Blog Seven

In the essay “A way with word, or away with words: effect of texting IMing on language”, author Timothy Barranco addresses whether or not using abbreviating words to text messages is harmful for the youth’s language skill. He provides several strong evidences to support that texting message has a positive effect on its users. In the second and third paragraph, Barranco points outs that some people argue that txt is having negative effects on English language skill in teenager, so on the rest of his essay, he offers examples, authority to prove these people’s opinions are wrong. First of all, he writes that txt doesn’t dominate the writing of txt users because “the use of short forms, abbreviations, and emotional language is infinitesimally small, less than 3% of the data”(Tagliamonte and Denis 24). Txt users have to know the words, phrases, and sentences that they want to shorten so that they can abbreviate them. Moreover, the author uses his research resources and his personal experience to show that “the bad habits developed through frequent use of txt are typically short-lived.” According to writer’s illustration, when txt users grow old and become mature, they tend to use more formal style in their writing instead of the txt they used. Finally, Barranco mentions that as the consequence of evolving of language, txt is a newest style that has occurred; therefore, people still need time to embrace it. As the author describes in his last paragraph, “TXT should be accepted as a useful tool and given a chance to show its full potential as an accessory to the English language.”

Blog Six

In the essay “Synesthesia”, the author Elizabeth Glinka uses several paraphrases and quotations for the reason that this is a scientific essay and many readers do not acquaint with the definition of Synethesia. For an example, she chooses “Researchers believe that many writers, composers, and artists deemed artistically advanced have created a mental state ideal for expressing a message sensually and lyrically.(Day 22-23)”(P. 74) as one of her paraphrases to illustrate the actual synethesia. The author gives evidence that many scientists believe it is possible that synethesia can be induced. According to this citation, readers can get more objective information about the relationship between aynethesia and the specific group of people. This paraphrase convinced that many artistes, writers, and composers enhanced and created their sense of synesthesia because of their jobs. Moreover, in order to describe the family patterns, Elizabeth quotes “‘while genetics may determine general predisposition, it does not determine the marked individual differences in the subjective experience of synaesthesia’ （Barnettet al. 885)” (P. 75). As researchers try to understand the individual differences of synesthesia by studying genetics, this quotation can perfectly explain what scientists about the connection between genetics and individual synesthesia so far. In light of this sentence, readers can easily comprehend that genetics could determine the predisposition, but it couldn’t determine the the style of different synesthesia.

A distorting mirror

There is an old proverb in China: history is a mirror to caution nowadays people’s decision. This is a classic saying which reminds people to use history as a model to improve our movement, but what if the history is a distorting mirror? How can we distinguish the truth from the disguise mask? History is recorded by human beings, which makes it full of tricks. Even the most professional historians can’t promise that what they wrote down was neutral because of the natural emotional judgments. In China, history always has two types: authentic history and unofficial history. The first style was usually recorded by officers who worked for emperors. Therefore, this kind history usually tended to focusing on the contributions that the king made. On the contrary, unofficial history was more incline to reflect the opinions of ordinary people. Moreover, the winners often possessed the power to write the history, so this style of history just took the bright side of the winner, plus the negative side of the loser. For example, in Chinese history, there were two famous men: Liu and Xiang. They had fought for several years to try to beat each other and become China’s emperor. In the end, Liu won the battle; thus, in a lot Chinese authentic historical recording, Liu was an brilliant emperor, but Xiang was just a strong guy who was selfish and didn’t know how to use his mind and soldiers. However, in other unofficial historical books and later historians’ demonstration, Xiang, who made some fatal mistakes which led his loss, was a real man that gained a lot respect from different fields. The illustration in the history of Xiang and Liu would totally different if Xiang win the final battle. Finally, this coming Monday has a special celebration--Columbus Day, which is a holiday to commemorate the landing on America of Columbus. This is a good chance for us to observe deeply of that period of history again to figure out what the distorting mirror really want to tell and teach us.

