"A language without limits" analysis

Now I will analyze this text by Deena Kamel called "A language without limits" focusing on what I felt was the most important topic: the globalization.
This text refers to the variation of the English language because of different cultures. Hinglish, Chinglish and Arabazi are only examples of how much variations have this language among the world. The text shows some examples of Arabic people now living in Canada, they say that they are still using their first language because of the respect they have for their cultures and their families, but in their usual and common life they use hybrids like Arabazi. For me this situation is a direct consequence of globalization and specially the globalization of the language English itself. I liked very much a sentence from the text, because it made me think about a lot of things in language "That´s a direct consequence of international scope, the fact that English has travelled so far around the world and mixed with so many other cultures and has absorbed influences from all those other cultures. It has been an amazingly tolerant language" This sentences made me think of all the facts that change language and make this human ability open ended and creative. It´s incredible to know that English has up to 700.000 words because of the cultures and communities around the world, and I feel proud of myself to know this language that can be useful in so many parts of the world.
Now I will present you my analizys with the features that we have learned so far:


Theme: English language
Topic: Globalization affecting language
Main idea: Cultures are constantly making variations on English because of its internationality.
Author´s purpose: Inform
Genre: Non fiction
Target Audience: Readers of the "Toronto Star"
Register: Formal
Tone: Serious

Week 11: Language in a cultural context

On this week we saw some aspects about how language improves in a cultural context and also started and introduce to analize some features about reading comprehension such as: Topic, theme, tone, register, targer audience, genre, author´s purpose, main idea, etc. Next week we will analize better this features because we have a test on Monday the 25th were we hace to identify this features in a text.

Week 16: Language and knowledge

What I will show you next are important points for the topic of this week, Language and knowledge.

-Some specific jargons: Legal Language, Scientific Language, Language in Sports.

-Certain types of knowledge need an specific type of language.

-Specific type of language may create certain types of knowledge.

-It is important to bear in mind that: understanding, knowledge and intention affect language and that language affects understanding, knowledge and intention.    

We watched a video about a man trying to use a Politically correct language, by trying to describe a `black man´. We always adjust our language depending with who we`re talking, for example I will not use the same language talking to the headmaster than talking with my best friends, Why? Because first of all the Headmaster is not my friend, he is a school  authority and also he is an adult. Because of this he deserves respect in my language and a correct use of it.

Also this week we talked about language and communities. For me, the best definition for communities is from the Course Companion:  "A group of people that share the same customs, interests, laws or traditions, and language"  

This communities are also affecting language every day because they are always producing knowledge and language.

After, we watched a video of "Modern family", in this program Gloria is a latin woman so she speaks "Spanglish", all her mistakes are showed in the video.

In conclusion to this video I can say that we always make fun of people with different accents and their mistakes.

Ebonics will be another example of the change of language in communities, the african-american people pronuance different and change a lot of words. Like they say in the video `ebonics´ is the result of the words ebony and phonics together, in conclusion: african-american way to use English. A very good example of language in communities variations.

The last thing we did this week was talk about Online communities. Down next I will present you a definition:

 An online community is a a group of people with common interests who use the Internet (web sites, email, instant messaging, etc.) to communicate, work together and purse their interests over time. Lee LeFever on CommonCraft 

In conclusion for all this activity I have to say that the Online communities and the Social media helps us on a lot of different things, like entertaining, discuss, sell a product, etc. Now this Online communties are taking part of our normal lifes and are very important for us.

Considering the ways we communicate through language, is there any difference in actual communication, between members of an online community and a physical world community? If you communicate with your friends online, do you use different types of language to the way you communicate face to face?

I would have to say that I prefer to talk face to face with my friends, but an Online community is also a very good tool for us to communicate and we spend a lot of time on them. For me, the most important difference is that talking face to face is easier to understand what the other person wants to communicate, because of the facial expressions, tone and concentration. The language that I use with my friends online is basicly the same that I use when I´m talking face to face with them.

Week 14 and 15: Winter Holidays!

As on the school we have a different system of vacations than the other schools, we had two weeks of vacations!
To be honest I didn´t study English or worked on this blog because I think that vacations are only to rest and have a good time with friends and family.
In my vacations I didn`t went to any place, I only went out with my friends and spended time with my family, unfortunately some days I got sick and it was very borring. After the two weeks I didn`t had any problem to enter to school, I was happy because I knew that I had rested a lot and the coming months will represent new challenges!

Week 13: British week!

