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.