2. At least three reflection posts (unrevised, but in MLA format)
3. Podcast summary/reflection
4. In-class peer review form
5. First draft of diagnostic essay
6. Paper proposal (revised)
7. First draft of final paper
2. At least three reflection posts (unrevised, but in MLA format)
3. Podcast summary/reflection
4. In-class peer review form
5. First draft of diagnostic essay
6. Paper proposal (revised)
7. First draft of final paper
Reflection Posts:
Podcast Reflection:
In this podcast I discussed a bit about my unique relationship with language. I go into some of my past and why I know two languages. Then talk about my struggles with one and my overall happiness with my status and relationship with language. I found it very refreshing to do something like a short form podcast. Talking is something so deeply ingrained in my blood that it comes totally naturally to talk for minutes on end. I feel that I could have talked more, but it would have most likely turned into a lot of gibberish.
Peer Review Form:
Diagnostic Essay:
Paper Proposal:
Final Essay First Draft:
Final Essay Second Draft:
Before I start, I would like to state some things about myself. I am an extremely flawed human and even more of a flawed student. When looked through from a writing lens, I roughly resemble swiss cheese. You will certainly be able to see that from this letter.
This semester I took English 101. In this course I learnt many things, not only about the topics at hand, also about myself. I came into the course not being particularly confident in my writing abilities. To this day that has not changed. I am 100% at fault for this. What I can say has changed was my understanding of my writing process. In high school I was never able to write and work as myself. Here, I was highly encouraged to use the same process I was told to use in high school. I am sorry to say, I did not use the process. The process which I am talking about is first researching your topic, then writing a draft, followed by revising it until you believe it to be good enough. I find that it leaves many holes in your knowledge and gives you a very limited number of sources of which to educate your opinion on and write about. What I did for the Diagnostic and Final essays was to start off with a very small amount of research, enough to get my feet wet. Then I write as many body paragraphs as I can. After I finish those, I take some time to think what would be good for this essay. This step leads me fully plunge myself into the pool of research. I believe this is much better because it allows me to know what I want to know about. At the start all you look is your topic. Now I can look for specific questions which I have had whilst writing. After I find some more sources, I write more paragraphs. I then continue this process until I reach X number of pages, X being the minimum number of pages -1. Then I write my introduction and conclusion. I hardly ever go back to an essay after I write it. I know it is not the correct thing to do. But my mind cannot go back to something I have done and find how to make it better. It just is not made like that. If I submitted a piece of work, it means I believe it to be as good as I can write it. It often turns out to be not by best work. Despite that I have not changed my process because it is comfortable for me and works with decent to good results. This can all be seen in my writings from this semester. I truly believe that that process infiltrates its way into everything I do. From the Diagnostic Essay, into a weekly Reflection Post.
Something Which I have changed due to this course is how I look at evidence and other’s writings. This course has made me learn how to analyze a writing and try to understand the author’s point of view. Sometimes, I have absolutely no clue what they are saying or why they are even writing in the first place. That happened with the poem African Majesty by Nourbese Phillips and I expressed my feelings on it in my reflection post. Apart from Phillips, the only other writer who truly stumped me was Martin Heidegger with his text Introduction to Metaphysics. Most of the time, I could understand the writings and make my own take on what they were trying to get across with their, at times, cryptic way of writing. That is of course my opinion. Before this class I was able to analyze texts at around a 9th grade level, mostly because of English being my second language. Now I can say that has at least improved by a couple of grades. I also learnt how to take these texts, extract their information, and write about them in a form as to inform the reader on these topics. When writing my Final Essay, I took hours to read and truly analyze my sources to make sure I could squeeze every drop of water I thought was available. Across the span of this course’s writings, I have been able to explore my own writing style. The weekly reflections are a great example of how my brain truly works and thinks about writing. Through my work, my use of vocabulary can can shift depending on the audience to which I am writing for. For example, in one of my reflection posts I wrote “For me, once my brain gets flowing it’s like a flash flooding river. The true problem is how to get it there. My neutral writing position is that between a 5-month drought and a wildfire.” In this, I write extremely calmly yet at the same time remain a formal sense of respect for all who might read my post. My Final Essay was meant to be a touch more formal, yet still accessible to people of my age and general lexicon. In it I wrote “we cannot underestimate the consequences that could have on the human brain. Since the dawn of the human era, time has been a vital and somewhat mythical concept. Some civilizations even went so far as to attach a God or Goddess to it. If someone could have a different framework from which to look at a concept as complex as time, who knows what could come of it.” I will not say that I have mastered writing for an audience, for that would be a vast hyperbole. Despite that, I will say that I have significantly improved. Another area of improvement has been my ability to analyze texts of all types and still be able to write about them in the same way. During this class, we have read poems, books, letters, watched films and visual albums. They are all incredibly different mediums with which to transmit your message to the public. Even though they are different an analysis will always be of the same type and same style. This allows for a sense of uniformity in different works. In my Diagnostic essay I was able to analyze the movie Amistad viewed through the lens of cinematography and sound design. To do this I used a variety of sources ranging from articles and websites, to youtube videos by professional musicians.
