also a better opportunity for me to have a better understanding of English. When I entered through the door of the classroom, a teacher greeted me. She said “Hi, I’m Ms. Lombardo, how do you pronounce your name?” I said “Cha.ve.liz” She tried to imitate every single letter the way I said it but it was useless. My name became “shavaliz” to her. It wasn’t as delighted with the pronunciation but well I just went along with it.She then said “ Follow me to your new seat”. I did as she said and I saw my friend Jose. He transferred the week before because his mother thought the same as my mother. English should be  a priority since we are in an english speaking city.

Learning english at an earlier age was going to benefit us when we grow up. Other than Jose,  I didn’t know people who were in that class, and my life shifted completely. There cultures were completely different right of the back because even though a lot of students in that class were hispanic, they did not know spanish as well as I did. I had my desk, my name tag, my books everything. And even though my name didn’t stand out from the rest of my classmates names, my background did. From the way I spoke English and Spanish, things changed completely.

Change is not a bad thing. Its something that we have to adapt to. Change is good.It was really easy to make friends too. When you’re the “new kid” everyone wants to be friends with them. The same day, I became friends with Gennyliz and Andrea. Gennyliz was Puerto Rican like I was and Andrea was African American and white. I went from the new girl to the cool girl. Jose was also there and it was good to have a friend. They were extremely friendly. I keep thinking about the day I met them and it wasn’t hard to adapt. WIth Gennyliz, I spoke both english and spanish to Gennyliz and Jose. But with Andrea it was only English. It was easy to be friends with them but sometimes I couldn’t find the correct words to respond. Sometimes when I spoke english, I responded with a spanish word. Not because I chose to, but because I didn’t know how to respond. Sometimes instead of saying okay, I would say “ o okey”. You were able to tell that english wasn’t my first language. It didn’t make me angry, it just made me want to learn more English.

Sometimes, I came home to hear my family speak in english then spanish. We called it Spanglish. The word itself sounds like spanish and english combined and thats exactly what it is. One of the biggest disadvantages might have have been pronunciation. When I said Beach, it used to sound like something completely different and well there goes a laughter. My family and I always corrected each other when the words came out wrong. it’s not because we wanted to harm each other but to strengthen our vocabulary and pronunciation. English was not our first language. So we had to work harder when we were younger in order to stay in tip top shape. Everything had to be easy for us because we had and still have to be successful.
Being a canvas isn’t always easy. You are once empty with no words. But as soon as you learn your first word, you will be trained to learn more words until your canvas is only full. Especially when you speak more than one language.  Knowing more than one language is a blessing but at the same time, if you don’t keep up with the languages then you will be lost. Creating a story is easy but the hardest part of it all may be deciding which language will be used to develop the story.

I'm Different

Posted by Jeremiah Cunningham in English 2 - Block on
At my school, There’s a lot of inside information that only certain groups or cliques know about. And we talk about these things so much that it starts to become an everyday vocabulary word. Whether if it’s 2 strokes, or greenfield wall everyone will not know what we are talking about. It gets so bad that people start to believe that was our everyday word, or they started to get curious. “Haneef you going to go to art and paint 2 strokes?” “ Jaaz where ya kids at” “Ard you dickeating youngbull” That is our normal everyday conversation between me and my friends. Sometimes its hard to switch from “informal” teenagers, into the “formal professional” teenagers that we are supposed to be. Sometimes its hard to be a teenager in this world. Especially in the city of brotherly love. People nowadays judge you by so many things. I remember being in school and learning how in the 20th century people were judged by the color of their skin. I remember the visuals of the the segregated signs. Now people are so full of themselves, they judge you for the dumbest things. I hate it the most when people make fun of the way people talk. Its not their fault they talk the way they do. I feel as though people should be able to have some type of downs in their life without being criticized. My friend Pierce catched hell everyday because of the way he talks. He has a thing that people call a lisps. It causes him to talk unlike others. Sometimes it’s hard to understand what he is saying. It burns me inside to hear people talk about my friend because I know how it feels to be different. Me personally, when it comes to language, I have two different languages. I have formal english, and informal english. Or as people like to call it, slang. When I’m around my friends, I use my informal english. I curse, use slang terminology, everything. When I’m around my family it a little bit of both. I have to be somewhat formal, and somewhat informal. Everyone has that type of way they communicate with their family. My family is full of kids, young adults, and fresh adults. Meaning that almost everyone in my family except for the seniors or parents, know today’s terms. When I’m around teachers, I try to be as formal as possible. I try so hard that sometimes it sounds like I am trying to be sarcastic. When I am talking to anyway of a formal standard I like to add this as i like to call it “ Educated sophisticated voice”. That helps the person i’m talking to know that i have some type of common sense, i know what i’m talking about, and know how to talk to people. I like to make a first impression on people, and when you are talking to someone, they judge the way you talk. They do this because people don’t like to associate themselves with people that don’t know how to talk to people the proper way. Either that or they are just ignorant and want to save themselves the headache of trying to know your language, or take the time to understand and listen to what you are saying. Today these days are just so full of themselves and think that they are the biggest thing that they forget that there are people out there that have just the same amount of potential that they have but won’t give them the acknowledgement or the time to express the potential. And all this because of the way a person talks. All this because a person can’t pronounce their R’s the right way. All this because a person are not speaking in a formal way that THEY are speaking in. All this because they aren’t talking like them. Everyone is different. Everyone comes in different races, shapes, and sizes. Everyone is unique in their own way. That’s just the way we were born and raised. Even writing this essay gets me a little upset at the world and the people in it. As i sit on the el in the morning and I see how people are criticized because of how they talk. Someone can say “hello” and an ignorant, egotistical human person has the audacity to laugh. What gives you the right? Who the hell are you to give someone a review on there life and how they talk. Especially when you know damn well you have problems on your on. People make me so sick. People want them to be like them but fail to realize that THERE IS ONLY ONE YOU! 

Dig Story from jeremiah cunningham on Vimeo.

North Korea's Dictatorship: Blocked From the World (yatw blog post prt.2)

Posted by Ameer Holmes in English 1 - Dunn on
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As said in North Korea's Dictatorship: Blocked From the World (yatw blog post prt.1)  people weren't allowed to enter or leave North Korea. I talked about the sad truth in the last blog. I talked about how North Korean citizens are trapped and living in seclusion. I have uncovered new information through research and web surfing. 

