Language and Literature Blogpost #9

FOA Reflection:

My main goal for my further oral activity was to analyze 3 Head and Shoulders advertisements from 3 different cultures, and how elaborate on how they are embellished and portrayed depending on each of the advertisements distinct cultural backgrounds, and by accomplishing this, I was able to achieve two major learning outcomes, the first being to answer the unit question “What does advertising reveal to us about our society? “Also, to be able to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the unit by conveying the way mass media use language and image to inform, persuade, or entertain based on the advertisements cultural contexts.

I felt content with the way I presented and believe that I was successful in channeling my overall message to the audience, firstly because I briefly introduced my topic as well as my aims and learning outcomes that I strived to achieve throughout conducting my further oral activity, and secondly I displayed and concisely analyzed three Head and Shoulders advertisements from three different countries that are situated in different continents (to minimize common correlations and traditions between the advertisements) in order to delineate the chief aims of these advertisements and how analyzing such advertisements can assist us in answering the question “What does advertising reveal to us about our society?”

On the other hand, there was some room for improvement. For example, while presenting my further oral activity I was slightly nervous which eventually resulted in unclear voice projection towards the class, although I fully memorized my script I kept referring back to my script to make sure of what I was saying; therefore I needed to allocate more time to memorize my script in future FOAs , and finally the time requirements were 8-11 minutes long, but unfortunately I only made it to 7 minutes and 34 seconds primarily due to the fact that I was nervous and was rushing my further oral activity, I know this because when I timed it at home the day before the presentations, I had achieved a time of 9 minutes and 11 seconds.

As for how well I achieved on my further oral activity accordingly to the rubric, I believe I did well on criterion A and B, due to the reason that I conveyed exceptional knowledge and understanding of the advertisements, and also showed a positive and clear awareness of how language is used in the advertisements, For criterion C I believe that I will achieve a moderately good grade such as a 3/5, last but not least the ideas and the advertisements were organized and comprehendible; therefore I hope to achieve a 3-4/5 in criterion D.

Language and Literature of Blog #8

Why gaming is good for you!

Most of the controversial issues that the media is feeding us about video games is COMPLETELY untrue, kids can pick up bad language through online video games, games can confuse a person between reality and fantasy, and games lead to bad grades are all Falsified statements that can fully be dis-proven by scientific reasoning and experiments.

Kids can pick up bad language through online gaming may seem like a reasonable claim; however the child playing video games will eventually grow older to learn these words and will learn whether or not he wants to use them, there is no difference between the kid accumulating these words at a young age or at an old one. Eventually that kid will come up against these words in the future. Also, in the end it is the parents' jobs to take care of the child and send him the right way and away from using these words so if the kid was rightfully brought up there should be no problem with the kid using bad words.

Don't even get me started on the 2nd most common claim! what does that even mean ?! Of-course a normal human being with no mental disabilities would be able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

Just for your info: The following are some studies conducted on gaming and the results were sensational.

1) A study conducted by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory reveal that children with attention-deficit disorder who played Dance Dance Revolution improve their reading scores by helping them concentrate.

2) Action games, according to a Study by University of Rochester, train the player's brain to make faster decisions without losing accuracy. In today’s world, it is important to move quickly without sacrificing accuracy.

3) Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, calls this "telescoping." The gamer must deal with immediate problems while keeping his long-term goals on his horizon.

4) The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane. All of the controls, including airspeed, wing angles, altimeter, and so on, are displayed for the player, as well as a visual representation of the world, and are updated in real time.  

Note these are just a few scientific studies out of the countless ones conducted, so don't grasp the wrong idea on gaming as it is really helpful and mis-understood.

Language and Literature Blog post #7

Audience and Purpose:

The following text is an autobiography written by Mary Seacole describing her time as a nurse from
Britain, and looking back upon the hardships and adversities some of the people had to face during the rapid spread of the yellow fever in the year 1853. The text doesn't attempt to argue a particular point; however it does offer the readers a first-hand view into what it would feel like to live in Jamaica at that time, the consistent use of anecdotes throughout the text provides sufficient information about the main idea, and therefore; the text is an informative piece, set out to inform the people of all the different aspects and sufferings the people faced in Jamaica.

