Maybe it is one of the questions that I do to myself. Actually, it is the question that I do to myself every morning at 5:00 am. Why I´m here? Why do I study in Prepa Tec? Why do I breake my backbone every day with homework, stress and exams? I don´t have any answer yet... If I would be a logical person, then I would not be here. Anyways, that is not my choise and I´m here, sitting in the desk writting this entry for the English class. Now it comes the boring part of answering the questions: "what have I learned?" and my boring answer would be: I have learned that English is one of the most popular languages of the world and it will help to understand how languages changes with the time... (zzzzzz). That is what everyone answers (I think). The true is that I´m here because I need good grade to continue my studies and reach my aim of retirement. This doesn´t means that I don´t like the class ... at least I don´t hate it. But why we cn´t just arrive at school and talk about things that I really like? it is so dficult? (sadly it is). Anyways, I need to continue this day´s activities and keep breaking my back for another day.
The weather is great...
viernes, 15 de octubre de 2010
lunes, 27 de septiembre de 2010
"The soldier" and "Colonization in Reverse" comparative and contrasting essay
The poetry is an art in which the author can express his or her feelings, opinions and desires towards something or someone. Many times, the contents of these poems are based on experiences that the authors have passed trough. The two poems The soldier, written by Rupert Brooke, and Colonization in reverse, from the inspiration of Louisse Bennet, have some characteristics that contrast the internal ideas of these two poems. In the other hand, there are certain aspects that are very similar and that can be compared in order to establish what the authors wanted to share with the readers.
There is a specific topic that both poems reflect: nationalism. Nationalism is the sense of union to the country where you were born and to its people, culture, customs, and etcetera.
In the poem of The soldier, the author Rupert Brooke speaks about the greatness of his nation England. He mentions thing like beautiful landscapes, the prevalence of this country as a nation of honor and glory, and about the English people that lives tremendously happy just for being part of the British nation. Considering the date in which this poem was published (1914), it can be assumed that the poem was created in order to motivate the soldiers that were enlisted in the army during the Great War. Even Rupert Brooke himself enlisted in the British army and fought for his country during this international conflict. Now, in the poem of Colonization in Reverse, Louisse Bennet reflects nationalism in a similar way than in The soldier. This poem was published in 1966, just four years after the Jamaican independence was achieved after years of British domination under the imperialist regimen. The intention of the author in this poem is to show, not just Jamaican and British people, but to all the world population, that being part of a country´s people denominated as savages or uncivilized by the powerful nations in the old continent does not means that it is true. Bennet is giving a message of equality of razes and, with the Jamaican independence as an example, proves that any country of the world can become a big and powerful nation among other big potencies. This poem can also be interpreted as the classic fight between the lower and the higher economic classes.In both of these lyric texts there are nationalism raising intentions, one shows the feelings of a proud soldier that fights for the glory of his nation, and the other reflects the idealism of equality and freedom among all the razes.
The usage of language, also known as tone, is another very important aspect to consider when analyzing any text. The language can also be used by the authors in order to reflect an idea. In the poem, The soldier, there is a formal tone applied by Rupert Brooke. Considering the nationalism present in its words, this tone gives an essence of superiority and makes creates the idea of a more impeccable British person. This is also done in order to show the world how does a British person is fully devoted to their country and that will sacrifice him or herself in order to preserve their country´s prestige as one of the greatest nations of the world (maybe the best). Colonization in reverse contrasts a lot from the last British poem. Since the begging of this poem, a more informal tone is perceived. It can also look like as a common conversation between two normal habitants of Jamaica. This tone reflects an image of a humble society that has passed through difficult times of conquest and colonization and now they are an independent nation as any other European country. Again, nationalism arises from this text because the Jamaican people can feel pride of their language, that others may consider as inferior or broken, but that know is part of their unique identity as a nation.
After analyzing both these poems, we can conclude that each poem reflects the idea of a country´s society. One speaks about the greatness of its nation and the other criticizes these ideas of superiority. But both authors of these poems had the same intention when writhing this texts: to exalt their culture nationalism feeling.
Words: 704
There is a specific topic that both poems reflect: nationalism. Nationalism is the sense of union to the country where you were born and to its people, culture, customs, and etcetera.