Since the last post I've discovered that North Korea is allowing tourists. North Korea's tourism is highly controlled and only shows the good parts of North Korea. All they show during the tour is Kim Jong Il's greatness, and how Kim Jong Il is the best at everything. That still can't completely hide the fact that the previous dictator, and  father of the current dictator starved around 23 million North Korean citizens to death because of his forced seclusion of the North Korean people. The great famine that killed 23 million people subsided, however North Korea continues to go in and out of food shortages. People that are serious about human rights target North Korea. These activists and protestors try and do as much as they possibly can to make the lives of North Korean citizens better. Apparently North Korea has something against people using condoms, so one day, human rights activists droped food, misc. aid supplies, and condoms from the sky.
​A Missle from North Korea
s-NORTH-KOREA-DEFENSES-large-2
s-NORTH-KOREA-DEFENSES-large-2
On the 14th of January 2013, North Korea promised to strengthen their defense, suggesting their continuation of nuclear study. New pictures were released on North Korea's nuclear missiles. North Korea released the picture above. South Korea also released some pictures North Korea's missile, but it was the missile's wreckage and not the actual missile.The missile North Korea tried to deploy was estimated to be able to reach America...That's definitely not a good thing. The fact that North Korea is even attempting to make a nuclear missile is horrible. They have starving people, who are completely reliant on their government's ability to produce food, yet they're making nuclear missiles.

North Korean citizens believe that America is the reason why North Koreans can't leave their homes. They think that American soldiers on the border are the reasons they can't unite with their families in South Korea or anywhere else. This is one of the many lies the previous leader Kim Jong Il has told them, and without any form of outside communication they will never know the truth. During the dictatorship of Kim Jong Il, he has risen himself up as a Messiah of some sort. People aren't allowed to praise anything other than him. North Koreans believe everything he says... They have to at least pretend to believe and do every thing he says or they could be sent to concentration camps or shunned by other citizens.

I did a bit of research of my own on this topic. I created a survey to see how much people knew about North Korea. Exactly 28 people responded before the date of 1/20/2013. The survey consisted of questions based on how much people knew about North Korea, and about how they would feel if they were in the same situation. Here are the results. 

North Korea Survey Results 
  • Of the 27 people that took the results 1 was Asian. The majority of the participants were Black and the second major race was Caucasian. One person was Hispanic and three where either mixed, or not one of the available races. 
  • When asked the question "Do you Know that North Koreans aren't allowed to step outside of North Korea?" 36% said yes, 32% said no, and 32% said I no a little bit about it.
  • They were the asked the question "How would you feel if you weren't allowed to leave America?" the majority of the people said something along the lines of feeling trapped or they would feel bad.
  • I also asked "How would you feel if you were trapped in America, often having shortages of food, not being able to buy any food for your family, dying from famine?". I got a mixed amount of responses varying from "I would die" to "I would go crazy and try to leave" to "This is a badly phrased question because the only responses you could get are bad and terrible" 
However this is what North Koreans go through every day.

North Korea: Yang's incredible story of pain and hope!


​This is a story from a north korean who escaped North Korea. This video contains a disturbing story with disturbing images. 
More videos here >> click

Take My survey Here>> click

Bibliography here >> click
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picisto-20130115214358-290065

Language To Me - Brian Birkmire

Posted by Brian Birkmire in English 2 - Block on
For our Quarter 2 benchmark we had to write an autobiography about Language. We had to discuss points in ou life where language was a big deal in our life. In varied from incidents with friends, to simply realizing that language can come from multiple things. My language is in my music, this is my way of getting through to people and it's where MY VOICE is. 

Language to me, is not just a way of communication, but a way of interaction that can bring people together or even do the opposite. Over many years I have noticed differences between languages but also many similarities. Language is incredible, it is the connection creator, we as humans have when we first use it with another. I always think, how did languages come to be? What first language influenced those we have today as well as how did they evolve? Language can be changed infinitely. What’s the most interesting fact about all languages is that each branches off from another and in total all languages came from one used long ago.

You hear a lot about slang words in modern day English. Words such as “jawn” or “naw” , etc. These words are terms with meaning but that are not actually in the English Language. The slang term “jawn” has the same meaning as “thing.” It can be used to identify an object, person, and place. Now I personally have had incidents with slang words and how I have been judged and others I know have been also. My opinion on slang words is that using them can be good but also bad at the same time. When I’m around family and good friends, I usually speak “Proper English.” When I’m around friends that I’ve met in school or so I use slang terms then. Some words such as “naw”, “swerve” , “guap” , etc.


In middle school, I had multiple friends I spent many years with. My two friends, their names, were Rahsul, and the other Dan. Rahsul is African American while Dan is white, and he used to speak in only slang terms. No one ever thought anything about it, until Rahsul one day spoke up and said “You’re not black stop talking like that.” It never occurred to me until that day, but I wondered did you have to be a certain race to speak a certain way? I began thinking about that and asked myself why Rahsul was judging my friend Dan on how he spoke. Just because he is white doesn’t mean he can’t use slang terms.

Another incident, this time where it was me who used the slang term, was when I kept saying “Naw” to my parents questions. It was a Wednesday and I was doing my newspapers and my mom and I were in the car. She kept asking questions about my day at school and if I had any paperwork for her. Each yes or no question she asked I responded with “Naw.” Finally she told me to stop saying it because it isn’t “proper English”. I knew it isn’t proper English, but I’m so use to using slang terms that it has basically become a habit. The abbreviations and slang words I use in my text; Facebook posts, Tweets, and other social networking sites are used so frequently that they are simply just a habit. But if I know when to speak like that, and when not too, why should I be judged for using slang terms?  

Also, I believe language can evolve from the environment around you. If you live in a place where education was not common in family or friends, you may speak in properly, but you can’t help that. Comparing someones “Proper” way of speaking to “improper” ways of speaking is like comparing Salt to Pepper. You need both and you use both no matter who you are. It bothers me when I hear people judge another for how they speak but compare them to another race. “Why do you speak so properly? Like a white person.” Or even the opposite situation. What does it matter if they speak weird, how does that affect you and your speaking? It doesn’t.

No matter what you do, where you go, what you wear, what you like, people will always judge you. The fact that no one can ever do something where they aren’t judged is depressing. The other factor to this though is people claim it’s their own opinion which they clearly have the right to have. So through that factor this gives people the opportunity to judge one another. I personally don’t believe in judging of language. No matter what we all have a language unique to who we are. I don’t believe language should be separated by race either, what is “Black English” to “White English?” Look at the second word in both of those terms and you see; English. English is English, it’s a language, just like Spanish, Latin, Italian, Chinese and thousands of others from all around the world. My question will always be; “Why judge someone if you don’t know them?” What I mean by this is, someone could be going through the roughest times Life has to offer, and they could be one word away from snapping. If you don’t know them and don’t know their background or feelings, why judge them? Don’t judge someone from how they speak, and they won’t judge you.

