Olivia Zadvinskiy, 5/11/2020, Period 3, Sophomores 2020
Aim: How does language construct and impact thought?
Do Now:
Insult #1:
Thou Unmuzzled → Onion Eyed → Pantaloon .
Modern English Translation: You uncensored, dull-spirited fool
Insult #2:
Thou _______Churlish_________→ Claybrained → Scullion .
Modern English Translation: You rude, stupid despicable person
Blog Content:
Working from home has had its pros and cons. While waking up later in the day when I don’t have class, only having three classes maximum per day, that are about an hour apart, is amazing, it is harder to stay on top of work with a schedule that varies greatly depending on the day. Sometimes I go outside to bike or run (always 6 feet apart and with a facemask when biking), but for the most part I stay inside, more specifically, my room. Being quarantined has been a little hard on my mental health due to the isolation from friends and everyday human interactions even though I can reach friends and family easily through a text or facetime. I am an ambivert, so while I wish I could spend time with my friends and interact with others so I do not completely start behaving like an alien from mars, I don’t mind staying home to watch netflix, read, and bake. I have always loved baking and now I am so happy that I can take the time to try making new things such as a cake I made for this past mother’s day. Because I live in a middle class household I am fortunate enough to have the means necessary to pay the bills. I am eternally grateful that both my parents can work at home because I know so many are struggling to find ways to work so that they can make a living. While the government is trying to help by sending stimulus checks, it was not as organized as everyone hoped and many people yet to receive the money they need. As many people know all over the world, the news went into a frenzy as soon as the corona virus started to spread. There was a lot of misinformation passed throughout different media platforms and it was hard to know whom to trust, but now experts on the virus were able to help calm people down and give out trustworthy sources so that people can learn about the virus and tell the difference between fake and real news. Now when you google the term coronavirus you get an overview, credible information on prevention, treatments, statistics, news, and information on testing. Unfortunately, the government was not very proactive when the virus first came to the US, hoping for the best. This directly led to the inefficiency of testing people for the virus. The government has been trying to help its people through a difficult time, but the president has made some interesting remarks on the virus (which he later said were “sarcastic”), claiming that sunlight and injecting disinfectants can be used as treatments. This is outrageous being that the president is putting his citizens in danger of doing themselves more harm than good. Not only is injecting disinfectants such as lycol deadly, but Trump claiming that sunlight can help fight the virus promotes people going outside, which is the exact opposite of needs to be done because social interactions can easily help the spread of the disease. Across the US, some states are even protesting the lockdown, but most reasons are unrelated to the virus itself and the financial situation of many, some going as far as claiming this to be unconstitutional. While many people are in a financial crisis right now, the health and safety of everyone must come first. People are coming together (not six feet apart, not wearing masks) and protesting for their state governments to ease restrictions or completely remove the lockdown altogether. Some protesters even went as far as to insult nurses who were protecting the roads to their hospital. Consequently, one can only hope that a vaccine is soon created, that nurses and doctors are treated with the utmost respect, that small businesses get back up on their feet, that both teachers and students are applauded for their outstanding work adapting to virtual learning and that everyone is doing their part to stay safe and healthy.
Student Reflection:
- What did I learn?
Today I learned that you can say something in a variety of ways depending on what you want the audience to think, therefore, it is more important how you say something rather than what you say. I also learned from the do now that the meaning of a sentence can be lost in translation. This is frequent when trying to explain something from a foreign language, but it was interesting to see how today we need to translate english from Shakespeare’s times due to how much the language has changed over the centuries.
- What did I learn it?
It is important to look at the context of what someone is saying if you truly want to understand what is going on. In order to do that you need to look at the context, intended audience, purpose and point of view (almost as if sourcing a document).
- How will I use what I learned?
In the lesson we watched a Ted Talk from cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky, in which she shared her knowledge and experiences with languages. With over 7,000 languages spoken all over the world, there are no doubt many similarities and differences depending on the location, its history and the people. Not only does language have a profound impact on people’s lives, as it is our line of communication, but it also affects how people think. I had never considered that besides talking, reading and writing, people would think so differently from one another based on the language (s) they spoke. Then Lera mentioned that languages divide how they see colors differently. She stated that russia speakers, which I qualify as, have a larger perception of colors and are less shocked as they change due to the larger number of words for colors. For example, while an american may only see blue from a variety of shades of blue, russians would specify the light blues and darker ones, as they are two separate words in russian. After hearing this I became a little more observant on how I looked at colors.
Altogether form the lesson and video, in the future I will, without a doubt, be subconsciously more perceptive on how people say something, what they are saying, what they may be thinking based on where they are from and how many languages they speak. In the future I know that this will help me understand what characters are thinking and what the intended meaning was behind certain phrases.
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