Content and Theme:

The text mainly focuses on Seacole's experiences in Jamaica during the 19th century where Jamaica was struck with the yellow fever, Seacole was sent to Jamaica in order to provide immediate assistance to the Jamaicans. The anecdotes are filled with her traumatic experiences as she watched countless people die and get amputated to stop the spread of the disease. Seacole mentions the connections between herself and the Jamaicans and describes them as a mother-child connection. She was immensely affected by watching people suffer from the yellow fever and it taught her to face the concept of death with a smile rather than a frown,

Tone and Mood:

The text portrays a depressing and dark tone that runs throughout the whole text as it deals with the suffering and deaths of many people. Seacole begins using words like dreadful, suffering, harrowing, enemy, and vain to emphasize that the situation was a dull and depressing one.

Style and Structure: 

The text was written from the perspective of an author as it is an autobiography. Telling a story about herself, the text uses the voice of the author which is mot commonly seen through the use of pronouns "I". It hooks the reader through it's vivid descriptions of the suffering of the people, which results in emotion being displayed by the reader. The text does not have a particular structure but it mainly consists of collections of correlating anecdotes. 

Language and Literature Blog #6 (Written Task 1)

Written Task 1

Nader Al Ramahi

223 Huningtale Blvd.

Nashville, Tennessee

June 19, 2014

John Rose 

Dear Editor,

My name is John Rose, and I’m an International Baccalaureate DP English teacher. Throughout this letter, I wish to be able to administer some intimate insight and perspective on my behalf to a recent editorial that arose onto PR daily the other day about the “4 ways texting is killing our communication skills.” I would like to provide you with my contradicting mindset with the utmost respect and intimacy while exhibiting reverence towards you and your coherent point of view.

First of all I fully disagree with your first proclamation “Texting reduces the need for in-depth conversations.” Mainly because I feel that you wrote about the topic from one implausible issue which was “Have you ever texted people as a form of avoidance, A few abbreviated words keep people from meaningful dialogue and face-to-face communication.” Which as a statement is completely illegitimate because people don’t include abbreviations only because they intend to avoid a particular person, but instead they implement abbreviations in their texts when they are in a hurry and want to transfer a message to another person as quickly as possible or they would like to remain equivalent texting at the same pace of speech, meaning that a person abbreviates so they would be able to write just as swiftly as they would if they were to speak, you also didn’t incorporate any other clear possible reasons to why text speak could conceivably be a negative impact to “people’s need for in-depth conversation.”

Your 2^nd statement “texting dumbs down spelling and grammar” in my opinion is a very imprecise and general allegation that unrightfully places the blame on texting without the relevant research conducted and referenced in your article. You also came up with a hasty conclusion by stating that because we use shortcuts in spelling, punctuation, and emoticons these factors “are giving way to generations of lazy and sloppy communicators.” I would like of you to think of this issue in a way in which the students or teenagers aren’t trying to avoid spelling a word incorrectly or in an illiterate manner but instead they know that a certain part of a word contains vowels; therefore they would not spell out the vowels. For example a student might want to write to his/her friend: “I really enjoyed the movie today, and because they know that the word really is spelt really they would cut the vowels out of the word in order to keep up with the same pace of speech as I stated in the previous paragraph. The message I’m trying to convey to you is that if the students did not know how to spell the word in the first place they would not know how to abbreviate it and the reason they would like to abbreviate the word in the first place is due to the fact that these teenagers want to maintain and equilibrium between the pace of writing and the pace of speech.

As for the third statement “Texting distracts us from being fully present.” I fully agree with you because I also believe that texting most frequently causes us to place our focus primarily on our phones which results in teens being absent-minded and not fully aware of what’s encircling them at a particular moment; however I don’t see how that would affect our language in any negative way and how that “would kill our communication skills” I see this point as an entirely irrelevant section of the article unless you have an ambiguous interpretation that you didn’t elaborate on well enough.

Finally the 4^th statement “Texting invites ambiguity” because Nokia smartphones only allowed for 160 characters to be included in a single text message and generally that would not assist in getting your message along well enough and would cause disruption in the ways people might think, but nowadays smartphones allow for unlimited character counts such as IPhones and Samsung Galaxy smartphones which help in promoting more comprehensible messages to abolish ambiguity between individuals who use text messaging to communicate.