Judging Accents

Posted by Nadir Meeks in English 2 - Block on
​Introduction
Accents are everywhere and everyone has one whether they like it or not. If you hear an accent that sounds weird to you they probably think the same thing about your accent. People shouldn't be so quick to judge people and their capabilities by the way they talk. My essay talks about how people viewed the way I talked and how accents can be helpful in situations.

When I was young I didn’t realize that there was a difference between a west coast or east coast accent. I never even thought that I had an accent nor did I think that people on the east coast had an accent either. However, after watching a movie about accents I realized that everyone has an accent whether they want to or not. So I want to now why don’t have an accent and how certain accents can be used to gain both advantages and disadvantages in the business and “street” world.  


I was born in San Diego, California and lived there until I was about 6. I had already watched enough movies and met enough people to know that there were other people in the world that talked differently than me. I remember trying to act them out wishing I had one of those accents. When I went to school when I lived out there, there weren’t any other children with accents from what I can remember. It was either that or we all had an accent and I just couldn’t tell. I thought the way we talked was normal and that the people who spoke differently were the funny ones. I remember that even though we were still young we didn’t have a lot of slang like most of the children in Philly had. I don’t know if it had something to do with all our parents or any other outside source, but from what I can remember that is how we talked.


Just a little after I turned 6 my sisters, my mom and I moved to philly. I didn’t start school as soon as I moved here yet so I was still untouched from the types of language and accents other children spoke. The strange thing now that I think about it was that there wasn’t a noticeable difference from the way we talked. There were some slang words that I had never heard of before and some of the kids would tease me by asking if I like this or that. Other than that I don’t remember anyone ever saying that I had an accent, you talk funny or anything like that.


Later in my life people told me that I cursed and said slang words properly. I didn’t know what they meant by that. Did they mean I pronounce every single syllable in the word because to me I thought I was saying the words like everyone else. Still to this day people are saying these things to them it makes seem like I don't have street smarts and that I spend most of my time in school. It doesn't bother me a lot it just differs me from the rest of the people I hang out with. However, still to this day I have yet to have someone tell me that I have an accent.


In the video we watched it said that accents are developed when children are young. I learned most of vocabulary and phonetics while I was in San Diego. Some of it was from my parents who come from different places. My dad being from Chicago and my mom being from Philly. However, after spending 3 years going to school and being with San Diego locals you would think I would have talked differently than my parents, or at least have a mixture of the three, if that is even possible.


Even if I had an accent I wouldn’t know what it would be useful for. In the video we watched about American accents the woman had to change her southern accent because where she lived it made her seem uneducated in the business world. However, on the contrary there was a man with a heavy Boston accent that helped him woo the ladies and intimidate other people that seemed to be a threat. This shows that just by talking people have already judged what type of person you are, how smart you are and what your capabilities are. When people hear and accent they are not used to hearing they immediately label it and the people who have it weird, stupid, tough, smart, etc. With this type of bias behavior we are making it hard or too easy for other people outside of our common accent circle to achieve their goals.


Accents are everywhere and we have them whether we like it or not. You don’t sound the same as someone who lives on the west coast or anywhere else unless you’re born and raised in that area. What you may view as a normal accent or not having an accent may be viewed as something completely different to someone else. We should stop judging people by the way they speak, and let them show who they really.





 

Latino Community

Posted by Jennifer Perez in English 2 - Block on
Short Paragraph:

In this Language Autobiography, explains how language can be different from one and another of being hispanic. Experiencing threw different hispanic race such as, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, and Mexicans notice that we all have different language and ways of using it. The Language Autobiography explains the first experience of growing up, raise into a hispanic neighborhood, noticing the  different spanish accents around different latinos.

Also in the Language Autobiography, it puts together how high school and middle school is not the same as the being with latinos 24/7 to what it is now to be a non-latino school, but to be in every race.


 Resources (Citations):


Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Print. 


https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/viewer? a=v&pid=gmail&attid=0.1&thid=13ba92749708f5a1&mt=application/pdf&url=https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/? ui%3D2%26ik%3Dffd908dd50%26view%3Datt%26th%3D13ba92749708f5a1%26attid%3D0.1%26disp%3Dsafe%26realattid%3Df_hast10zc0%26zw&sig=AHIEtbR8I7s_q8wQss8uMbvga- KyXSXoHg

Language Autobiography (Latino Community):

Fifteen and raised by a mexican family and lived in a latino community near North Philly. Spanish here and spanish there and spanish everywhere. I grew up to be bilingual by around the different hispanic race, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, and Mexicans. In this language autobiography you will find a record of personal, language-learning history of experience of different ways of using language around hispanics.  

Growing up in a latino community, you can learn all sorts of different culture and language. Threw out all the years I had experience around the latino community, I got used to the matter of the way the latinos use their cultures by the traditions, music, and beliefs. Growing up with different types of hispanic race, all different hispanics have there own accent as well and also realizing that every latino has there own way of language. My first experience was in a summer day in the middle of July at my friend house. I was over my friend house, Alex who I known for years now, is to be dominican and puerto rican and his mother was puerto rican. While I am sitting down on the couch relaxing while watching cartoons and not worrying about a thing. All of the sudden I heard Alex and his mother speaking in spanish. The conversation was so loud you can hear it from the living room. I didn’t pay Attention. Each word they spoke, I just couldn’t catch up. At that moment I realize that language comes in different ways.

Before SLA, I went a school where half of the school that was bilingual, english and spanish. In my home room, basically half of the students was puerto rican and african american and including me as the only mexican in the room. I didn’t feel different, I always knew that I would blend inn. Through all my elementary and middle school year, those were the only two race I spent, and never had experience going to school with any other race. Noticing between puerto ricans and african americans, both race would have there own matter in using their language and accent comparing to mine, its a different story. As a group of all latinos in school, we would talk spanish threw the whole entire conversation without anyone having trouble because of course they were born to be bilingual and so do I. "Supporters of bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a great deal by not being taught in their family's language. What they seem not to recognize is that, as a socially disadvantaged child, I considered Spanish to be a private language." (p. 17). Rodriguez explained to consider spanish to be a private language because   there was a deep intimacy with his family, so at odds with the painful feeling of public alienation. His teachers were aware of his problems with English, and his parents would only english in a way to learn english. Rodriguez still agrees that spanish is important and to support bilingual education.