In the poem of The soldier, the author Rupert Brooke speaks about the greatness of his nation England. He mentions thing like beautiful landscapes, the prevalence of this country as a nation of honor and glory, and about the English people that lives tremendously happy just for being part of the British nation. Considering the date in which this poem was published (1914), it can be assumed that the poem was created in order to motivate the soldiers that were enlisted in the army during the Great War. Even Rupert Brooke himself enlisted in the British army and fought for his country during this international conflict. Now, in the poem of Colonization in Reverse, Louisse Bennet reflects nationalism in a similar way than in The soldier. This poem was published in 1966, just four years after the Jamaican independence was achieved after years of British domination under the imperialist regimen. The intention of the author in this poem is to show, not just Jamaican and British people, but to all the world population, that being part of a country´s people denominated as savages or uncivilized by the powerful nations in the old continent does not means that it is true. Bennet is giving a message of equality of razes and, with the Jamaican independence as an example, proves that any country of the world can become a big and powerful nation among other big potencies. This poem can also be interpreted as the classic fight between the lower and the higher economic classes.In both of these lyric texts there are nationalism raising intentions, one shows the feelings of a proud soldier that fights for the glory of his nation, and the other reflects the idealism of equality and freedom among all the razes.
The usage of language, also known as tone, is another very important aspect to consider when analyzing any text. The language can also be used by the authors in order to reflect an idea. In the poem, The soldier, there is a formal tone applied by Rupert Brooke. Considering the nationalism present in its words, this tone gives an essence of superiority and makes creates the idea of a more impeccable British person. This is also done in order to show the world how does a British person is fully devoted to their country and that will sacrifice him or herself in order to preserve their country´s prestige as one of the greatest nations of the world (maybe the best). Colonization in reverse contrasts a lot from the last British poem. Since the begging of this poem, a more informal tone is perceived. It can also look like as a common conversation between two normal habitants of Jamaica. This tone reflects an image of a humble society that has passed through difficult times of conquest and colonization and now they are an independent nation as any other European country. Again, nationalism arises from this text because the Jamaican people can feel pride of their language, that others may consider as inferior or broken, but that know is part of their unique identity as a nation.
After analyzing both these poems, we can conclude that each poem reflects the idea of a country´s society. One speaks about the greatness of its nation and the other criticizes these ideas of superiority. But both authors of these poems had the same intention when writhing this texts: to exalt their culture nationalism feeling.
Words: 704
jueves, 26 de agosto de 2010
"Do you speak English?"
This article created by Sammy Stain talks about a modern vision of the English language and some of the roots of this vocabulary. The author starts the text with the question "Do you speak French, Italian...?". In this phrase, the author refers that the English language is composed of a lot of words with different origins in other cultures of the world besides Great Britain. In some way us, English speakers, employ words from different languages but we do not realize that cultural mix in the vocabulary (at least you are an expert in the topic).
Sammy Stain published this article maybe for more audience than just academic readers or students. He tries to attract all aged audience writhing as if he is telling the information to someone. Maybe very young readers could not be able to understand the text completely. The author's intention with this kind of writhing is to make the reader feel identified with the information or to make him/her part of the facts showed in the article. Personally, I liked this article more than the other two I read (check last entries) because is written in a more informal way. This makes the text more attractive and also catches my full attention.
The main propose of this article is to show people, especially English speakers, that the English language employs word from different parts of the world (France, Norway, Spain...). This makes the language to be somehow "multicultural".
Another intention of Sammy Stain could be to demonstrate that English is not the pure language that many people think. Based on real facts and research, he demonstrates that the composition of this international language has a lot of variations and mixtures with other cultures vocabulary like Latin, Viking, and others.
It is easy to identify that the tone employed by the author is not as formal as the other articles I analyzed. Simply by using the word "fu..." the author is writhing in a more personal way. This does not mean he loses professionalism in his writing skills; in fact he gains more audience that like this kind of articles. He also employs some popular idioms to give the text a more personal appearance.
Somehow, the tone used by the author reflects the main idea of these articles: the evolution of English. This is a clear example of how English has changed from generation to generation, employing new words due to technological advances, or by society's needs, or simply to facilitate the writhing process.
Personally I enjoyed a lot reading this article, mainly by the tone employed by the author.
After analyzing these three articles I learned that English language is composed by a lot of vocabularies from other countries and that it is changing every day.