In conclusion, I believe that all of your statements lack meticulous reasoning and insufficient research backing up your proclamations and allegations towards the negative impacts of texting and how “texting is killing our communication skills.” I hope that throughout this letter I would have modified and adjusted your mindset towards texting as well as its alleged and putative accusations which I believe are highly inaccurate due to the biased majority of adults who dislike text speak because they believe that it affects people’s language in a negative way since that is the most logical take towards this contentious and antagonistic topic.

Language and Literature Blog Post #5

John Mcwhorter's Theory: 

Mcwhorter claims that texting is a form of writing which helps modern-day humans "write how they speak"

1)  Mcwhorter includes two texting constructions, "Lol" and "Slash", constructions such as these tend to display emotions which can only be conveyed through the use of body language; therefore texting can be classified as non-formal type of writing which can display emotions during the use of everyday/casual speech.

2) Speech is a result of written language, for example people in the previous generation used to write exactly how they would speak, and we 21st century humans have evolved to write the same way we speak

David Crystal's Theory:

Crystal assures readers that texting does not lead to lower literacy levels and worse spelling among 

teenagers and young adults.

1) The use of abbreviations in texting does not necessarily signify that a particular person is stupid, but instead it shows that this person knows what he/she are talking about and wants to pass the message along faster than if he/she were not to use abbreviations

2) Removing vowels in certain words during texting most often does not change the meaning of the word and it only makes for a faster way to send out your message to people.

Similarities: 

1)Both linguists view the development of the English language as a natural and non-negative cause, 

2)They also agree that the influence of technology on language creates a new dialect and genre which.

Differences:

Mcwhorter's theory argues that texting is "a form of writing how we speak in our everyday lives"

Crystal tends to view this as "text speak" which means the use of short words/acronyms in order to make send our message in a quicker and more efficient way.

Language and Literature Blog #4

http://apihtawikosisan.com/hall-of-shame/an-open-letter-to-non-natives-in-headdresses/

Nader Al Ramahi

51 Street

Khalifa City A 

Abu Dhabi

U.A.E

Phone:0504169389

Nader.ramahi@gmail.com

Dear Editor,

I wish to provide some insight and perspective on my behalf to a recent editorial that appeared on your blog the other day. I would like to start by saying thank you for this informative, well explained, and open minded article.

Since i am from the Middle East it is understandably nearly impossible to achieve this kind of cultural awareness unless you intend to research about them and inform yourself of such things, i remember once in 6th grade when we had a Halloween party that took place in my school and i was dressed up as a Red Indian wearing the Native-American Headdress, and it was just today in which i was informed that it was a huge disrespect to wear the headdress without rightfully earning it. As you've stated in your article about how it's not the end of the world to admit something that you did not know about i would like to take the honor of apologizing to all the Native-Americans and claim that i did not have any knowledge on this offensive cultural misconception.

I encourage you to keep up your work on grooming your culture, and i hope it will grow strong and healthy once more, because cultural diversity is unutterably important for our planet and also for the sake of our relationships between communities across the world. Finally the method which you chose to convey your message to the readers was very professional and open-minded as you chose to write in a very polite and distinct manner, I also liked that you mentioned that the majority of the world does not know about the meaning of the headdress and therefore; "it is ok for people to make mistakes" as none of us are perfect humans. This portrays your open-mindedness towards this topic although it can be a huge violation and offense to your culture you took it very well.

I look forward to reading more of your articles in the upcoming future.

Yours faithfully,
Nader Al Ramahi

Language and Literature Blog #3

The interview below is a hypothetical interview between competent interviewer Nader Al Ramahi and main vocalist of the acclaimed American rock band One Republic.

Announcer: Hello ladies and gentlemen and welcome to tonight's show starring Nader Al Ramahi!! Tonight we are joined by vocalist Ryan Tedder of the leading American rock band One Republic for a 5 minute interview about how Ryan became the man he is today.

Nader: Welcome to the show Ryan, it's a great pleasure to host such an imperative, honorable, and revolutionary man such as yourself.

Ryan: Haha, Thank you so much for having me here!

Nader: So, Ryan you've been the lead vocalist of One Republic since 2002, and you've acquired great success in these past years, and not only that you've managed to become one of the most, if not the most influential singer of our generation. What's your secret?? and what message would you send out to all those people wanting to pursue singing as a life-long career.