My whole experience had change until I came to Science Leadership Academy for high school. The previous year before my freshman year, I had went to a school with bilingual students of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans, Mexicans and also African Americans. They would all have there own way to speak their language, I may also get confuse on how to blend in and to connect with each other as we go threw a conversation. “It’s not possible for a child – any child– ever to use his family’s language in school.  Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and trivialize the nature of intimate life – a family’s ‘language’ ” (p. 10). Rodriguez explained that Spanish was a language of family closeness and easiness. When they switched to English they lost the family bond. Rodriguez uses this essay to show how he fights through his childhood to understand English. Speaking clear English will help him to fit into society. Comparing the quote of Richard Rodriguez and my experience seems to be similar that everyday I would have to get the hang of english. Till this day I still experience the different language and accents from student at SLA. Learning all types of cultures, traditions, music, and beliefs. The moment I went through the doors at SLA, I knew something was coming. Looking around my surroundings, seeing different faces, race and I notice there wasn’t a latino that I know so at that moment I knew my life would change.

Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely express thoughts, or do the structures in languages without our knowledge or consent the very thoughts we wish to express? Everyone has their own matter in a way to speak language. Its all in the head, that everyone has an opinion, in what way is proper to speak their own language. Experiencing of different language can be mind blowen, with everyone different accents in able to speak.


 

Latino Language from Jenny Perez on Vimeo.

The Invisible Man

Posted by Leo Levy in English 1 - Dunn on
The invisible man is easily written off as just another science fiction novel, an experiment gone wrong and the concomitant catastrophes that occur. However, H.G. Wells’ peculiar little novel has an entirely sui generis nature that lies just bellow the surface. The book was written in the late 19th century, and was serialized in Pearson’s Weekly magazine. In 1933, the book was made into a horror film, which led to a series of sequels and popularized the concept of an invisible man. The film starred Claude Rains in his first american appearance, as Griffin, the invisible man. 

One of the book’s primary idiosyncrasies is that the titular character and protagonist, the invisible man, also serves as the story’s antagonist, and is shrouded in mystery for the majority of the book. Despite the narrative focusing almost entirely on him, little is known or revealed about the mysterious, bandage-clad stranger who arrives in Iping, West Sussex in the dead of night. The story follows this secretive man and hostile interactions with all others during his tenure in the town. Eventually he is shown to be a brilliant research scientist, who sought to create a race of perfect humans by making the first invisible man. In a fit of impatience, the man took the medicine he had created himself, rendering his body entirely invisible, and retreats to the quiet of the English countryside to reverse his condition. 

While these events are not particularly the most relatable, considering my current visibility, I find the concept of the pursuit of invisibility to be a very human one. After all, who hasn’t wanted to disappear before? This, coupled with the charming depictions of quiet life in the English countryside made this a surprisingly easy book to relate to. It is this pairing of the mundane with the extraordinary that makes this book so unique and so much fun to read. 

From start to finish, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. While there were moments when Wells went into minute detail for extended periods of time, he would pick up the pace immediately afterwards. The book was exciting and thought-provoking, without the heaviness of many similar science fiction books. It toyed with the ideas of existentialism and questioned humanity, but it was anything but dark or brooding. 

I can recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a thrill. It is fast paced and slow paced, funny and terrifying. It is a perfect illustration of a psychopath, and you will not regret it.

Language Autobiography 2013: To judge, Or Not To Judge

Posted by Amy Farrell in English 2 - Block on
​In this unit, we learned about language and the effect it has on us in everyday life. I was assigned to write an essay about what I learned from this unit, and how it if relative to my life. Immediately, I thought of the way I see grammar. This paper was a challenge to write, but I pushed through because I knew I wanted people to hear what I had to say. While writing this, I learned that I need to stop thinking so much over the little things. Also, I learned to not be as judgmental. 

To Judge, Or Not To Judge 

Before entering 7th grade, my perspective on grammar and the way people communicated was very indifferent. I often spoke lazily and didn’t notice much difference between what’s considered standard english and what’s considered slang. One very strict teacher implanted the idea in my head that the level of grammar that you use determines your intelligence level. One day, a classmate of mine asked her why she was so aggressive over grammar and writing. She replied with, “Well, how do you want people to view you? Educated or illiterate?” Ever since then, I couldn’t get that idea out of my head.


One of my close friends Jackie always talks in slang. To her, it’s her first language. This worried me because she has to maintain a scholarship at her high school, and if she’s talking in this manner then her grades must be suffering from it. I would always try to correct her grammar, even if we were texting! She would say to me, “Oh Amy, stop worrying!” but I couldn’t help it. One day, she asked me to proofread one of her english essays. “Oh God” I thought, “This will take a while”. But as I was reading, I was shocked. I had been terribly wrong this entire time. Her grammar and spelling was nearly perfect, along with the fluidity of her paper. This took me back a bit, and made me reevaluate my thinking. I felt so narrow minded for having judged her on just her street language. People have many different personalities, and ways of showing who they are. In school they always teach you that there’s a right way to do something, and there’s a wrong way. The way children translate that is ‘if you do it the wrong way, then you’re considered stupid, if you do it the right way, everyone will love you.’ This is enforced majorly in grammar / english classes. So if you use grammar wrong, you’re stupid. If you misspell something, you’re stupid. Many people live their entire lives along these lines, while for some it goes in one ear and out the other.

This mindset that I’m in is starting to affect my relationships with people. When I start talking to a boy, I always analyze how they talk while texting or by things they post on the internet. I think to myself, “Okay, well if they have good grammar then they’re educated and smart. If not, then they aren’t worth my time.” That right there is horrible to think. Who am I to judge who a person is by the way they talk? I’m always fighting an inner battle to remind myself that it’s more about what they have to say, rather than how they say it. My friend Joe recognized this, and since then he’s been using close-to-perfect grammar to impress me. When people use good grammar, I automatically feel much more comfortable talking to them. Needless to say, Joe’s been one of the top people I talk to on a daily basis for a while now.


To this day I catch myself noticing other people’s grammar mistakes and thinking “Wow, do they even know what they’re saying?” without taking into mind that everyone makes mistakes. One of the biggest places that this happens is the internet. When people post things for everyone to see and it’s illiterate, it makes me wonder how they’re doing in school. All these thoughts are extremely judgemental of me to even think of. You could be extremely intelligent in some subjects, but not so smart in others. The realization moment for me was reading the essay, ‘If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?’. That essay opened up my mind to a whole new perspective. One quote that stood out to me was “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 speak comes from their culture, and who they are as a person. They grow up in houses and have history, they aren’t perfect grammatical robots. You don’t need to use standard english to be intelligent. Standard english is what’s commonly seen as ‘correct english’, but in today’s language, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong language. For me or anybody else to say that the way somebody speaks is wrong,  would be wrong of us.


