about the class

The biggest thing I learned was that having our language change and morph and having others come into the United States that don't speak our language shouldn't be looked down upon but embraced. It was very interesting to look at New Orleans and see how they take pride in being bilingual with French and others in America take pride in that as well, but when it comes to people who are Spanish speaking the pride quickly dwindles. That's a shame and we need to embrace biculturalism and language is a huge part of that. I really enjoyed this class and loved all the discussions we had.

What it was all about for me

The power of words…wow. Maybe subconsciously, I have always been aware of language and its ability to ignite different reactions. Actually, unless you are completely socially unaware, most people recognize that depending on the specific word choices one uses, it has a plethora of different response as a result. I am one who doesn’t like to offend people, and actually like to avoid it in most cases. But before this class, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you exactly how I avoid it through language. However after taking this class, it has made me realize that the nature of our interaction with people is not merely based off of our verbal communication necessarily, but what we MEAN by it. The interesting thing here, is that we may not even be aware of what we actually mean when we communicate with something. It is something so ingrained and subconscious, that we many times don’t even ‘mean’ what we say. By taking this class, I have become hyper-sensitive as to the language I use, how I use it, and what it means. For my personal life, this is the tool I am most grateful for after taking this course.

What I have learned in regard to language and society has been even more eye-opening. The connection between language and identity has been one of the most fascinating things I have ever learned. Before taking this class, I may have sided with the idea that “language has only as much power as you give it”. But language means so much more than that. It is a agreement with individuals and society in order to make sense of and understand one another. It has the power to start wars when it is not agreed upon, and an ability to make amends when utilized.

Furthermore, I truly appreciate Tiffany and her willing to teach. I’m not sure I would have absorbed as much as I have if it weren’t for her inspiring teaching style. The forum in which this class was set, I felt extremely open and relaxed. (Although sometimes and little shy and intimidated) And regardless of what particular class is set up in this way, it always makes a significant difference in a student’s interest for any given subject. Regardless of our many times lazy behavior as a class, I think we can unanimously agree, that we enjoyed both the contents and presentation of information within this class.

Above all else, I have learned that language is one of the many intricate parts of society, and a valuable aspect to consider when trying to understand the nature of human beings.

Final Blog

Although this semester has been disastrous for me, I really enjoyed this course and all of the course content. I especially enjoyed the lecture by Jabari Asim. The way that language usage shapes society is absolutely fascinating. All of the readings have been very enjoyable, and I would go as far to say that some have been enlightening. There are many things that I will take from this course, but I would like to focus on two things in particular that had a great impact on me.

First, I was blown away by the extent to which language is used to discriminate. The difference in dialects is another of many ways for humans to separate each other into groups and oppress those one another. I have always been under the impressions that southern, eastern and Midwestern dialects are only for uneducated and simple people. This subconscious sense of elitism led me to believe that these people simply chose to speak in an unintelligent manner because of a hatred for academics. This simply is not true. This class taught me that each language and dialect has a rich history and specific reasons for these differences in language, and that each of dialect follows its own set of rules and guiding principles.

The second thing that made a huge impact on me is the fact that language can be analyzed in a way to surface hidden motives and agendas of the speakers. When we analyze language critically, we are able to tell so much about the ideals, beliefs and motives of other people and groups. I love to analyze people and social dialogue, and looking at the language of these people and groups gives me an entire level of insight that I didn’t have before taking this class. Analyzing the way one speaks is just as important as analyzing the ideas being conveyed.

Thanks everyone. I hope I get to have some of you in my future classes. It’s been a blast. :)

AAE

"Da otha day, I was walkin’ down da street an’ thinkin’ ‘bout my ol’ frien’ Jackson. We use ta be such good friends, an’ den one day, outta nowheah, he say he didn’t wanna be my frien’ no mo’. It was sad. I fel’ real bad ‘bout it fo’ a long time. Then, as I turn the corna, I saw ‘im. He aks me, “How you doin’?” I say, “I’m okay. How you doin’?” He said, “Okay.” I tol’ him dat I am da new managa of my sto’. He said, “Congradulations.” He said he been workin’ real hard at his job an’ he was sorry dat he ain’t talk to me fo’ a while. He said I look good, and hope that we could get togetha soona ratha den latea. We shook hands an’ say g’bye."