Sammy Stain published this article maybe for more audience than just academic readers or students. He tries to attract all aged audience writhing as if he is telling the information to someone. Maybe very young readers could not be able to understand the text completely. The author's intention with this kind of writhing is to make the reader feel identified with the information or to make him/her part of the facts showed in the article. Personally, I liked this article more than the other two I read (check last entries) because is written in a more informal way. This makes the text more attractive and also catches my full attention.
The main propose of this article is to show people, especially English speakers, that the English language employs word from different parts of the world (France, Norway, Spain...). This makes the language to be somehow "multicultural".
Another intention of Sammy Stain could be to demonstrate that English is not the pure language that many people think. Based on real facts and research, he demonstrates that the composition of this international language has a lot of variations and mixtures with other cultures vocabulary like Latin, Viking, and others.
It is easy to identify that the tone employed by the author is not as formal as the other articles I analyzed. Simply by using the word "fu..." the author is writhing in a more personal way. This does not mean he loses professionalism in his writing skills; in fact he gains more audience that like this kind of articles. He also employs some popular idioms to give the text a more personal appearance.
Somehow, the tone used by the author reflects the main idea of these articles: the evolution of English. This is a clear example of how English has changed from generation to generation, employing new words due to technological advances, or by society's needs, or simply to facilitate the writhing process.
Personally I enjoyed a lot reading this article, mainly by the tone employed by the author.
After analyzing these three articles I learned that English language is composed by a lot of vocabularies from other countries and that it is changing every day.
martes, 24 de agosto de 2010
The history of the English Language
This article written by Risa talks about the cultural composition of the English Language and all the accent variations and mixtures suffered trough time. Contrasting with the last article I read, I can remark a big difference. In this article, the authr is more specific at the time of developing her facts.
The very origin of English starts at the fifth century, when England was populated by the Angles and the Saxons. They spoke englisc (from the anglish people). As the roman influence was present in almost all Europe, the Celtic tribes that also lived in England suffered a little variation in their languages that were mixed with some of the Latinvocabulary. It was until the tenth century when English was commonly spoken in the whole island. It is really impressive to see how many cultures were mixed up and resulted in the English language that we speak today (with its ownmodern variations). At least there were 5 different languages that conformed the English vocabulary.
This article is made to understand and to analize the exact origin of the English language. That's why the autor specifies a lot in the history of the language.
Also, the autor mentions that the english is a stress language. The different modifications to the language has result in a variation of the accent used to speak it. Maybe it is difficult to people that does not speak English as a mother language to understand this because we are not so familiarized with the changes in the pronunsiation. This is the result of passing the language from generation to generation, it becomes a common vocabulary and we don't even notice all the changes suffered since the first language.
This article is not mainly written to all population. The autor gives a lots of historical details and some of linguistical .It could require some of the English language domination to fully understand it. Nevertheless, this article can be used as an excellent source for an investigation or research.
The tone used by Risa is very academic. She employs this tone because she is just giving us information to analize, she is not taking any position or arguing any topic. This gives the article a very proffesional and formal composition.
Now that I have read two articles of the history of the English language, I can see that the language itself was the result of a large mixture of vocabularies and cultures since the ancient times. Nowadays English is still evolving, variating from regions, countries and continents.
http://www.helium.com/items/879455-the-history-of-the-English-language
The very origin of English starts at the fifth century, when England was populated by the Angles and the Saxons. They spoke englisc (from the anglish people). As the roman influence was present in almost all Europe, the Celtic tribes that also lived in England suffered a little variation in their languages that were mixed with some of the Latinvocabulary. It was until the tenth century when English was commonly spoken in the whole island. It is really impressive to see how many cultures were mixed up and resulted in the English language that we speak today (with its ownmodern variations). At least there were 5 different languages that conformed the English vocabulary.
This article is made to understand and to analize the exact origin of the English language. That's why the autor specifies a lot in the history of the language.
Also, the autor mentions that the english is a stress language. The different modifications to the language has result in a variation of the accent used to speak it. Maybe it is difficult to people that does not speak English as a mother language to understand this because we are not so familiarized with the changes in the pronunsiation. This is the result of passing the language from generation to generation, it becomes a common vocabulary and we don't even notice all the changes suffered since the first language.
This article is not mainly written to all population. The autor gives a lots of historical details and some of linguistical .It could require some of the English language domination to fully understand it. Nevertheless, this article can be used as an excellent source for an investigation or research.
The tone used by Risa is very academic. She employs this tone because she is just giving us information to analize, she is not taking any position or arguing any topic. This gives the article a very proffesional and formal composition.