Baldwin, James. "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me What Is." New York Times. (July 29, 1979): <http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-english.html>.

(Vimeo still hasn't allowed me to make an account, I'm sorry for the inconvenience)  


My Video

Tangible Barriers by: Bryanna Jones

Posted by Bryanna Jones in English 2 - Block on


Throughout this marking period we have been studying the value that language holds. We also  read multiple literary text to explore the impacts it has on people. This unit really has allowed me to understand the why language is so important,  but working with this idea in mind really gave me a brand new perspective on life. What you will be reading below is an essay about my younger sisters struggle with language.

Tangible Barriers
 
They laughed. The American kids laughed because her name was something they had never heard before, instead of taking the time out to give her name the attention it deserved. Their lazy tongues fabricated easy insults.

“Yo African! African booty scratcher,” they would cackle.

“Dantlo, Danny, yo burnt skin girl.” They would shout from across the play yard. They would clap their hands, stomp their feet and make monkey noise to also get her attention. Or they would bang on walls or chairs and make calling noises to get her to look their way.

She would try explain to them in her dense accent that her name was “Daniette,” there was a transparent L between the N and the I. No one cared. Not even myself. So I began to call her “Donetta.” It was much easier, it consisted of two simple syllables instead of the hefty duo her original syllables contained. I could tell she didn’t mind at the moment, but soon the name her mother had adorned her with would want to reclaim its space. Soon she signed her homework papers with my Americanized rendition. Donetta. She found it much simpler to conform, because conforming meant fitting in, when you fit in teasing is unachievable.

Her school assigned her an ETA by the 2nd grade to “correct her english accent”. They were tired of taking an extra 3 minutes to decipher what she would say, so they fed their laziness by giving her a speech teacher. Day by day she would come home with a new ways of pronouncing words. And everyday she would lose a little bit more of her culture.

“ Br-yan-na!” She use to break up my name into a small increments to accommodate her accent. Now she would exclaim, “Hi Bryanna!” Before anyone could enjoy her accent’s melody, it was painted over with the infamous Standard English.

Calling back home to her family became much more complicated, because of the language barrier put in her way. “You sound so American, Daniette.” Her older sisters would say.

“You sound like the white people now,” her mother would say in her Liberian accent.

“I know mommy, the teacher said it will help me speak better.” There was a time when she would answer the phone and say “oma.” Her voice would signal a direct reaction from her mother, but now her voice begun to go unrecognized.

“Mommy? Oh that’s different. Them Americans teach you that too?” Her mother would ask.

“Yes.”English began to take the position of her dominant language. And Liberian terms went forgotten.

When we strip a person of their native tongue we are telling them being  a you is not ok, you must conform. If you don’t, you are an outcast and will never be accepted. How are we the land of the free, if the way our citizens speak must be tamed? The 13th amendment says “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Is forcing these people to dispose of their Native Language “punishment?” We are making them “involuntary servants” to this new way of speaking by giving them speech teachers and telling them to go home and speak Standard English .This is involuntarily enslaving their vernacular. We are “punishing” them because their diversity is intolerable. They are not mindful of what they do because they want to be a significant citizen in the land of the free, and if alleviating their native tongues is the only way to acquire this title, they will do just that. Become enslaved by Standard English.  

Has anyone ever stop to think maybe we are the ignorant ones? There are no tangible barriers that separate us from one another, but we constantly create them. After observing closely how we react to each others vernacular, I have concluded that we create these barriers to fill our ignorant spaces. When our voids are filled we can act with superiority, or at least tame the person so they can preserve the little bit of their culture they have left.

“Standard English is not the speech of exile. It is the language of conquest and domination. In the United States it is the mask which hides the loss of so many tongues, all those sounds of diverse native communities we will never hear, the speech of Gullah, Yiddish, and so many unremembered tongues.”  -Bell Hooks  

Society, we always point our fingers at this thing to shift the blame. But we, the American people, are society. We created those ignorant children, we allow this idea of  Standard English to live on through generations. This enslavement must end, we must end it



LANGUAGE from Bryanna Jones on Vimeo.

hooks, bell. Hooks on the Language of Power. New Learning. Web. 11 Jan 2013. <http://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-6-critical-literacies/hooks-on-the-language-of-power/>.

Global Warming Blog Post 2

Posted by David Leonard on
Global warming is a problem. It is putting some animal species in danger. The animals most affected are the ones living in the arctic. It is also making the Earth warmer. The temperature of Earth has risen 1.4 degrees fahrenheit over the past century.
Some animals that are affected are the arctic fox. The arctic fox is one of nine animals threatened by global warming. The polar bear is endangered because of global warming. The polar bear lives in the arctic and with the ice melting there won't be any left.
The ones responsible are humans. Over the past century humans have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The main source is burning fossil fuels for energy. The greenhouse gases trap the energy in the atmosphere which make it warmer.
Co2 remains in the atmosphere for nearly a century. That means Earth will keep getting warmer for the upcoming decades. The warmer it gets, the greater the risk that Earth's climate will severely change.
Among the new research I did was a survey I created which revealed the following answers to this question:

Why is global warming a bad thing?
-One responder said that it was mainly because that it will mess up the ecosystem, cause agriculture to slow down. Also, mess with the world currents of the ocean making it colder in Europe, and it will cause an increase in violent while another person said it is altering the environment completely and changing the ecosystem.

The Arctic Fox Is One Of Nine Animals the IUCN Says Is Threatened By Global Warming. Photo:USFWS

The Arctic Fox Is One Of Nine Animals the IUCN Says Is Threatened By Global Warming. Photo:USFWS
Click here to see my sources.
When I did my survey the main responses were global warming is killing a lot of animals.
Click here to take some surveys
Here are some of the responses to one of my questions in the survey.

Why is global warming a bad thing?
-Mainly because that it will mess up the ecosystem, cause agriculture to slow down. Also, mess with the world currents of the ocean making it colder in Europe, and it will cause an increase in violent . 
-It is altering the environment completely and changing the ecosystem.

Language_Auto

Posted by Naihema Powell in English 2 - Block on
INTRODUCTION:

Every community has there own language, their are certain words that originate in a place and are forgien to others no matter how close the place my be geographically. I feel like you aren't raised to speak a certain language, you grow into it, You speech and term evolve as you grow older, meet new people, and surrond yourself in new places.