Ryan: Well, let me begin by saying this, when someone mentions the word "hard work" most people give it a little consideration and then forget about it the next day and just carry on with their ordinary lives, however whats the fun in that?! Being able to wake up everyday and practice the thing i love the most in life actually makes living on this abhorrent planet worth living. The only possible way that someone can achieve their dream is by HARD WORK! and hard work doesn't only mean to keep practicing what you do to become exceptional at something, hard work also includes the courage to get back up and to keep pursuing your dreams after life knocks you over and when an ignorant person who has nothing better to do hates on you or says something disturbing just take their statement as advice (and not as a discouragement). The will to keep moving forward no matter what stands against you, the desire to succeed, the extensive sacrifices you have to make, and hard work are the crucial keys a person needs to open the door to personal prosperity which lies at the end of a jagged road in which every person willing to go after their dream has to cross.

Nader: That was a very inspiring speech Ryan! and i hope these young aspired singers will grasp whatever advice they found useful in your deep and meaningful speech that you took the time and emotion in conveying it to people from all over the world.

Ryan: It was nothing really, i just don't want to see people face the same problems as me when i was growing up as a kid, it was really hurtful being discouraged, disheartened, and dismayed even by my own family members. I remember once as a teenager my exams were coming up in about 2 weeks time but i was too busy practicing my singing lessons for tryouts hosted by Sony Entertainment Records and the winner gets a full 5 year contract with the record company, but my parents did not approve in what i was doing and did not believe in me. In the end i could not attend the tryouts because my mom sent the record company an email stating that i could not attend due to health-related issues.

Nader: I'm so sorry that you had to face such adversities at such a young age, and i can only imagine how you must have felt like when you saw your life-long dream just slip away from your finger tips knowing that you could have came in first at the tryouts; however i think that this helped shape you as a person and assisted in making you the man you are today. Thank you so much for being here Ryan! I really enjoyed your influential speech and i'm pretty sure everyone listening to this would find this inspiring as well. I wish you the best of luck in your upcoming tour which will take place in South America.

Language and Literature Blog #2

"Mother Tongue" is an essay written by Chinese writer Amy Tan, In this essay Amy Tan writes about her passion towards language and the way it can evoke emotions, visual images, and complex ideas however she also writes about the discrimination towards people who speak "broken" English compared to "Standard" English.

 In my opinion i believe that Amy Tan is trying to give the readers a cryptic definition of Language which is that language is a measure of how educated someone is. Tan gives the readers the impression that her mother is uneducated woman who does not comprehend the English language and that some people might treat her mother poorly such as when Tan states that her mother finishes writing her stock portfolio but she never received a check that she was supposed to receive  so Amy's mother wanted tan to call the stockbroker and act like her because her mother knew in her her head what she wanted to say but didn't know how to convey them into comprehensible sentences and she also wanted people to treat her seriously and respectfully but with her "broken" English Amy's mother knew that this wouldn't happen unless her daughter would speak instead of her.

I really enjoyed reading this essay, because Tan explains in many examples her struggles as a kid, how shes dealt with her mother, and how her use of proper English helped her mother in many ways especially since they were in an English speaking country and finally her hidden definition of language which runs throughout the whole essay that i stated in paragraph 2.

Language and Literature Blog #1

Nader Al Ramahi

9/7/2014

Language and Culture Blog

My life began innocently enough in a contemporary city called Abu Dhabi, in my opinion the early years of my life were by far the most important, they helped shape my personality and led me to becoming the person i am today. In these early years my dad did not have a stable job so relocation was something frequent, although my childhood years were rough and i never got the contingency to make close friends it was a vital part in shaping my personality. 

As a young boy constantly moving from one place to another i like to believe i have a decent understanding of language and culture and how language can have a considerable influence on culture. As for my definition of culture it is a set of ideas, arts, customs, and other manifestations in a distinct community and the most reliable way people in a certain community can communicate these sets and manifestations is through the use of language which is why i believe that language is culture's backbone and most imperative aspect. One example of how language can profoundly influence culture is that in Arab countries (more specifically Jordan) pauses between words are not too common while in Japan they can give a contradictory sense to the spoken words by the meaning of pauses.