Langauge

                                                            Language

            I have been studying Italian these past two semesters and it raised two very important questions. Why is it easier to grasp Italian than it is for me to correctly speak or write my native language of English? How many limitations does the English language put on who we think, feel, and act? The answers to these questions are not simple, but the more I study Italian the better answer I obtain.

            It is easier for me to learn Italian than for me to understand English for two very simple reasons. The first is I never got taught the correct grammatical layouts and as you notice from my horrible writing skills grammar is not innate as some assume. On the other hand I was able to get an in depth study of Italian grammar and learn exactly how to formulate complex sentences. The second reason is just that English is an unnecessarily complicated language that does not seem to follow a set pattern as opposed to other languages. For instance if someone gave me two words one in English and one in Italian and one in English and told me to pronounce it and give you the number of syllables in it. The only one that will be correct is the pronunciation of the Italian word since letters in Italian always make the same sounds I just have to put the different sounds together while in English the sounds of letters change and I would have no idea how to pronounce it. I can easily tell you how many syllables is in any given Italian word since the number of syllables is simply the number of vowels while in English there seems to be no way of knowing.

            In English I know a lot of words and Italian I know few words, but I am able to better describe things in Italian than in English. For example take the English word love that can be used to describe the feelings you have for activities, your family, or your significant other, but do we feel the same about all three? No, but there is no other way to describe our feelings because there is no other words. In Italian there is three different was to express love for all of these things which helps us better express the way we feel. In English I lack the language used to adequately describe my feelings and if there is not the right words then how do we know how we really feel?

Penn state memes

                                                                                Penn State Memes

                As you scroll down your homepage on facebook you probably see two or three facebook memes and everyone likes, shares, or comments on them. Sometimes people even do all three. As I sat in bed and wondered what I would write about this week I happened to notice one and it made me think of why I found it so interesting. Is it the fact that it reminds me of something? Is the picture of something interesting? Is it that I logged on to facebook with the hope of being entertained? After thinking about it for a little bit I realized that it is all three. Memes have been taking over facebook and is almost a daily source of entertainment for me. Today I would look at the latest meme and discuss why it is particularly amusing.

 

                As I currently sit in a hot dorm room with only a fan and an open window to keep me cool I can’t help, but laugh. The meme is not witty or did it tell me something I did not already realize. It just simplicity stated what was already on my mind. It is simply to the point and relies solely on the fact that the audience is feeling the same way. He used a dark blue background which drew attention to the bright white words. He allowed us to see the anger and frustration that we are already feeling. He used the most basic form of rhetoric by playing on his audience pathos and the kairotic moment. If he created this meme in January it would have been ignored because it is already cold, but since he created it in the middle of a hot season we are all pissed by the heat in our rooms. The kairotic moment is the fact that we are already ready to laugh at any meme we see because we expect them to entertain us as they have been doing for the last few months.

Teamwork

Teamwork

                “It’s not cheating it’s team-work.” I recently saw this on Facebook and as I laughed at it I thought of this class. As we start this group project I think of all the group projects I had in the best. I never been a big fan of group work and in general I approach it with caution. The most interesting part of me and group projects is that my personality always changes. I found it funny when Ben went over the personality types in groups and how depending on the class and project I can be any of the four. In this blog I am going to discuss the difference personalities I have so you can be prepared for the upcoming weeks.

                Last semester I took Crim100, which I now realize was a waste of time, and the entire semester we was in groups and we had tests/quizzes and group assignments we also had individual assignments on the same topics beforehand. I was upset because I would always get a higher group on the individual assignments then we gained on the group ones. So I ended up becoming a “d” personality and tried to take charge and get the work done I was annoyed when others did not talk or wanted to look at the little details. The other members of the group despised me and that shown on the peer review.

                In contrast I had a group project my junior year of high school in A.P. physics. That is a class that I am not really good at, I got a 2 on the A.P exam, so I ended up being a “S” type. I made up for not being good in the subject by not really talking and making those around me feel better when possible. I never actually contributed to the group, but I talked to everyone and made them feel good. The project turned out great and my group members liked me even though I was useless.

                In summary my personality changes depending on how good I am in the subject so I hope you guys are now ready.

Stall stories

                                                Stall Stories

                Rush into bathroom almost knocking over random person in the hall who you mumble an excuse me to without even bothering to see who it is and finally getting into a stall. Once you are settled and happy you made it there safely you notice what in a way resembles a newspaper. These stall stories are found everywhere from the bathroom to dorm rooms even to the employee bathroom. Is this because people are more likely to kill their bathroom time by reading a newsletter? These newsletters are full of actually important facts, helpful tips, and fun crossword puzzles or riddles. I guess the 30 seconds I spend in the bathroom should be used to read as much as this as possible.

                My RA gives us new stall stories on almost everything going on in campus and provides us with some useful tips and strategies that are actually relevant. Last week she had one up that was all about conflict resolution which reminded me of this class. She made a series of this stories the first one was about the different ways to argue and when the argument is appropriate to use based on the situation and who you are arguing with. In other words the context which fits in with our paper we wrote this week. The second was about realizing that the opinions of a person did not define who that person is and that you should take their point of view as what it is. Most people do not do that when they argue instead they connect people opinions with their values and then believe that people are defined by their values. The last story was about forming your arguments in a logical way that the other person can understand or connect with. The next time you are going to the bathroom look for a stall story because you never know what you can learn.