ESSAY:

If I were to move to Boston right now, about a year from now I’d catch myself saying things like Pahhk, and Caaahh instead of pronouncing the “AR” and “ARK” of the words. A person’s surrondings, can play an enormous part in the way someone speaks, where they come from, how they live their life and just there everyday surroundings. I find myself altering the way I speak in several different situations. I’m proud of who I am, and where I come from, but I realize that if I use my regular tone of voice, and use some of the words that I’m use to using with my friends and close family, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be judged.
In 8th grade I had to shadow at a wide variety of schools in several different parts of the city, one of the schools I visited was, Spring Side School for girls, located in Chestnut Hill, a very suburban area, the school itself sits upon 62 acres of land. Riding up to the school on the day of my shadow I saw that the homes surrounding the school were beautifully built, each of them had huge yards and at least two cars sitting in the driveway. There were country clubs, and community and rec centers that actually looked clean and safe to be in. When we got there my mom pulled into the congested parking lot, not only did it seem like every student was old enough to drive, but they had their own cars, but they weren’t the typical “starter” cars a lot of high schoolers receive when they first get their license, these were top of the line mercede benz and range rovers sitting in the lot. I already didn’t like my visit, when we got into the school and I actually started my day, I got a better feel for the school. I saw that the school was very diverse when you’re judging from a mile away, but when you’re up close and person you see that every kid was just about the same. Yes, there were African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, and Russian, but the way they spoke was all the same. Each of them tended to drag out there words, a lot of them talked like they were asking a question instead of stating a fact, and just about everysingle one of them used atleast 6 acronyms in their sentences. I remember a conversation I had with my shadow host, Stephanie, she asked how I was enjoying my visit, and of course I couldn’t express to her how uncomfortable I felt, so I lied, smile on my face turning to her and saying,

“I love it, this school is perfect. What made you pick this school over every other one out there?”
“Well, honestly, I.D.E.K [I don’t even know], Liiikkeee, I live in SouthWest so I went to West Philadelphia high school for half of my freshmen year. Then I transferred here, I mean my mom said she was looking for a new school for me to go to but that was, A.F.A.I.K. [as far as I knew]  Then one day my advisor at West was all like, Steph you’re pretty intelli. I think you should totally apply to SSCHA [SpringSide & Chestnut Hill Academy], and at first I was all like HTP[hold the phone], no an all girls school, you’ve obviously LYM [lost your mind]. But then they told me to be opened mind and atleast check the school out, and so I did. I shadowed, loooveeedd it, BTW [by the way] I applied and got here on partial scholarship, and now that i’m here OMG[oh my gosh], I CSTP[Can’t Stand this place] ! L.O.L [Laugh out loud], J/K[Just Kidding]. I love it here, FWIW[For what its worth]”

I remember thinking to myself, how the hell was this girl from Southwest talking like that? I use to go to school in little Charter School in West Philly, my classmates in middle school were generally from the West and SouthWest Philadelphia area. They used terms like, “jawn” and “cuz” and they often cut their words to make them shorter and easier to say in sentences. So, instead of saying ‘might as well’ they might use a term like “mineswell.” The way my shadow host spoke was far from that. She pronounced all of her syllables and she tended to drag out her words instead of shorten them like the kids from the Southwest neighborhood tended to do. It was intriguing to me how someone who came from a part of the city I knew so well, spoke so similarly to a group of people that lived miles away in a completely different part.  Even though I couldn’t really understand all of what she was saying, I just shook my head, nodded and said,

“OMG cool, I love it here too”

Looking back onto that day, I realize that the way she spoke at SpringSide school had nothing to do with where she came from, it had everything to do with where she was currently. After being at SpringSide School for awhile, the way everyone else spoke around her rubbed off on her, she adapted to their speech just like she adapted to her new advisor, or her classmates, or the rules and regulations of the school. Everyone else spoke like that so she had to blend in with her surroundings. She transferred halfway through 9th grade, so not only was she the new kid which is already scary enough, she was also different from the others. I see that a lot here at my own school. Although my school is a pretty diverse place racially, when you’re up close and personal and actually surrounded by all of us, we’re actually the same when it comes to dialect. We all speak the same language,  if I were to go up to someone outside of the SLA, and said something like, “Pause. You’re such a weenie, you better chill and start working on that benchmark before Reddy hits you with fladdaapp.” or if I go to people outside the SLA community and instead of saying “True” when they something that I agree with I say “True Black” people will look at me different like I’m the weird one. A majority of people at this school, know what the fladdaapp is, everyone knows what a benchmark is, everyone knows what it means to be called a weenie, everyone knows the saying “that’s dead.” and everyone knows the meaning behind saying “Trueee Black” instead of plain old “Trueee.”

I feel like no matter how racially diverse a place can get, at the end of the day they all will evolve to using the same dialect. People at my school come from all over, bringing with them, several new customs, and ways of expressing themselves. When we all come together and try to communicate, new dialect is formed, that along with the shared experiences we have from being with each other everyday create a unique language that only people inside our community would understand. Newcomers to these communities must learn to adapt to the language that is already set in place. That’s how Stephanie felt at springside, thats similar to how I felt as a freshmen at SLA and I can assume thats how a person that moves to a different part of town or even a different state feel and I think that just comes naturally.

Language story from Naihema Powell on Vimeo.

POWELL_LANGUAGE

Posted by Naihema Powell in World History - Block on
INTRODUCTION:

Every community has there own language, their are certain words that originate in a place and are forgien to others no matter how close the place my be geographically. I feel like you aren't raised to speak a certain language, you grow into it, You speech and term evolve as you grow older, meet new people, and surrond yourself in new places.

ESSAY:

If I were to move to Boston right now, about a year from now I’d catch myself saying things like Pahhk, and Caaahh instead of pronouncing the “AR” and “ARK” of the words. A person’s surrondings, can play an enormous part in the way someone speaks, where they come from, how they live their life and just there everyday surroundings. I find myself altering the way I speak in several different situations. I’m proud of who I am, and where I come from, but I realize that if I use my regular tone of voice, and use some of the words that I’m use to using with my friends and close family, there is no doubt in my mind that I would be judged.
In 8th grade I had to shadow at a wide variety of schools in several different parts of the city, one of the schools I visited was, Spring Side School for girls, located in Chestnut Hill, a very suburban area, the school itself sits upon 62 acres of land. Riding up to the school on the day of my shadow I saw that the homes surrounding the school were beautifully built, each of them had huge yards and at least two cars sitting in the driveway. There were country clubs, and community and rec centers that actually looked clean and safe to be in. When we got there my mom pulled into the congested parking lot, not only did it seem like every student was old enough to drive, but they had their own cars, but they weren’t the typical “starter” cars a lot of high schoolers receive when they first get their license, these were top of the line mercede benz and range rovers sitting in the lot. I already didn’t like my visit, when we got into the school and I actually started my day, I got a better feel for the school. I saw that the school was very diverse when you’re judging from a mile away, but when you’re up close and person you see that every kid was just about the same. Yes, there were African Americans, Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, and Russian, but the way they spoke was all the same. Each of them tended to drag out there words, a lot of them talked like they were asking a question instead of stating a fact, and just about everysingle one of them used atleast 6 acronyms in their sentences. I remember a conversation I had with my shadow host, Stephanie, she asked how I was enjoying my visit, and of course I couldn’t express to her how uncomfortable I felt, so I lied, smile on my face turning to her and saying,