Let's be stronger

As Liu mentioned in his article, he was a mature adult, so college students were too young for him to talk with. Moreover, according to his description, professors were either arrogant or rude; thus, he was also not interested in communicating with them. In addition, because of his confined English skill, he felt more comfortable when he was talking with other Chinese. I thought another reason why he needed to be with Chinese was of less or more his personality. His mind and action was kind of childish because he just kept complaining about his suck life in America without a positive emotion. In a word, he was a weak man (no offence).
Remembering the first day I came to UD, I met my first roommate, a Japanese girl, who is such a nice and nice girl. Even though she was an exchange student who has just stayed in America for four months, we became best friend and still keep in touch until now. I also met many international students and native speakers who are really friendly to me and taught me a lot. However, I have also encountered some awkward experiences. One day, when I was walking on the street, a car drove by and somebody just yelled at me, something like: F***!! Go back to China!! That moment extremely pissed me off.
In my opinion, we always feel lonely when we study or live abroad because we are far away from our country, far away from our hometown, far away from everything that once we were familiar with. Therefore, even if we meet strangers who come from the same country, the feeling of nostalgia will narrow the distance between each other.
1. Animated: (adj.) full of interest and energy;
2. Preeminent: (adj.) more important or better than others;
3. Complacent: (adj.) feeling so satisfied with your own abilities or situation that you feel you do not need to try any harder.

Nonverbal communication--assignment 3

During this summer holiday, I went back to China for my vocation. One day, I hanged out with my best friend JY. When I was talking about my life in America, she suddenly pointed out that I added too many body gestures, and she made fun of the distance between her and me because I stood too far away from her which seems that she got swine flu. Then, I realized that I changed a lot in nonverbal communication after I have stayed in American for four months. There are plenty differences in gestures, eye contact, and body space between China and America due to diverse traditional culture, but now I am used to using American style. In China, when people communicate to each other, we always prefer just talking without so plenty vivid gestures. On the contrary, Americans love expressing emotional feelings directly by active body language. Moreover, Chinese will try to close to the person we talk to, which shows friendliness and intimacy. Nevertheless, Americans will choose at distance with other people for the reason that they believe it’s a polite to respect each other’s privacy. However, no matter Chinese or American, eye contact plays an indispensable role in a conversation. All of us believe that eye contact is one of essential respectful action that shows interest and trust.

A tough girl’s short story---Assignment 2 Option 3

Remembering the first time I met O, I was chatting with my roommate M in the dorm. At that time, our classes had already started for one week, but there were still two empty beds in my dorm, so M and I supposed that they wouldn’t come to school. Suddenly, our door was opened violently and bumped against the wall fiercely: O show up. She is our new roommate. After a short but not friendly explanation, she ran out of the room in hurry and left M and I there who was still shocked by her sudden appearance. (When we became friends, she said she had to buy a lot of new staffs for new classes, so she left.) In my first impression, O is a rude, arrogant with too much self-confident girl; however, when we lived together and got chances to know each other well, she is such a kind, considerate and independent “old woman”（her nickname）. Because of her independence, she always gave people a tough feeling, but she took care of me a lot during the time that I studied in my last school. Every time, when I made mistakes, she is my backup to fix them. It’s impossible for me to forget the surprise birthday that she and M spent whole week to prepare. Even though now I am studying in United State and she is in China, she still always encourages me.

Indeed, Thank you so much, my dear friend.

Language Gap

After reading the short essay, Mother Tongue, I had some ideas of the differences habit of using language by comparing with my parents’. There are two reasons causing the differences. First of all, in China, we have our common language and different areas’ unique language, so my generation learns the common language in school. However, my parents prefer my hometown tongue. I usually couldn’t understand perfectly when they kept using my hometown language. As Amy mentioned in the essay, my mom sometimes pushed me to talk with salesman for the reason that she didn’t feel comfortable and influence to use common language. Another reason is the age gap between my parents and I which makes our language differ from each other. For example, when my mother sometimes talked with me, she used a few words that I never used. Moreover, people always formal language in formal situation, such as giving a speech, in class, or talking to someone who is much older. On the contrary, when we chat with friends or family, the language we use is in less formal ones. Language is a ID tag which shows who you are and what you experienced. It is a wonderful thing we have mother tongue because that is the family feeling.

This is Micky~~

All of my friends call me Micky because I always draw Mickey Mouse to cheer myself up when I am in blue mood. As a lot of people said, 20 is the fanciest period age in our life, so now I am a 20-year-old girl who seems never lack of energy. Shanghai is my hometown which is one of most flourish cities in China. Scrooge, the richest duck in Disney world, is my career model. He has a square building where he keeps his money in, and he always swims in the coin pool which is my wildest dream!! During my leisure time, I love roller skating, playing guitar, watching movies and TV show and hanging out with my friends. Unlike other families in China just have one child because of the Chinese policy, I have a brother who is six years younger than me. However, people usually think he is older than me because he looks more mature, which makes him feel upset because he couldn’t get girlfriend. My mother is a normal and interesting woman, and she keeps speaking about my life, study, the same as other mothers. My father is serious man who taught me a lot. This is Micky and her long personal information.