The Importance of Being in Class

So, I get to my conference okay.  I talked to Mr. Barnette about some off the wall issues, and then we discussed my paper.  Let me just go ahead and point out that I wasn't thrilled at the grade I got.  As we were going through this paper, he pointed out many little stupid things that I didn't think of that were absolutely killing my paper.  Oh well.  He's giving me a chance to revise it, and now I know everything I can do to help.  It's this next paper that's going to give me troubles, seeing as to how it's due soon.  It's very important to come to class.  I had to miss a day that could have really helped me.  It was the self-evaluation day.  Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I want to discuss one of the readings.  I believe it was called something like "English is for Everyone".  After reading that, I feel about "yay" high (probably about an inch, using an old country term).  I'm not sure on the spelling for that, but it's not very tall.  Honestly, I try to speak as properly as possible, because I don't want people to associate me with having "hick" backgrounds.  However, after reading this, I see that these words that "hicks" use, have been used for a long time.  The reading talked about how people got together to make certain rules.  The rules they made cut out a lot of that language.  Who are those people to say what's wrong and what's not?  My ignorance of all of this before made me feel uncomfortable to be caught sounding like that.  But really, I think me and some of my buddies should organize a national convention on how you can and can't walk.  We're going to rule out "strutting", so models are just going to have to find a new way to walk.  --That makes no sense whatsoever.  Is that how it happened?  Were they all just in a meeting and saying stuff like, "well, Geoffrey says this word 'yonder'.  I don't like it, let's say it's not proper."  

I think everyone's so caught up in being politically correct that we've forgotten the most important thing, acknowledgement of cultures.  Nowhere in the United States is the same.  Maybe I've been wrong all these years.  Maybe it is okay to have an accent and say words like, "tater, mater, tornader."  I think the worst part is that having an accent and just being yourself can keep you from earning an important job.  I guess someone from Nebraska would get the job instead.  I don't know.  All I know is that I'm hoping to find out more to help me understand and to think more open-mindedly.  

One Brutal Week

I've had a terrible week.  I've been really sick, as a lot of students have been.  I missed school on Monday in order to try to recover for all the Midterms I had this week.  That was okay, except for I missed some pretty important class sessions.  I finally got to feeling "a little" bit better on Wednesday, and got my paper all tidied up on Tuesday night.  However, when I went to print it on Wednesday morning, I ran into a problem.  First, I forgot my flash drive.  If that wasn't bad enough, I finally got to the library, and there wasn't a free computer in the Commons, because some people found that watching videos on Youtube was more important that people trying to prepare for the professional world.  I really can't complain, though.  It's my fault.  It was my irresponsibility that caused me not to print it off on Tuesday.  I work at a radio station back in my home town.  My boss has told me something that I know I'm going to carry with me for the rest of my life.  He said, "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance".  The seven P's.  Even though I've been inactive from my classes, I know I've learned a lot this week.  I've learned that it doesn't matter how crappy you feel, you still have to be productive.  I know that's how it's going to be in the professional world.  The world will never stop turning for me.  And I'll admit, I kinda wanted someone to feel sorry for me and cut me a break.  That's quite immature on my part, but hey, I'm getting older and learning life lessons.  I've also learned that I've got only half a semester to improve myself.  I'm going to work hard to pick things up.  I've used excuses all semester.  I think it's time to grow up.  I'm ready for the rest of the semester.  Bring it on!

Another week

This week in class we discussed racism in language. Linguistic profiling occurs a lot. As I said in discussion, I'm not surprised by this at all. It's pretty easy to tell that something like that is going to occur. So many people in this world are crooked. I've seen so much dishonesty from people I never even would have believed it from. People will always be profiled, as sad as that is.

As far as the video goes. Part one of the video was actually pretty funny at times. I thought it was great that he went around doing research on language. What I found funny was how basic some of his research was. He was talking to teenagers about their instant messaging habits. There were a lot of those phrases that I've been using since middle school. It had never been pointed out to me that maybe some people don't know what those things mean.

As far as the Midwest goes, I never would have thought that they would be considered the area with no accent. People stereotype the southern states to have "country" accents, which is not always true. There are plenty of people without accents of this kind. I guess that also ties into linguistic profiling, but that's always a stereotype that has upset me. I've hated to be made out like a hick or redneck. I'm sure several people hate to be profiled like that, though.

I didn't really know what to expect from this class. We've stretched language in every way. I figured we would just talk about how languages come about. After learning about "linguistic profiling" and "globish", I've gained an interest that I've never had. It's so interesting that you we can go so in-depth with this particular topic. We've still got a whole semester too.