“I love it, this school is perfect. What made you pick this school over every other one out there?”
“Well, honestly, I.D.E.K [I don’t even know], Liiikkeee, I live in SouthWest so I went to West Philadelphia high school for half of my freshmen year. Then I transferred here, I mean my mom said she was looking for a new school for me to go to but that was, A.F.A.I.K. [as far as I knew]  Then one day my advisor at West was all like, Steph you’re pretty intelli. I think you should totally apply to SSCHA [SpringSide & Chestnut Hill Academy], and at first I was all like HTP[hold the phone], no an all girls school, you’ve obviously LYM [lost your mind]. But then they told me to be opened mind and atleast check the school out, and so I did. I shadowed, loooveeedd it, BTW [by the way] I applied and got here on partial scholarship, and now that i’m here OMG[oh my gosh], I CSTP[Can’t Stand this place] ! L.O.L [Laugh out loud], J/K[Just Kidding]. I love it here, FWIW[For what its worth]”

I remember thinking to myself, how the hell was this girl from Southwest talking like that? I use to go to school in little Charter School in West Philly, my classmates in middle school were generally from the West and SouthWest Philadelphia area. They used terms like, “jawn” and “cuz” and they often cut their words to make them shorter and easier to say in sentences. So, instead of saying ‘might as well’ they might use a term like “mineswell.” The way my shadow host spoke was far from that. She pronounced all of her syllables and she tended to drag out her words instead of shorten them like the kids from the Southwest neighborhood tended to do. It was intriguing to me how someone who came from a part of the city I knew so well, spoke so similarly to a group of people that lived miles away in a completely different part.  Even though I couldn’t really understand all of what she was saying, I just shook my head, nodded and said,

“OMG cool, I love it here too”

Looking back onto that day, I realize that the way she spoke at SpringSide school had nothing to do with where she came from, it had everything to do with where she was currently. After being at SpringSide School for awhile, the way everyone else spoke around her rubbed off on her, she adapted to their speech just like she adapted to her new advisor, or her classmates, or the rules and regulations of the school. Everyone else spoke like that so she had to blend in with her surroundings. She transferred halfway through 9th grade, so not only was she the new kid which is already scary enough, she was also different from the others. I see that a lot here at my own school. Although my school is a pretty diverse place racially, when you’re up close and personal and actually surrounded by all of us, we’re actually the same when it comes to dialect. We all speak the same language,  if I were to go up to someone outside of the SLA, and said something like, “Pause. You’re such a weenie, you better chill and start working on that benchmark before Reddy hits you with fladdaapp.” or if I go to people outside the SLA community and instead of saying “True” when they something that I agree with I say “True Black” people will look at me different like I’m the weird one. A majority of people at this school, know what the fladdaapp is, everyone knows what a benchmark is, everyone knows what it means to be called a weenie, everyone knows the saying “that’s dead.” and everyone knows the meaning behind saying “Trueee Black” instead of plain old “Trueee.”

I feel like no matter how racially diverse a place can get, at the end of the day they all will evolve to using the same dialect. People at my school come from all over, bringing with them, several new customs, and ways of expressing themselves. When we all come together and try to communicate, new dialect is formed, that along with the shared experiences we have from being with each other everyday create a unique language that only people inside our community would understand. Newcomers to these communities must learn to adapt to the language that is already set in place. That’s how Stephanie felt at springside, thats similar to how I felt as a freshmen at SLA and I can assume thats how a person that moves to a different part of town or even a different state feel and I think that just comes naturally.


Language story from Naihema Powell on Vimeo.

Language Autobiography 2013: Look! I Can Speak Without Opening My Mouth!

Posted by Sieanna Williams in English 2 - Block on
​For the Language Autobiography, students were assigned to create both an autobiography essay and a digital story both descriptively describing the writer's personal connection with language. In my essay, I chose to write about non-verbal human communications that we tend to subconsciously ignore. Language, in any form, in an unconscious possession of the human mind.

Look! I Can Speak Without Opening My Mouth!



Language is a system of human communication used by a particular community or culture. With this being said, it is impossible to argue that the only form of communication between humans is verbal. Everything that has been put into existence is a form of language whether believed or not. The hair-do on your head, the jacket on your back, the iphone in your pocket--it’s all speaking a language for you. So with this in mind, what do these specific languages do to people of the native tongue and minds and to the tongues and minds of those “learning” the oppressive language. These languages essentially define what you are. Since “you are what you eat” who’s to say you aren’t what you speak.

“Language like desire disrupts—refuses to be contained within boundaries. It speaks itself against our will, in words and thoughts, that intrude, violate even, the innermost private spaces of mind and body.” These are the first words spilled onto paper by bell hooks in her essay, This Is The Oppressor’s Language / Yet I Need It to Speak to You. When Hooks writes this, she is inferring that language is a self-imposing violation on the human mind and body. One of the most self-imposing languages is body language. Body language is a little more complex when it speaks. It not only speaks to the subconscious mind of the possessing human, but to other humans as well. One day while I was on the train, on my way to school, I sat by a very unwelcoming-looking man. As I took my seat, I noticed my knees turned outward away from the man’s knees (I hadn’t done this on purpose) which were inward. He could have turned his body from mine as I did to him but instead he was telling me that he didn’t mind my presence. I, on the other hand was telling him that I was not entirely comfortable sitting next to him while also telling everyone on the train that I had no relationship to him. I decided to look around at others sitting down. There was a teenage girl and teen boy sitting next to one another across from me. Neither of them spoke to one another, looked at one another and both got off at different stops. However, during the ride I noticed their knees remained close to one anothers. The girl had earphones in, silently bobbing her head to whatever beat she’d been dragged into, while the boy had been burying his face in a book. They’d established to both each other and those on the train that despite them being complete strangers, they were comfortable with one another’s presence.