Now that I have read two articles of the history of the English language, I can see that the language itself was the result of a large mixture of vocabularies and cultures since the ancient times. Nowadays English is still evolving, variating from regions, countries and continents.
http://www.helium.com/items/879455-the-history-of-the-English-language
How did the English language begin?
This article that was written by Lucy Rucker talks about the origin of this global language and its modifications and variations trough the time. As it starts as a combination of the Viking, Norman, and also some French language, the English began to exist as a language approximately in the XII century. We are able to notice these combinations in words such as "ability" (habilite), "anger" (angrt), among much others.
In ancient time, England throne was pretended by diferent cultures, resulting in a mixture of languages and customs by war and conquest, and the languague was not the exception.
Nowadays, the English has suffered even more variations depending various factors, like populations, idioms, countries were English is spoke, and so on.
The text main's propose is to inform about how English was created and the differences in composition that we can easily identify as English speakers. It was also created with academic and research intentions. This article helps us to understand the origin of the English language. This is very important, especially to English learners to be more familiarized with the language in order to have a complete understanding not just of the language, but to also know about the English culture and history.
As this text can be consider more as an academic article than an entretaining fragment, we can asume that the designated audience for this text is students and English speakers (any kind: native, second or foreign). It can also be important for the English native speakers in order to discover and analize how their mother language has evolved and to discover the variations that the English has sufered from time to time since its very beggining.
The tone that Lucy Rucker employs in her article is a formal tone. This is the correct way to write an academic article, also considering that the main topic is the English language itself. As it could lose audience due to lack of details that could atract more readers (such as idioms, some kinds of jokes, and things like that). In the other hand, the apropiate use of the language helps us to complete understand the idea and the whole content of the article.
After reading this article we are able to understand the causes and the consecuences of the evolution in the English language composition, and also to be familiarized with the deep origins of this global mean of comunication.
In ancient time, England throne was pretended by diferent cultures, resulting in a mixture of languages and customs by war and conquest, and the languague was not the exception.
Nowadays, the English has suffered even more variations depending various factors, like populations, idioms, countries were English is spoke, and so on.
The text main's propose is to inform about how English was created and the differences in composition that we can easily identify as English speakers. It was also created with academic and research intentions. This article helps us to understand the origin of the English language. This is very important, especially to English learners to be more familiarized with the language in order to have a complete understanding not just of the language, but to also know about the English culture and history.
As this text can be consider more as an academic article than an entretaining fragment, we can asume that the designated audience for this text is students and English speakers (any kind: native, second or foreign). It can also be important for the English native speakers in order to discover and analize how their mother language has evolved and to discover the variations that the English has sufered from time to time since its very beggining.
The tone that Lucy Rucker employs in her article is a formal tone. This is the correct way to write an academic article, also considering that the main topic is the English language itself. As it could lose audience due to lack of details that could atract more readers (such as idioms, some kinds of jokes, and things like that). In the other hand, the apropiate use of the language helps us to complete understand the idea and the whole content of the article.
After reading this article we are able to understand the causes and the consecuences of the evolution in the English language composition, and also to be familiarized with the deep origins of this global mean of comunication.
martes, 17 de agosto de 2010
Formal or lingua franca?
A question very common in these times of English language predomination. Nowadays, it is very important to learn English as a second language, but is it better to dominate the formal English than the English used by native speakers? Both have some advantages and disadvantages that I'm going to analize next.
If we learn the English in the "correct" way (formal), then we will speak the English as a book. This can be useful in work or professional embiroments where we need to express formally. However there are a lot of words used by the Englishv native societies as modisms that, in case of dominating just formal English, we could be unable to understand them at all.
Speaking English as a lingua franca could be usefull to feel identified with the everyday English speaker societies.
I can conclude that learning English in its formal state is the best choise, nevertheless, we need to be able to speak as a native English speaker does.
If we learn the English in the "correct" way (formal), then we will speak the English as a book. This can be useful in work or professional embiroments where we need to express formally. However there are a lot of words used by the Englishv native societies as modisms that, in case of dominating just formal English, we could be unable to understand them at all.
Speaking English as a lingua franca could be usefull to feel identified with the everyday English speaker societies.
I can conclude that learning English in its formal state is the best choise, nevertheless, we need to be able to speak as a native English speaker does.
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