Rest of the portfolio: https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/eng101-language-and-violence/2020/12/10/final-portfolio/
A quote that stood out to me the most in Beyonce’s “Black is King” was when it said “When it’s all said and done, I don’t even know my own native tongue. And if I can’t speak myself, I can’t think myself, and if I can’t think myself, I can’t be myself. But if I can’t be myself, I will never know me. So, Uncle Sam, tell me this, if I will never know me, how can you?” – I paused the film here and pondered for awhile. If African-American people are never able to know their true identity because they do not know where their ancestors came from or what language they spoke or what their culture was like, how is it fair to assume the government knows these people well enough to make laws for them? I guess the only reason is because they are now U.S citizens so therefore they must abide by the laws the government puts in place.. But you must realize, they were not originally here by choice but rather by force.
“History is your future. One day, you will meet yourself back where you started, but stronger.”
“Life is a set of choices. Lead or be led astray. Follow your light or lose it.”
These two quotes were also important to me because it shows that she is trying to empower young African-Americans to realize the brainwashing that has been going on for years. She is telling them it is in their hands to do something about it and that they are in fact powerful enough to do so.
I also noticed that literally every single person in Beyonce’s film was of color. I really appreciated this. It was obvious they were not just used as props (like in most white-directed films) – I like this because all of these people were paid for their creative work and maybe were even able to start their careers here. She is empowering people. She is practicing what she preaches.
3. Podcast Summary/Reflection
To begin, I want to say that perception is a matter of the mind and not an absolute truth that can be defined in one way or the other.
Using the definition from the Oxford Dictionary – The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a hypothesis that was, “first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience”
The question of whether language affects the way people perceive the world has been ongoing for many years. I ultimately believe language is the only thing that creates our perception of the world, and the forementioned hypothesis supports this claim.
Merriam-Webster defines a slave as “one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence”
Now why am I talking about slaves in relevance to language and perception?
I want to argue that we, as humans, are all slaves (as the previous definition states) to the language we speak because it is ultimately the ruler of the universe we have allowed ourselves to know, and it is quite the challenge to emancipate ourselves from this form of mental slavery.
Think about a time when there was something you were experiencing in your mind that you just could not find a word for. I know this has happened to me on several occasions. This is because every language does not have a word for everything we want to say. So what do we do when this happens? Well for me, after searching for words to describe what Im thinking, and failing, I just move on and forget about it.. This is exactly what I mean by mental slaves to language – if we didn’t have words to describe our thoughts, then we would get no where in communicating with others. As soon as we can’t think of what we are trying to say, our thoughts are literally lost somewhere in our brain. Language is the only thing here that is preventing our mind from doing what it is trying to do – communicate.
Furthermore, I have several friends who are bilingual. Specifically my two best friends who’s native language is French. I have heard them stumbling to find a word to translate another word they know in French – and sometimes it simply does not exist. Some words have a strictly unique meaning and the can nature of them is unknown to other languages. Translation from languages is not an easy process because it is not just about changing a word to another word, but rather expressing the entire sense of the meaning to another. Even if they took their time to try to describe the word to me, I most likely will not understand the concept until I experience their culture myself.