On another note, it is a fact that our Earth is run by both positive and negative judgments. But who’s doing the judging? Not only were we born into a world of judgement, but into a world where our possessions are the ones that judge us. I remember when my older sister and I were in her livingroom at her old apartment. She’d called me downstairs from my third floor apartment to babysit my nieces while she went to a girls night out. As usual, she came out after putting on her outfit and her not-too-much-not-too-little make-up for my opinion. She’d been wearing a red and white glittered strapless shirt, black tights and tall red heels with successfully put together accessories. I applauded her fashion, which was speaking out to me that she was coordinative-which was essentially true about my sister. What my sister and I hadn’t realized was that it didn’t matter what we thought of the outfit, it’s what the outfit thought of her. The red heels were telling her that she looked taller than her regular 5’6” height. Her black tights were telling her that she had skinny legs (skinny enough to wear them) and attractive thighs. The strapless shirt was scorning my sister about her shoulders, that they would need to be postured the right way all night if she were going to expose them, and the makeup was laughing at her. Both cackling and whispering to my sister subconsciously that it was her beauty enhancer (as if she needed one), and that without it, she’d look too plain. The reason my sister needed my opinion was because her clothes “tampered with her speech” as Maxine Hong Kingston said in her essay Tongue-Tied. My sister was forced to learn the symbolic language of her own possessions, causing a subconscious oppression-She lacked the liberty to self-judge and she didn’t even know it. Could it be that we do not judge based off what we see, but are judged by the things we see-and it mirrors our mental perceptions. Could it be that we do not own our thoughts? Our own opinions?  

So if all humans were to realize that both their possessions and their own bodies have always been and always will betray them, how would they react? What would change? John Berger once said, “One can say of language that it is potentially the only human home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man.” It is true that language is the essential human home. Communication is the key to survival. Everything that surrounds us is language and any form of language is a form of communication-making it impossible to escape it, nor can you confront it. No matter how the human mind reacts to this realization and try to control it, they’ll find themselves in a loop of no return. How does it feel to realize that we, the humans, have been the walking puppets all along?


Tick Tock, Listen to his language.


(My Digital Story)

Language Autobiography 2013: Look! I Can Speak Without Opening My Mouth!

Posted by Sieanna Williams on
​For the Language Autobiography, students were assigned to create both an autobiography essay and a digital story both descriptively describing the writer's personal connection with language. In my essay, I chose to write about non-verbal human communications that we tend to subconsciously ignore. Language, in any form, in an unconscious possession of the human mind.

Look! I Can Speak Without Opening My Mouth!



Language is a system of human communication used by a particular community or culture. With this being said, it is impossible to argue that the only form of communication between humans is verbal. Everything that has been put into existence is a form of language whether believed or not. The hair-do on your head, the jacket on your back, the iphone in your pocket--it’s all speaking a language for you. So with this in mind, what do these specific languages do to people of the native tongue and minds and to the tongues and minds of those “learning” the oppressive language. These languages essentially define what you are. Since “you are what you eat” who’s to say you aren’t what you speak.

“Language like desire disrupts—refuses to be contained within boundaries. It speaks itself against our will, in words and thoughts, that intrude, violate even, the innermost private spaces of mind and body.” These are the first words spilled onto paper by bell hooks in her essay, This Is The Oppressor’s Language / Yet I Need It to Speak to You. When Hooks writes this, she is inferring that language is a self-imposing violation on the human mind and body. One of the most self-imposing languages is body language. Body language is a little more complex when it speaks. It not only speaks to the subconscious mind of the possessing human, but to other humans as well. One day while I was on the train, on my way to school, I sat by a very unwelcoming-looking man. As I took my seat, I noticed my knees turned outward away from the man’s knees (I hadn’t done this on purpose) which were inward. He could have turned his body from mine as I did to him but instead he was telling me that he didn’t mind my presence. I, on the other hand was telling him that I was not entirely comfortable sitting next to him while also telling everyone on the train that I had no relationship to him. I decided to look around at others sitting down. There was a teenage girl and teen boy sitting next to one another across from me. Neither of them spoke to one another, looked at one another and both got off at different stops. However, during the ride I noticed their knees remained close to one anothers. The girl had earphones in, silently bobbing her head to whatever beat she’d been dragged into, while the boy had been burying his face in a book. They’d established to both each other and those on the train that despite them being complete strangers, they were comfortable with one another’s presence.

On another note, it is a fact that our Earth is run by both positive and negative judgments. But who’s doing the judging? Not only were we born into a world of judgement, but into a world where our possessions are the ones that judge us. I remember when my older sister and I were in her livingroom at her old apartment. She’d called me downstairs from my third floor apartment to babysit my nieces while she went to a girls night out. As usual, she came out after putting on her outfit and her not-too-much-not-too-little make-up for my opinion. She’d been wearing a red and white glittered strapless shirt, black tights and tall red heels with successfully put together accessories. I applauded her fashion, which was speaking out to me that she was coordinative-which was essentially true about my sister. What my sister and I hadn’t realized was that it didn’t matter what we thought of the outfit, it’s what the outfit thought of her. The red heels were telling her that she looked taller than her regular 5’6” height. Her black tights were telling her that she had skinny legs (skinny enough to wear them) and attractive thighs. The strapless shirt was scorning my sister about her shoulders, that they would need to be postured the right way all night if she were going to expose them, and the makeup was laughing at her. Both cackling and whispering to my sister subconsciously that it was her beauty enhancer (as if she needed one), and that without it, she’d look too plain. The reason my sister needed my opinion was because her clothes “tampered with her speech” as Maxine Hong Kingston said in her essay Tongue-Tied. My sister was forced to learn the symbolic language of her own possessions, causing a subconscious oppression-She lacked the liberty to self-judge and she didn’t even know it. Could it be that we do not judge based off what we see, but are judged by the things we see-and it mirrors our mental perceptions. Could it be that we do not own our thoughts? Our own opinions?  

So if all humans were to realize that both their possessions and their own bodies have always been and always will betray them, how would they react? What would change? John Berger once said, “One can say of language that it is potentially the only human home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man.” It is true that language is the essential human home. Communication is the key to survival. Everything that surrounds us is language and any form of language is a form of communication-making it impossible to escape it, nor can you confront it. No matter how the human mind reacts to this realization and try to control it, they’ll find themselves in a loop of no return. How does it feel to realize that we, the humans, have been the walking puppets all along?


Tick Tock, Listen to his language.


(My Digital Story)

Tick Tock. from sieanna williams on Vimeo.