Language and Identity

Hello guys, welcome back !

Throughout todays blog I am going to be talking about three texts that I  had been assigned to read over the Eid holiday. Im going to discuss how these three texts link to the content that had been covered in class over the last week or so.

The first article “Understanding how the brain speaks two languages” by Jeffrey Kluger talks and portrays the ideal of how the brain could speak more two or more languages which is a necessary skill. “Learning to speak was the most remarkable thing you ever did. It wasn’t just the 50,000 words you had to master to become fluent or the fact for the first six years of you life you learned three new words per day,” I found that this quotation seems interesting since Kluger here explains the extra work that bilingual speakers take on. Showing us that their are many benefits behind the ideal and concept of being a bilingual. Taking a look back at what I have learnt I discovered that by reading this article I could see how code switching relates to a persons aspect in maintaining and fulfilling a gap that they have due to several language barriers. After reading this article as a bilingual I believe that I now have a better insight towards learning a third language and being a monolingual person, according to Kluger “monolinguals need more time.. its a life long advantage for bilinguals” as here it refers to knowledge and other aspects in life. 

The second article published by The Guardian (online web page) talks about the levels of intelligence according to the British aspects and dialects. Throughout this article they talk about the different accents that are present in Britain and he specifically talks about the accents of Birmingham and Yorkshire. Throughout his article he highlights how stereotypes have a diminishing influence towards how one perceives intelligence through a dialect, he states that “people who said nothing at all were regarded as more intelligent than those with a Brummie accent”. Despite that their had been some reaches and test results that indicated that the people of Birmingham tend “to be very bright and friendly”. According to a survey that had been conducted and mentioned in the article their had been low ratings to Birmingham (5.6 out of 10) since they accosted them with criminal activity. While on the other hand Yorkshire tenants were portrayed as “wise,trustworthy,honest and straight forward”. Looking back at what i have learnt in class i could see a connection between both of the articles since as this article takes a look at the effect of language within a community, alongside with how hey are being viewed.

the third and final article published by Joan O,C. Hamilton’s “You say Up, I Say Yesterday” throughout this article the author portrays and states how languages accents differ “differ in myriad ways beyond simply having” looking at the title of the article we could sense that languages have different words with different meanings. this article mainly focuses on “language influences how its speakers focus their attention” as throughout this universe their are different cultures that provide different insights to ones language. Taking a look at this article i could conclude that it mainly underlines the ideal of how languages structure relates and links to ones personal culture and thoughts regarding a certain aspect, thus implying certain differences leading to certain barriers and limitations between different languages thus linking back to Boroditsky’s social experiments. This article has a huge link with the content that had been covered in class as in class we had covered certain aspects that had been discussed in this article. Throughout our class we had the chance to look up certain words thats had derived from certain cultures and how they differ in meaning due to a cultures approach of a certain word. Moreover, this article links with a task that we had done in class which was creating our own language, since we interpreted words we created and gave them a definition of our own. 

Importance of you're mother tongue

Everything around us changes even languages do change, none of us speak the same type of english or arabic. Each one of us has his own accent has his own concept and style of english and arabic. It isn't necessary that any of those types is out-dated or “wrong” they are both considered right and this is because of “globalisation”. Globalisation had effected language in many  ways one of those would be by traveling from one place to another to get educated,employed, treated “medically” etc… Due to this movement a persons mother tongue is being affected by his surroundings thus leading to certain complications. Throughout this blog post I’m going to discuss the importance of a persons mother tongue and why it should be preserved so that it could be passed on to future generations. You're roots and origins all derive from you're mother tongue it defines who you are as it shapes out you're identity. Its your job to preserve it and maintain it from fading and being erased because of immigration or other aspects that may lead to its loss. 