I have taken Spanish for 5 years now and I know by doing so I am allowing my mind to be more flexible to new concepts. This does not mean bilingual people are perfect or experience some form of higher thinking, but rather we are quicker to develop new perceptions of the world.
I know there are things about the world that are unknown to me. And when I really started thinking about this topic of interest, was when we were learning about the ‘nothing’ in one of our modules. It was bizarre to me that I couldn’t think about the ‘nothing’, no image came to my mind. Although most people on the planet cannot picture what the nothing is, I know there are so many concepts that other people easily can perceive in their minds and that I just won’t be able to think about because it has not yet been introduced in my language.
I also know when watching Lera Boroditsky’s TedTalk “How Language Shapes the Way We Think” that she was talking about languages that do not have exact words for numbers or ways to quantify things simply. This is one thing my brain is not able to perceive because I believe I learned my numbers before I even learned the alphabet. Conversely, the speakers of these languages without numbers have no possible way to think about numbers or quantities. It is just the way we have trained our mind to work based on our language and culture. Again, here language is controlling what we are capable of thinking about.
In closing, if you agree that language controls thought, this means we, as humans, are completely submissive to its dominating control of our mind. As languages evolve, the control system allowing our mind’s to program meanings is evolving as well. Even in the instance of bilingual people, the bilingual person is still only able to think about the concepts her mind is allowing through language. There will always be an unknown – something you just cannot describe. Your mind is powerful enough to think about it, but your language is not. After all, Barry Mandela once said, “Words are the most dangerous weapons of all”.
REFLECTION – In my podcast, I analyze the control that language holds over our thoughts and perceptions of the world. Because each language is so drastically different, each person’s knowledge of the universe varies based on their reality. Because there are different ways that people view the world around them based on their language and culture, this ultimately leads me to believe each language is its own universe. This reveals how flexible our minds are. In fact, I would have never had these thoughts, or did this podcast unless I took this class. The language of this class had the ability to control my thoughts, in a good way. I am thankful I took this class as I have enjoyed it the most out of all my classes this semester. It really allowed me to consider several challenges people all around the world encounter through language. I never even thought about language before this class really because it is something that comes so natural to us as speakers, we aren’t thinking about the control it has on us as a child when we are just learning to communicate. It’s too late to change much about it once we realize the manipulation that is occurring – be it benign or sinister..
4. In-Class Peer Review Form
5. First Draft of Diagnostic Essay
6. Second Draft of Diagnostic Essay
7. Paper Proposal (revised)
Can language shape the way we think?
How does language shape the way we think?
Language is able to shape the way humans think first because it is impossible to untangle language from thought because language produces new information, and secondly because it is impossible to remove language from a society and culture.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4628110/ (Links to an external site.)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0010028501907480 (Links to an external site.)
https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/stable/j.ctt1sq5vj8.20?refreqid=excelsior%3Ab6feb339906a58c9ae77ddfb4b19edc2&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (original proposal at this point)
ADDED:
sources:
The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers
Bob Marley’s redemption song
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. Language, Thought, and Reality.
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a hypothesis that was, “first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience” (Oxford Dictionary)
Therefore because language has such a powerful influence on the mind, it can be said that all humans are experiencing a form mental slavery because of what their language is allowing them to know. Merriam-Webster defines a slave as “one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence” (Merriam-Webster dictionary editors).
8. First draft of Final Paper
9. Second draft of Final Paper
– chose to not do this..
Hey guys- I hope you enjoy my podcast and find the topics I raise useful to some of the themes we’ve discussed throughout the course!
Transcript –
To begin, I want to say that perception is a matter of the mind and not an absolute truth that can be defined in one way or the other.