Unfortunately, people are largely ignorant to the roots of AAE, or never bother to take the past into consideration, and for that reason, AAE is regarded as unintelligent by mainstream society. They believe that speakers of AAE are purposefully revolting against standardized English. That being said, I’m not sure, nor do I feel qualified to answer, about the issue of AAE-speaking children being treated either the same or differently from ESL students. On one hand, AAE isn’t a separate language from English. It’s a dialect of English, which means that English would not be their second language. But on the other hand, I believe that AAE speaking children would benefit from being taught Standardized English in a way that would help them learn the differences between AAE and SA. It is an unfortunate truth that conforming to mainstream society helps the individual flourish as a participating member, but would success be worth turning their back on their dialect and cultural heritage? I don’t know.

California Dialect

I was born and raised in California. I spent the majority of my life in the southern and eastern San Francisco Bay Area. I wasn’t able to notice the markers of the California dialect until I moved to Utah a few years ago. Although Utahans sounds a lot like Californian speakers, I was still (eventually) able to pick up on many differences. For example, people in the Bay Area (not so much in southern California) say the word “hella” quite often. “That’s hella cool” or “That’s hella funny” is said so often that it’s hardly considered slang. This was the main thing that I constantly had pointed out to me while living in Salt Lake. I don’t really say “hella” anymore as I have gradually and naturally assimilated to the Utah dialect, but I have noticed that it immediately comes back when I visit San Francisco, and it takes months for it to leave my every day vocabulary upon my return.

I believe that the Californian dialect has spread vastly and rapidly due to California’s influence on the rest of the country, mainly through music, television, movies and other forms of pop culture. Hollywood is obviously located in California, and the movies that come out of Hollywood studios are some of the most popular forms of entertainment in the country. Because life reflects art (and visa-versa) the rest of the country simulates what they see in movies and television, and the dialect spreads.

Class Discourse Analysis

Although my analysis of the class is coming at the end of the semester, I believe that I have some input that will help with your understanding of why the class slowed down. Since the time this blog was posted, the class involvement seemed to go back up, which is great.

But at the beginning of the semester, the material might have been more difficult, but it was highly theoretical which gave the students a lot to think and talk about and they were able to share their individual perspectives. In the middle of the semester, the material was still fascinating, but I don’t think the students were able to give as much personal input because the material were more factual (as opposed to theoretical) and pretty straight forward. For example, I enjoyed learning about French speaking in Louisiana, but I couldn’t personally contribute a lot to the subject. Another example is that I think it’s pretty obvious that many people feel uncomfortable by Spanish, and making English the official language is racist. Because I felt like these ideas were inherently true, there wasn’t much up for debate. I definitely enjoyed the readings and loved learning more about these topics, but I couldn’t give as much unique perspective as I could when discussing subjects like ethnography or CDA. I think students started becoming more involved near the end of the semester because subjects like gender and sexuality effect us every day in deep and meaningful ways, and we are able to give more personal insight.

Critical Discourse Analysis

The most interesting thing about CDA to me is the idea that discourse shapes reality, and how opposing discourses shape reality, and whoever controls the perception of reality has the power. I’ve been noticing how this happens through seemingly simple interactions and conversations. I think a perfect example of this would be Fox News. They intentionally impose a conservative slant on the news, and their bias forms an untruthful version of reality for their viewers. I was getting my car fixed the other day and I needed to take a taxi home. I was picked up by a man who appeared to be in his 70’s, wearing a flannel shirt tucked into his belt-buckled wrangler jeans. On the ride home, he was listening to Sean Hannity on talk radio, and he began to tell me that he would never vote for Barack Obama because he is deeply tied with American Islamic extremists, hates people who live in the mid-west, and loathes The United States of America. All of this, apparently, he learned from watching Fox News. Because Fox was able to control the public political discourse for conservative viewers, they were able to change this man’s view of reality, which gives power to the Republican Party through voter support. Indeed, whoever controls public discourse controls the public.