New Zealand trip


This winter hollydays, I had the great oportunity to travel to New Zealand with 9 friends from school. I must say that it was one of the best experiences that I've had in my life, maybe because of the great contry that it is, or maybe because I leaved for 3 weeks in Togher family's house.

One of the things that you notice at the moment you arrive to NZ is that the life and adverticings are based in two things: rugby and kiwis. Rugby for the NZ society is one of the most important things. The local team is called Hurricanes, and although is not the best team, they are going through a good time right now.


Other thing that I really liked from the country is the people. Everybody is very nice, and there are almost no thieves. And one of the most special experiences was staying in the house of a student from the scots college, Jake Togher. First days were very serious for me, because they have diferent costums, and i didn't know the family, but after a few days I really enjoyed spending time with my host brother and family, although my friends and i used to met a lot in the citiy. I think this will be an experience I will never forget.

Analysing " A language with no limits"

The text "A lanuage with no limts" talks about, as the tittle says, language, but more specific, variations in English, as the henglisn, the chinglish or arabizi. This very special dialects created by people who are not native English speakers, comes from the combination of English itslef, and other language, depending on wich of them we are talking about. The article, taken from the toronto star newspaper, inform to people intersted in new dialects about how this new forms of speaking and writing have been developed, specially in toronto, Canada, and how this is good for language and other cultures, because it ctreates a form of comunication for this three cultures in this case, that allow them to comunicate, but maintaining their own language.

Apu, character from "The Simpsons"

We can find some argot in this text, wich are some phrases that the author uses as an example of the new dialects. Some of them are publicity, from big brands as Pepsi and Coke. We are able to infer that the author is supporting the new dialects, because he shows us in the whole text why is this good for english, and compares it with the irish or even the american english. In my opinion, the development of new forms of language is good, specially for non-native English speakers, because it allow them to comunicate better, in a world in wich English is the most important language up to now.

What is a social media?


The merrian-webster dictionary defines social media as  forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos). Twitter. Facebook. Pinterest. These are all examples of social media, and I bet as soon as you hear these words, you can add at least another three sites to the list off the top of your head.

Social media is a type of online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which delivers content but doesn't allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate in the creation or development of the content. There is a wide variety of social media, ranging from social sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr through social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook.


Social media has shot to the forefront of people's attention because it's fun. Thanks to social media, it's easy to share your ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes, with the world at large - and find out what they think of them. You can find friends, business contacts and become part of a community or a bunch of different communities. Social media gives you what TV never could - a chance to be engaged and engage others.
The next video shows some facts about social media, and how it has been developed. Also shows how it is good for companies and for people.

Reading Comprehension: teenagers and social networks.


Today I am going to answer some questions from two diferent articles: the first from Tamar Lewin, and the other one from Dr Aric Sigman.


Questions:

1.. What are the opinions expressed by the researchers in texts 2 and 3?
2. What are the differences in the ways the researchers view community?
3. What kinds of distinctions do the researchers make (or not make) in relation to communication?


First, the text from Tamar Lewin shows us the good way of watching the social networks, saying that participating in new media is giving them the necesary tools and skills for the succes in the contemporary world. On the other hand, Dr. Aric Sigman says that using the social networks exesively could raise your risk of cancer and other deseases. This because not meating face-to-face get your defenses low, and other biological reactions that the body presents when you are not meating face-to-face.


Second, both researches view community in very differnt ways, both of them very extreme in their points of view. One uses the social and psicological area to argument his idea, while the other one uses the medical and biological area.


Third, Lewin states that is the same to have a face to face conversation or an online one, but, as it has been said, Dr. Sigman states that is very different in a medical point of view. In my opinion, being part of social networks is something that teenagers need because it makes you part of the new world society, but having a face to face conversation will always be more satisfactory.

Using Jargon: Role-play

In this activity  that Fernando Nuñes, Matias Urzua and I developed, we did a representation of a real life situation: medical examiners that just recived a body. The hole idea of this activity was to aply what we just learned about jargon. Using words like COD, liver and cirrosis, we performed a play in wich we used scientific jargon. As my personal opinion, I learned more about jargon, an how this ones are just from a specific group that shares the same profession. We also laugh and had a great time.

 

Language in cultural context


We know that every text has its own meaning. Meaning comes from complex interactions between text (or speech, or image), audience, and purpose, and it can change depending on the language, culture and context. To understand and analyze a text, we need to find:


Theme: is the central idea or ideas explored by a literary work. John Gardner puts it this way: "By theme here we mean not a message -- a word no good writer likes applied to his work -- but the general subject, as the theme of an evening of debates may be World Wide Inflation."


Topic: A topic is the main organizing principle of a discussion, either verbal or written.


Main idea: The central purpose or gist of a passage or text; the primary message expressed by a passage or text. The main idea of a paragraph may be explicitly stated in a topic sentence.


Source: The point at which something springs into being or from which it derives or is obtained.


Target Audience: Audience to whom the text is directed.

Author's Purpose: is the intention of the author. It can be to persuede, inform or entertain.

Genre: A type or category of literature or film marked by certain shared features or conventions. It can be a fiction or non-fiction genre.

Tone: is the author’s attitude toward the writing (his characters, the situation) and the readers.  A work of writing can have more than one tone.  An example of tone could be both serious and humorous.  Tone is set by the setting, choice of vocabulary and other details. 

Register: a term designating the appropriateness of a given style to a given situation. Speakers and writers in specific situations deploy, for example, a technical vocabulary (e.g. scientific, commercial, medical, legal, theological, psychological), as well as other aspects of style customarily used in that situation. Literary effect is often created by switching register.

What is jargon?

Jargon is defined as the followin:

1. the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group: medical jargon.
2. unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; gibberish.
3. any talk or writing that one does not understand.
4. language that is characterized by uncommon or pretentiousvocabulary and convoluted syntax and is often vague inmeaning.

As the highlighted line says, it is a vocabulary exclusive to a group of people from the same profession. We know three types of jargon: medical language, language in sports and scientific language.

Scientific language: is the vocabulary used by science people. Scientists use language to give authority to their work, but if the words become jargon, they can end up alienating the audience instead of convincing them. Such as the word "Spaghettification". It has nothing to do with Italian cuisine, but refers to what happens if an object falls into a black hole. The classic example is the word 'derma' which simply means skin. Or anything with 'poly', which only means many. The other thing they do is to reduce words to a bunch of initials like MYFB, which look very scientific but probably only mean 'makes you feel better'. This is called Mystification.

Language in sports: it belongs to people involved in sports, and it can be the rules of a sport, specific plays, or just terms about players in a sport. A clear example is the bootleg, a play from american football. The quarterback fakes a handoff to the running back and continues running with the ball opposite from the direction the running back was headed.

Legal language: is the vocabulary used by judges, or people who work in the law's area. For example, atorney, that is defined as a person appointed to act on behalf of another person and sign documents on their behalf, or stamp duty, that is a government tax payable on completion of the purchase of a property over a certain value.



Definition of argot

A specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular group: thieves' argot.