This week was the British week in the Mackay! I will tell you my experience in the only activity that I took part, the Cricket at Mackay! 
Here is a short definition for you to know what the sport is about:
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the runs scored by the batting team. A run is scored by the striking batsman hitting the ball with his bat, running to the opposite end of the pitch and touching the crease there without being dismissed. The teams switch between batting and fielding at the end of an innings.
We were instructed by two men who were professional cricket players from the chilean team, we listened to a short speech about the rules of the sport and then we played and learned in the field of what was about. When we finished practicing we played a match against the Senior team on the Nª1 field, unfortunately we ended on a tie. The instructors congratulated me for being the "Man of the match" and offered me keep playing this sport.
In conclusion  I had to say that I liked very much the sport and I hope that this activity could repite some day, because of the tradition that this sport implies for the school beginnings.

Week 12: Reading comprehension

On this week we could learn how to identifiy a lot of features in a text and also how to improve our comprehension of the texts we are reading with a lot of tecniques. Down next I will show you some of the features we could learn this week!

• Theme
• Topic
• Main Idea
• Source
• Target Audience
• Author's Purpose
• Genre
• Tone
• Register
• Jargon 
• Argot 

We learned how to identify each of these features and improve our comprehension. Thank you Miss Verónica!

Week 10: Language and knowledge

My personal knowledge about specyfic language or jargon is that the language that we use on our normal life its in some way standard and there are a lot of specyfic languages that not all people can understand, for example a doctors language, a rugby player language or a lawyer language. That is how knowledge is envolved with language, with more vocabulary you can express better and is a very important tool for life. In the video that I will show next the men are using a cientific language, people that are not involved in science will not understand all things, perhaps is the same language that they use


Click here for watching the video

Week 9: Language in a cultural context

Culture is directly connected with language, that`s why culture is so important when you are talking about our general topic for us, that is LANGUAGE.

• Language and culture ARE interconnected
• Language is a social act that has the power to SHAPE culture.

This two points made my reflex a lot about the varieties of cultures and how thay can change, be learned and create constantly a language.

When we saw the video about Alex (the eleven languages speaker) I got very impresed and made me ask myself this question: ¿How a person can be so interesed on learning such amount of languages, with different bases and in so different geographies? Now I can answer by saying that language is a very interesting ability and now I want to learn more languages and be a more culturized person, like Alex.

Class activity: Video 11 languages speaker

1) How many languages does Alex speak?
 11 Languages.


2) Does context help in the process of acquiring a new language?
Yes, I think that is better to ve sorrounded by the language that you want to learn, than try to learn it in a place where that language is not spoken.


3) Are there any languages that have similar pronunciation?
Yes, for example Spanish and Italian languages came from the same base and are very similar in the pronunciation.


4) Which of the languages spoken by Alex seem more colloquial?
In my opinion English and Afrikaans.

5) Is class a more important factor in language variation than geography?
  In my opinion I think that geography is more important than the class when you`re refering to language variation, because people in different places variate in a lot of words used, accent and also voice tone. The different classes may create diferent slang and talk with other tone, but is not a huge change like differences between different geographies.


 6) Do you think, the ability of learning a language is innate or learned?
I think that the ability of learning language is innate but only if the human is sorrounded by a society with speakers.


7) According to you, are some languages more or less difficult  to learn than others? Talk about your own experience. 
Yes, for myself that I have Spanish as my first language is easier to learn Italian or English, but is very difficult for me to learn Chinese or Japonese, I think that is all envolved with the first language that you learns as a base.

Language: Slang and jargon

Slang and Jargon

What is slang? What is jargon? They are the same? What is the diference? 

The main diference between this two words are the formality and also the use. Slang could be words or phrases invented by a group of people, we create slang every day and they take part of our language, on the other hand, jargon is defined as the special words that an specyfic group of people use, it could be for their work or another activity (doctors, rugby players, musicians, etc). If we consult a dictionary for this words definition we will found is:

Jargon: the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity, group, profession, or field of study<medical jargon>

Argot: very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that ischaracteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid,and ephemeral than ordinary language, as Hit the road

Debate two

Debate: E-book vs book                             

Like I asked in my last debate blog, we did another debate, defending the E-books in on  side, and the books from the other. At first we saw very interesting videos about the motions and personally I could notice what is an E-book, because I had no idea about it before.

After we could inform very good about the two objects, we were able to start debating! We made groups of three or four people, the classmates that took part of my group were Rafael Labra and Paul Eggeling and we had to defend the use of e-books.

Finally when the day of the debate came, the other group had only one participant that was Rodrigo Jeria. Personally I didn´t like this situation because it was very unfair and borring to debate against only one person. For concluding this activity I would like to say that I enjoy very much debating, but when the conditions are not apropiate it could turn into something borring.