you're native language isn't like another spoken language it should standout it should be treated as if it was a treasure between you're hands compared to the other languages out their.You’re mother tongue is part of a you're personal, social and cultural identity. It is this identification you get from speaking you're  mother tongue that enforces successful social patterns of acting and speaking. You're mother tongue is an indispensable instrument for the development of intellectual, physical and moral aspects of education. Habits, conducts, values, virtues, customs and beliefs are all shaped through you're native language. It helps you shape you're identity so what if you don't have a mother tongue or loss it over the years due to lack if use and practice. you would have an identity crisis since its what represents you as a person and helps shape you because it indicates were you descent from as mentioned earlier.  mother tongue is one of the most important aspects an tolls used to preserve traditions and cultural behaviours, so basically without have a home language preserved everything that revolves around erodes. 

we have to take a step for change and promote ones home language and preserve it no matter what because its a part of our identity and character.  home language helps value culture and traditions thats what I think on a personal level. On and economic scale you would have multiple languages so therefore, more job opportunities and could communicate with vast amount of people.

Good or Bad english?

The author of the text Bill Bryson states that thought the entire globe their are many of those who speak english and many of those who are willing to speak it. However, this has occurred due to the American and British dominance back in history as they had influenced many cultures and communities by the use of the english language. Although the author of the text states that there had been some shifts that had occurred in the language, for example when the germaneness applied the rules in latin onto english back in the 17th century. The author then metaphorically describes its as “asking people to play baseball using the rules of football” (p.197, line 2-3).Due to the shifts that had occurred in the language stuff that were said in the eighteenth century wont sound right to you in this era. In the eighteenth century it was correct to say “you was” but due to the shifts that had occurred in the language it would sound wrong to you because of the languages standard. When the author refers to “broken english” he refers to the simple errors that made in grammar which are easily made. This would mainly happen if english want you're mother tongue. 

talking about myself I often make lapses in grammatical english since it isn't my mother tongue and this mainly happens when I speak and write. This is because arabic isn't quite similar to english as in arabic there is a different sentence structure different set of rules to follow while writing or reading arabic. Even though they aren't that similar i was still able to get the hang of speaking and writing english with a few grammatical mistakes once in a while. Although this had never stopped me from achieving or getting to my main point or argument.

A Good Name

Omar is a male given name of an arabic and hebrew origin. Its common name amongst all Arab and muslim territories along side with other Spanish speaking countries. In arabic the name Omar originates from the arabic word (العُمْر) which stands for life. In Arab cultures and societies the name Omar is an optimistic name dedicated to newborns so that they are expected to have a longer life spam. On the other hand in hebrew the name has been used to refer to people who were eloquent and gifted in speaking. First of all looking back at through history the name had been wide spread throughout the islamic culture in fact many of prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) companions were named Omar an example would be Omar bin al-Khat’tab who was one of the closest companions to the prophet (PBUH).

Taking a look at the definition of my name I can clearly relate how my name has contributed to shape my identity. first of all this name belonged to a honourable man that was well known for distinguishing between the truth and false helped me realise the value of my name. The fact that this name belonged to such a venerable person helped me build up my identity. It made me realise that i should build a strong character to best suit and portray this name OMAR.

All about me

Hello everyone my name is Omar al juneidi, you've probably never heard anything about me because this is my first time blogging or because you just don't know me. well let me tell you about myself I’m a fifteen year old student thats currently studying al Raha international school. i like to play football, listen to music and many other things but thats not my main focus right now. As I'm writing to you fellas i would like you to think that I'm just like anyone out there amongst you guys i would like to get closer to you so that i could be able to share my experiences and stories with you, so that we could be more of a family. Let me tell you more about me I’m an adventurous guy that loves to try different things from time to time experience different situations in life so that i know how can i handle them so that i don't face any  struggles in the upcoming future. As it comes to language all i can say is that it plays a vital role in my life since it influences what surrounds me since when i was a small child i had been in an international school and everyone around me had spoken more than one language which was pretty impressive thus leading be to be anxious about studying languages and exploring them in a greater depth since i wanted to be like everyone around me, i wanted to feel special in a way or two thus getting me thrilled and excited each time i learn something new about a different language or a different culture etc.. since language plays a huge role in my life i think that its an important aspect or course to study because it can help you in you're future since studying language helps you to recognise others strengths and weaknesses in language alongside it helps improve you're speaking ability, in my perspective the study of language would benefit you in the early future.