Bilingualism

While finishing up my research paper, I guess I never really knew how heated some of the debates are over bilingualism in schools. Many people have stated that this is America, you only speak English here. While others are saying that in the job field, being bilingual may help in the long run with businesses. Since I cannot speak my opinion really in my paper, I decided that this would be a great journal discussion. While more and more schools are being fed with immigrants these days, it has become a drastic change since even my parents' generation. It is crazy now that even states like California and Arizona are still up for debate whether bilingualism schools should be allowed. Down south, it is definitely more of a heated subject then in the northern part of the country, but still it is caused a lot of frustration. Immigrants are taking over the USA. Now, in public places, I feel like the minority. Just the other day while I was home we had walked into this restaurant near our home, "Buffalo Wild Wings", and we walked in and it was over populated by the Asians. Thinking back to growing up I find this extremely crazy! Living in a country where whites or Caucasians dominate, I feel like the minority half the time now. I do not want to sound racist here in any case, I guess I am just a little confused as to why this is happening. I believe in the education department, bilingualism with the ESL program (English as a second language), is completely acceptable. This program teaches the children outside of their normal class and helps them specifically with English so that they can understand what is going on in their class taught in English. Overall, the United States of America has become tossed in this subject when it comes to immigrants and bilingual education in the classroom. I believe that since this is an English dominated country,we should keep it that way for the better of our citizens and remembering where we came from.

Milk or Melk?

It was funny, a couple days ago one of my teammates told me to pass the "melk" pronounced just like that! I kinda chuckled and began to correct her saying, "Its milk". It made me laugh because that sounds so foreign to me. Well, she is from California. It is soda over there, definitely not pop. She laughs every time I say pop. It cracks me up! I think it is crazy that how in other parts of the states, they can pick up new so-called lingo that we find strange. I am certain that they think that what we say is also weird. Just like "pop". Our pronunciations and words that we use are constantly changing. It is definitely assumed that we speak and have accents to others even if we think we do not. Just like the myth book, it is so true that we think "everyone has an accent but me". I find that fascinating when talking to friends and they say a word that sounds foreign to us and we instantly call them out on it because it sounds so strange but to them it sounds completely normal. I think the southern accent is also really funny. We find it funny and amusing but the southerners can definitely tell we are from "MinnesOta"! Overall, there are many words that differ in the English language that we come across and others pronounce differently. I notice it more and more since I read that myth in our book!

Class or School

It is funny how, when I was younger, would think my college siblings would say "class" and I would say "school". It makes me laugh because now I cannot picture saying "I got school in about twenty minutes". I think when one gets to college it really does change. In the college life, rarely do you ever here anyone say school, but class. I think it makes the most sense because it really does fit the college stereotype. It makes me think how the times have really changed. Even when I was reminiscing in my tenth grade classes about going to "school" back then, not class. The times have sure changed.

Go Cougars!

In Utah, the mascot "cougar" was deemed too risque for a high school mascot due to double meaning that it has in today's culture. I find this extremely unnecessary for them to act like this. I have heard of cougars being mascots at not only high schools but colleges as well! I am extremely shocked in this sense. We live in a society where swearing is the norm on television and sexual acts are performed even on television shows. It boggles my mind. This is a prime example of  just how much our language has changed and gets twisted. Words having double meanings, acting risque. Almost anything today can get twisted into something sexual or make a joke, but when do you draw the line? This is a high school mascot we are talking about. It honestly is crazy.

It is "I" not "Me"

I came across something in our book today that made me think back to the 1st grade. My teacher really was a stickler about this and as I read what our book entails, I feel she may be wrong. "My sister and I went to the store" she would always say. "My sister and me" was absolutely wrong. Many of my friends even growing up were taught this. It is really something that these teachers may be wrong. We were taught this because we are supposed to use I, the nominative case form of the first person pronoun, rather than the accusative form, me. According to Emonds (1986), this logic is not really logical. Does this make sense: We went to the store/Jane and we went to the store/Jane and us went to the store?  When we were told that My sister and I, it really does not have enough logic behind it to use it. This cannot be generalized to pronouns other than I. Pronouns show case in English, and prescriptive rules of them depend on the "correct" case in English. These rules are often inconsistent. So the next time we say My sister and me went to the store, it really is not logical to say that it is wrong.

Who is this "Jack" Character?

This topic was brought up today in the locker room before our practice. I thought to myself "who is jack anyway?". What I mean by this is sayings like "this person knows Jack shit". Also, there is a "high jack" you can use by high jacking a plane, is what comes to my mind. We have an exercise of the"jumping jack" and maybe you have a neighbor names Jack. What is just so great about this "jack" piece that we decided to use it vulgarly. While researching a bit on this topic, I think I am about the only one who thinks that this is worth researching because I did not really find anything. :/ . Is it just that Jack is that common in an English name that then has been added to words or phrases ever since? It really makes you wonder. Is it the ease of articulation when you do say something is "jack shit"? I guess we will not really know. I found it extremely interesting!

Slang and Profanity

While coming across my reading chapter 6, I would definitely say that it made me think of things that I guess I have not really thought about before. Starting with the topic of the vocabulary word slang, which is an informal word or expression that has not gained complete acceptability and is used by a particular group. When I think of slang, I think of me and my friends using "sweet" for something that is just awesome that happened. We also use that when being sarcastic. It is crazy that indeed there are words that are around today that have been used hundreds and hundreds of years ago. When it comes to slang I also think of the word "rubbish", which my grandparents always use when, in my vocab term, is "silverware" , fork, knife, etc. It is crazy that many words that we do use today are referred to as a "slang" type of word. Also, while reading this chapter I came across jargon, a specialized vocabulary term associated with a trade, sport, ect. I totally thought of my sport here at Bemidji State, soccer. We use so many jargons that are associated with the game that I thought of. "juggle, nut-meg, cut, scissors", are all examples are my jargons in my life. The final section I ended with today in chapter 6, was the use of taboo words, or forbidden word or expression interpreted as insulting, vulgar, or rude. Substitutes for taboo words really caught my attention. It is so true that we substitute shoot for shit or heck for hell. Heck, I say them a lot in my daily conversations. I will definitely remember that next time I am using those words and remind myself that those words that I am using are taboo words! This chapter really has me thinking about what exactly is profanity and why we use it. It is definitely interesting because in a daily conversation of people around campus, just by listening I heard the word "fuck" a lot. I feel like that word today is definitely being tossed around a bit lackadaisical. In NBC's 2003 broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, the lead singer of the U2 band quoted "fucking brilliant" on air. I feel as though others would argue that this is not really in fleeting context because it is used as an adjective here, which is what the press said. Overall, I feel as though profanity today in being misused and from when I was a kid, it was almost awe when you hear profanity around. Today, it is extremely laid back and It is getting out of control.