Using the definition from the Oxford Dictionary – The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is a hypothesis that was, “first advanced by Edward Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Benjamin Whorf, that the structure of a language determines a native speaker’s perception and categorization of experience”
The question of whether language affects the way people perceive the world has been ongoing for many years. I ultimately believe language is the only thing that creates our perception of the world, and the forementioned hypothesis supports this claim.
Merriam-Webster defines a slave as “one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence”
Now why am I talking about slaves in relevance to language and perception?
I want to argue that we, as humans, are all slaves (as the previous definition states) to the language we speak because it is ultimately the ruler of the universe we have allowed ourselves to know, and it is quite the challenge to emancipate ourselves from this form of mental slavery.
Think about a time when there was something you were experiencing in your mind that you just could not find a word for. I know this has happened to me on several occasions. This is because every language does not have a word for everything we want to say. So what do we do when this happens? Well for me, after searching for words to describe what Im thinking, and failing, I just move on and forget about it.. This is exactly what I mean by mental slaves to language – if we didn’t have words to describe our thoughts, then we would get no where in communicating with others. As soon as we can’t think of what we are trying to say, our thoughts are literally lost somewhere in our brain. Language is the only thing here that is preventing our mind from doing what it is trying to do – communicate.
Furthermore, I have several friends who are bilingual. Specifically my two best friends who’s native language is French. I have heard them stumbling to find a word to translate another word they know in French – and sometimes it simply does not exist. Some words have a strictly unique meaning and the can nature of them is unknown to other languages. Translation from languages is not an easy process because it is not just about changing a word to another word, but rather expressing the entire sense of the meaning to another. Even if they took their time to try to describe the word to me, I most likely will not understand the concept until I experience their culture myself.
I have taken Spanish for 5 years now and I know by doing so I am allowing my mind to be more flexible to new concepts. This does not mean bilingual people are perfect or experience some form of higher thinking, but rather we are quicker to develop new perceptions of the world.
I know there are things about the world that are unknown to me. And when I really started thinking about this topic of interest, was when we were learning about the ‘nothing’ in one of our modules. It was bizarre to me that I couldn’t think about the ‘nothing’, no image came to my mind. Although most people on the planet cannot picture what the nothing is, I know there are so many concepts that other people easily can perceive in their minds and that I just won’t be able to think about because it has not yet been introduced in my language.
I also know when watching Lera Boroditsky’s TedTalk “How Language Shapes the Way We Think” that she was talking about languages that do not have exact words for numbers or ways to quantify things simply. This is one thing my brain is not able to perceive because I believe I learned my numbers before I even learned the alphabet. Conversely, the speakers of these languages without numbers have no possible way to think about numbers or quantities. It is just the way we have trained our mind to work based on our language and culture. Again, here language is controlling what we are capable of thinking about.
REFLECTION – In my podcast, I analyze the control that language holds over our thoughts and perceptions of the world. Because each language is so drastically different, each person’s knowledge of the universe varies based on their reality. Because there are different ways that people view the world around them based on their language and culture, this ultimately leads me to believe each language is its own universe. This reveals how flexible our minds are. In fact, I would have never had these thoughts, or did this podcast unless I took this class. The language of this class had the ability to control my thoughts, in a good way. I am thankful I took this class as I have enjoyed it the most out of all my classes this semester. It really allowed me to consider several challenges people all around the world encounter through language. I never even thought about language before this class really because it is something that comes so natural to us as speakers, we aren’t thinking about the control it has on us as a child when we are just learning to communicate. It’s too late to change much about it once we realize the manipulation that is occurring – be it benign or sinister..
In closing, if you agree that language controls thought, this means we, as humans, are completely submissive to its dominating control of our mind. As languages evolve, the control system allowing our mind’s to program meanings is evolving as well. Even in the instance of bilingual people, the bilingual person is still only able to think about the concepts her mind is allowing through language. There will always be an unknown – something you just cannot describe. Your mind is powerful enough to think about it, but your language is not. After all, Barry Mandela once said, “Words are the most dangerous weapons of all”.
Hello everyone. Attached, you will find my podcast. I hope that you find it interesting and useful when considering some of the themes that I expose and how they may relate to you in your own right.